
Indeed, often this information subsequently comes to mind. Phenomenologically, this relates to the common ‘tip of the tongue’ experience, in which one might struggle to recall a familiar name or place while having the strong impression that the information is present. According to this view 2, 3, some forms of memory failure reflect a lack of availability of pertinent information (i.e., permanent loss), whereas other forms of memory failure reflect temporary problems in accessibility.
ENCODING SPECIFICITY PRINCIPLE A B FREE
The cued recall group performed considerably better than the free recall group across categories, indicating that retrieval cues present at the time of recall determine engram accessibility and subsequent success at remembering.įrom this work, Tulving developed an important conceptual distinction between availability versus accessibility of information in memory. In the test phase, subjects were asked to recall as many words as they could from the list (free recall) or from the specific categories (cued recall). These words were drawn from multiple categories (for example, types of birds, flowers, etc.).
ENCODING SPECIFICITY PRINCIPLE A B SERIES
Subjects were presented with a series of words. Tulving and Pearlstone’s experiment on retrieval failure 1. Finally, we identify several questions that currently remain unanswered. These findings also highlight the intimate relationship between the mechanisms important in forming engrams and those important in their recovery, as captured in the cognitive notion of ‘encoding specificity’. Our Review highlights the critical interaction between engrams and retrieval cues (environmental or artificial) for memory accessibility and retrieval success. Here we evaluate emerging neuroscientific research of this type, using cognitive theory as a guiding principle to organize and interpret initial findings.

To the extent that ecphory involves ‘reawakening’ of engrams, leveraging recently developed technologies that can identify and manipulate engrams in rodents provides a fertile avenue for examining retrieval at the level of neuronal ensembles. While ecphory has been examined in human cognitive neuroscience research, its neurobiological foundation is less understood. Memory retrieval involves the interaction between external sensory or internally generated cues and stored memory traces (or engrams) in a process termed ‘ecphory’.
