Psychology ETDs

R. Reed Hunt

Publication Date

8-15-1974

Abstract

Four experiments were conducted to further examine the role of context cues in recognition. The basic rationale underlying this research was to compare the relative effects of the same contextual manipulations in recognition and recall memory tasks. If the effect of context cues is upon the same theoretical process in recognition and recall, similar manipulations should result in relatively similar performance in the two paradigms. In Experiments I and II, recall and recognition tasks respectively, the effect of repetitions of the to-be-remembered item in the old training context upon subsequent memory for the item in a new context was examined. Recall performance did not improve reliably as a function of repetition when tested in a new context, but recognition tested in a new context did increase directly with repetition in the old context. The third and fourth experiments examined the relative effects upon recognition and recall of new, strongly associated and new, weakly associated context cues. In Experiment III, strongly associated, new cues led to better recall than weakly associated, new cues. Recognition performance in Experiment IV did not differ reliably as a function of type of test cue. The pattern of the data from the four experiments supported the position that context cues affect decision rather than retrieval processes in recognition.

Degree Name

Psychology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Psychology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Henry Carleton Ellis

Second Committee Member

Frank Anderson Logan

Third Committee Member

Thomas Patrick Friden

Fourth Committee Member

John Paul Gluck Jr.

Fifth Committee Member

G. Robert Grice

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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