PSYC 2650 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Explicit Memory, Processing Fluency, Encoding Specificity Principle
Document Summary
When you are learning, you making connections between the new material & prior memories, which help make the new material findable later on serving as retrieval paths. E. g. asked scuba divers to learn various materials; some divers learned on land, while others learned 20 ft. underwater. Half of each group were tested above water & below water. Underwater, if divers are cold, they may form some memory connections between cold thoughts & the material to be learned. Therefore, data show that divers taught on land remember the material better on land, and divers taught underwater recall best underwater. Same results for students who study in quiet vs. noise. Same pattern with rooms; but when tested in a different room but told to recall the details/smells/emotions from the initial room right before testing, participants performed as well as those tested in the same room. Therefore what matters is not the physical context but the psychological context.
