Abstract
In two experiments, we used an effective new method for experimentally manipulating local and global contexts to examine context-dependent recall. The method included video-recorded scenes of real environments, with target words superimposed over the scenes. In Experiment 1, we used a within-subjects manipulation of video contexts and compared the effects of reinstatement of a global context (15 words per context) with effects of less overloaded context cues (1 and 3 words per context) on recall. The size of the reinstatement effects in Experiment 1 show how potently video contexts can cue recall. A strong effect of cue overload was also found; reinstatement effects were smaller, but still quite robust, in the 15 words per context condition. The powerful reinstatement effect was replicated for local contexts in Experiment 2, which included a nocontexts-reinstated group, a control condition used to determine whether reinstatement of half of the cues caused biased output interference for uncued targets. The video context method is a potent way to investigate context-dependent memory.
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Smith, S.M., Manzano, I. Video context-dependent recall. Behavior Research Methods 42, 292–301 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.42.1.292
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.42.1.292