Effects of environmental context changes on memory

Abstract

The present study examined the effects of environmental context changes on memory. Word lists were presented auditorily to subjects who were in a normal-vision or a restricted-vision context and were recalled immediately after in the same or a different state. A marginally significant memory decrement was found when the environmental context occurring during recall differed from that occurring during learning. Importantly, this memory decrement was not manifested throughout all serial positions in the word lists. Although different-context conditions resulted in significantly poorer memory for “middle” and “recency” items, they actually benefited memory for “primacy” items. The results are discussed in terms of the retrieval strategies used by subjects in the same- and different-context conditions. © 1983, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.