Module 1

Memory: Performance, Perfection & Errors

Lecture 4:
Retrieval and Everyday Memory

Anveshna Srivastava
• Major reference: Groome & Eysenck (2016). An Introduction to Applied Cognitive Psychology
• Google images 15th January, 2026
Efficacy of learning techniques

Source: Dunlosky, J.,

Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J.,
Nathan, M. J., & Willingham,
D. T. (2013). Improving
students’ learning with
effective learning techniques:
Promising directions from
cognitive and educational
psychology. Psychological
Science in the Public
interest, 14(1), 4-58.
Why does testing work?
• Testing leads to reactivation of the test items, which makes them
more easily strengthened (Potts and Shanks, 2012).

• What about wrong answers?

• Learning benefits from a retrieval test even when you give a wrong
answer, provided that immediate feedback is given with the
correct answer (Hays et al., 2013; Potts & Shanks, 2014).
 Decay with ‘disuse’

• Memory traces go weaker with time (Ebbinghaus, 1885).

Hermann
Ebbinghaus
• Thorndike (1914) argued that decay only occurs when a
memory is left unused (i.e., it decays with disuse).

• Bjork and Bjork (1992)- New Theory of Disuse- Memory

trace becomes inaccessible if it is not retrieved
Edward Thorndike periodically. Frequent retrieval strengthens the retrieval
route leading to a memory trace, at the expense of
retrieval of rival traces.
 Retrieval Induced Forgetting (RIF)
• Anderson et al., (1994) discovered that the retrieval of an item from memory made
other items from the same category more difficult to retrieve.

RIF- The retrieval of trace 1 is thought to

inhibit retrieval of trace 2

• Macrae and MacLeod (1999)- Participants were required to sit in a mock geography exam; twenty facts were
given about two fake islands. One group practiced 10 facts intensively, while the other group did not. The
first group showed good recall for the practiced 10 facts and showed poor recall of the remaining 10 facts.
The other group recalled the unpracticed 10 facts far better than them.

• Implication- Last-minute cramming may do more harm than good because it assists recall of a few items at
the cost of inhibited recall of all the others.
Practice

Distributed Practice
 Learning Lessons: Massed & Spaced
• Is it better to do learning in one large ‘cramming’ session or spread it out over several
separate learning sessions?
• These two approaches are known as ‘massed’ and ‘spaced’ learning respectively.

• Spaced learning produces higher

retrieval scores than massed
learning sessions (Ebbinghaus,
1885; Pashler et al., 2007).

• Cepeda et al.(2008)- spaced

learning is beneficial when
information has to be retained
Notice the uniformly spaced learning sessions for several months.
Expanding Retrieval Practice
• Landauer and Bjork (1978)- learning is often more efficient if the time interval
between retrieval sessions steadily increases for successive sessions. This strategy
is known as expanding retrieval practice. Works for amnesic patients as well such
as those with Alzheimer’s disease (Broman, 2001).

Session 1 Session 2 Session 2 Session 2

1 day 3 days 9 days

Encoding Variability Hypothesis (Why expanding retrieval practice works?)
• ‘Encoding Variability Hypothesis’ suggests that when we return to a
recently practised item that is still fresh in our memory, we tend to just
reactivate the same processing as we used last time (Underwood, 1969).

• Schmidt and Bjork (1992) suggest that, for optimum learning, each
retrieval interval should be long enough to make retrieval as difficult as
possible without quite rendering the item irretrievable. They argue that
partial forgetting that occurs between successive learning trials creates
additional learning opportunities.
 Sleep and memory consolidation
• We are not capable of creating new memories (learning) during sleep
(Druckman & Bjork, 1994) but sleep is particularly important for
‘consolidation’ of the previously stored item for future retrieval.

• Gais et al. (2007) demonstrated that the effects of sleep on memory

consolidation are not just restricted to performance on the following day, but
these changes are evident even long after the initial learning session.

• Sleep deprivation not only reduces the ability to recall the right information,
but can increase the generation of false memories (Frenda et al., 2014), and
can also detrimentally affect working memory performance (Durner and
Dinges, 2005).
 Sleep Hygiene for better learning

• Set a regular bedtime and awakening time.

• Aim for around 8 hours of sleep per night.
• Try to ensure exposure to natural light during the daytime.
• Try to avoid the use of bright-light-emitting screens.
• Avoid large meals, caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol close to
bedtime.
• Do regular daytime exercise.
Recap- Retrieval and retrieval cues
Feature Context
overlap reinstatement

Encoding Specificity
Retrieval Principle (Tulving & Testing
and exams Thompson, 1973) Effect New Theory of
Decay and Disuse
(Bjork & Bjork,
Retrieval cues lead to a memory trace. 1992)
Elaborative semantic processing creates
Sleep associative links with other memory traces.
Consolidation Retrieval
Rajghat
Freedom fighter Porbandar
Bapu
Induced
Satyagraha
My Experiments Forgetting (RIF)
with Truth
Mahatma
Dandi (Salt) March Gandhi Raghupati Raghav
Spectacled Truth and Ahimsa (non-
violence)
Lawyer Gandhi-Irwin Pact
Hind Swaraj Massed and
Encoding Variability Spaced
Hypothesis Learning
(Underwood, 1969) Expanding
Retrieval
Practice
Everyday Memory: Ecological Validity of Research Studies
• Neisser (1976)- Emphasis on research studies in real-life settings.
• Retrieval has personalised motives.

• Conway (1991)- Fundamental difference between memory performance in

real-life settings and a laboratory experiment.
• Role of personal experiences

• Conway & Jacobson (2012)- Memory in real life is goal-directed.

• Koriat & Goldsmith (1996)- Lab experiments usually involve quantitative

measures of memory but in real life, there is more emphasis on qualitative
aspects of a memory trace.
Types of Everyday Memory
Autobiographical Memory
 Autobiographical Memory
• Our memory for the events we have experienced in our lives.
• Williams et al., (2008)- Autobiographical memory has three main functions-

Functions of
Autobiographical Memory

Directive Social Self

Function Function Function
Past experiences guide our Memories help with Provides us with a sense of
subsequent behaviour and social interaction and identity, understanding of
decisions. group cohesiveness. who we are, and our place
in the world.
 Studying Autobiographical Memory (AM)
• Usual lab methods (e.g., recalling word lists) are not appropriate.
• Sometimes tested by free recall with the aid of retrieval cues.
• The ‘cue-word’ technique was introduced by Galton (1879).
• Photographs have also been used as retrieval cues (Bahrick et al., 1975);
picture-cueing, and picture-matching were used.
• Bahrick et al., (2008) asked older people to recall their college grades (50
years of time gap!)- people responded with 80% accuracy. Memory in real
life tends to be far more lasting than in laboratory experiments [durability
and accuracy].
• Conway (1991)- AM has greater personal significance to an individual than
test items in an experiment. It also benefits from extensive learning periods.
 Problem with studying AM and a probable solution
• We do not usually have a precise and detailed record of the events an individual has
experienced during their life. So, how do we check the accuracy of the events?
Diary?
• Linton (1975)- Noted down 2-3 events every day over 6 years. At the end of each
month, she chose two of those events at random and tried recalling them. She found
that memories grew weaker as time went by and memories of similar events merged
to form a composite memory. She also found ‘testing effect’.
• Wagenaar (1986)- Diary technique with retrieval cues. Successfully recalled about
half of the events recorded over 6 years.
• Retrieval Bias: Both noted that their recall showed a strong bias towards pleasant
events. Three reasons:
• a) Psychoanalytic theory (Freud, 1935)- We repress unpleasant memories as a form of
defense mechanism.
• b) Unpleasant memories are acquired in stressful situations, which may tend to inhibit
memory input (Williams et al., 1988’ Hertel, 1992).
• c) Pleasant memories likely benefit from more frequent retrieval (Searleman &
Herrmann, 1994).
 Reminiscence bump
• Crovitz and Schiffman (1974) found that people were better at recalling events from the
recent past than from the distant past (Recency Effect).
• Rubin et al., (1986)- people in their 70s tended to recall many events from their early adult
years, especially between the ages of 10 and 30. This phenomenon is called a ‘reminiscence
bump’.

Retrieval scores for

personal autobiographical
events from different
periods of a person’s life
(Rubin et al., 1986).

Explanation- Earlier years are more eventful and involve more novel experiences.
 More about Reminiscence Bump
• Gluck and Bluck (2007)- Reminiscence bump does tend to involve mostly
happy memories.
• Conway et al., (2005)- Compared reminiscence bump across 5 different
cultures (Britain, USA, China, Japan, and Bangladesh). Broadly similar with
slight variations. Chinese participants recalled more events of
collective/cultural significance, whereas Americans tended to recall more
events of personal significance.
• Chu and Downes (2000) found that odors could act as powerful cues to the
retrieval of early events. This is referred to as ‘Proust phenomenon’.
• Kopel and Berntsen (2015) found one reminiscence peak at 8-22 years on a
cued recall test and another peak at 15-28 years on an uncued recall test.
Infantile Amnesia
• Most adults appear to remember
nothing at all from the first 2 or 3 years
of their lives (Pillemer and White, 1989).
This phenomenon is called ‘infantile
amnesia’.
 Explanation of Infantile Amnesia
• Brain structures involved in memory storage have not completed
their physical development in early infancy, such as the PFC & the
hippocampus.
• Joselyn and Frankland (2012) note that the period of infantile
amnesia corresponds with a time when many new hippocampal
neurons are developing.
• Bauer and Larkina (2013) found that young children recall few
details of time, place, or the significance of a memory (episodic
memory) and that detailed memory representations did not appear
until about 7 years of age.
• Lack of language skills to verbalise memories in later years as
children perform better on non-verbal tests than verbal tests
(Simcock & Hayne, 2003).
• Development of sense of ‘self’ at about 20 months (Howe &
Courage, 1997); inability to recognize self in mirrors and
photographs; Beginning of Identity development and AM formation
coincide (Morrison & Conway, 2010).
Pic Source: Barry McGuinness’ (psychologist blogger) Quora post : Brain
structures involved in memory storage