Context-dependent memory in a college classroom.

Abstract

Changing environments between encoding and recall may impair memory. This context-dependent memory (CDM) is presented in the literature as an artifact of little relevance outside the lab. Further, much of the previous research on this effect has poor internal validity. Thus the nature and function (i .e., preventing retroactive inhibition) of CDM outside the laboratory is unknown. The present study was conducted to determine whether CDM exists in the classroom, using verbal stimuli as learning material, in immediate and delayed recall conditions. In addition, the effectiveness of a mnemonic or imaginal, as opposed to a physical, reinstatement of context at reducing COM was examined. Results indicate that context-dependent memory exists in the classroom for both immediate and delayed recall. Further, an imaginal reinstatement of context was found to eliminate this impairment at both immediate and delayed recall, but only for subjects who had high imagery ability, operationalized as scoring above the mean on a modified version of Bett's Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery. Though changed context reduces recall in actual learning situations, physical or imaginal context reinstatement may prove a valuable and compensatory retrieval strategy.