Cue-dependent forgetting, also called retrieval failure, is the inability to recall information that has been stored in memory because the cues needed to retrieve it are missing at the time recall is attempted, even though the information itself has not been lost from memory. It reflects the idea that human memory retrieval works mainly through association with related information rather than through an exact search of stored records, so that a memory a person cannot recall directly may return once a related detail, such as a specific place, feeling, or piece of context connected to the original experience, is brought to mind. Researchers commonly distinguish several kinds of retrieval cue involved in this process, including semantic cues related to meaning, state-dependent cues related to a person's internal physiological or emotional state, and context-dependent cues related to the external environment present when the memory was formed.
Facts
Core ClaimInformation stored in memory can become impossible to recall not because it has been lost, but because the cues needed to retrieve it are missing at the time recall is attempted. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Sources
1. Wikipedia: Cue-dependent forgetting
Wikimedia Foundationlead paragraph
Cue-dependent forgetting, or retrieval failure, is the failure to recall information without memory cues.
Further reading citation
Tulving, Endel (1974). "Cue-Dependent Forgetting: When we forget something we once knew, it does not necessarily mean that the memory trace has been lost; it may only be inaccessible". American Scientist. 62 (1): 74-82.
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
Cue-dependent forgetting, or retrieval failure, is the failure to recall information without memory cues.
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