Environmental Context Effects In An Implicit Memory Measure

Abstract

Environmental Context effects refer to experimental findings that recall of learned material is better if it takes place in the original learning environment rather than in a changed physical environment. Eich (1985) demonstrated that the EC effect can be produced by a conscious memory strategy (method of loci), and has questioned whether the learning environment would become associated with a memory trace in the absence of such a conscious strategy. Anecdotal data, in contrast with Eich’s explanation, indicated that at least in some situations EC effects can be found without the use of a conscious memory strategy. Explicit memory measures tap conscious memory processes which may override effects of background context cues. A strategy-free test (i.e. implicit memory measure may better reveal unintentionally encoded contextual associations. In the present experiment, the EC effect was examined using a homophone spelling task which has often been used as an implicit memory measure (Eich, 1984; Jacoby & Witherspoon, 1982). EC effects were found with the implicit measure even when not present on an explicit recognition test. Implications for Eich’s theory as well as Tulving’s episodic/semantic distinction are discussed.