The crutch of context-dependency: Effects of contextual support and constancy on acquisition and retention

Smith, Steven M.; Handy, Justin D.

doi:10.1080/09658211.2015.1071852

Cited by 27 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Previous research has shown that cued recall, using paired associates, is susceptible to the types of context manipulations that we used in the present experiments (e.g., Smith et al, 2014;Smith & Handy, 2014. Smith et al (2014), for example, observed context-dependent cued recall using Swahili-English word pairs, Smith and Handy (2014) found the effect using face-name pairs, and Smith and Handy (2016) found it using Tagalog-English word pairs. The word pairs used in Experiment 1 of the present study, however, differed from previously reported methods because the two words of our pairs were in the same language, semantically related to each other (e.g., COTTAGE-hut, SWISS-chocolate, CAKEicing).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Chasing red herrings: Memory of distractors causes fixation in creative problem solving

Beda

Smith

2018

Mem Cogn

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Two experiments tested the red herring retrieval hypothesis, which states that fixation in creative problem solving is worse when memory for red herrings (i.e., inappropriate or incorrect solutions) is strengthened. In Experiment 1, when associations between Remote Associates Test (RAT) problem words (e.g., COTTAGE, SWISS, CAKE) and related red herring words (e.g., hut, chocolate, icing) were strengthened via repetition, an encoding variable, fixation was found to increase. In Experiment 2, when associations were formed between RAT problem contexts and red herrings, then subsequent reinstatement of problem contexts during RAT problem solving trials (as compared with showing new contexts) also worsened fixation effects. Our results add to the increasing body of research that connects memory with creative problem solving, and they suggest possible ways for overcoming fixation effects.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 63%

Chasing red herrings: Memory of distractors causes fixation in creative problem solving

Beda

Smith

2018

Mem Cogn

Self Cite

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“…Supporting evidence comes from Smith and Handy (2014), which in three out of four experiments found a benefit of testing with feedback in varied digital contexts versus the same context when a final test occurred in a neutral context. Multiple practice test trials with feedback may also be necessary for a benefit of varied versus same-context conditions to manifest (as was observed in Smith & Handy, 2016, for the case of five vs fewer repetitions; see also Schwoebel et al, 2018, for another case of repeated testing with feedback). A further consideration is the interval between initial study and retrieval practice.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Where and how to learn: The interactive benefits of contextual variation, restudying, and retrieval practice for learning

Imundo

Pan

Bjork

et al. 2020

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Students are often advised to do all of their studying in one good place, but restudying to-be-learned material in a new context can enhance subsequent recall (e.g., Smith et al., 1978). We examined whether there are similar benefits for testing. In Experiment 1 (n = 106), participants studied a 36-word list and 48 hours later—when back in the same or a new context—either restudied or recalled the list without feedback. After another 48 hours, all participants free-recalled the list in a new context. Experiment 2 (n = 203) differed by having the testing-condition participants restudy the list before being tested. Across both experiments, testing in a new context reduced recall, which carried over to the final test, whereas restudying in a new context did not impair (and in Experiment 2, significantly enhanced) recall. These findings reveal critical interactions between contextual-variation and retrieval-practice effects, which we interpret as consistent with a distribution-of-memory-strengths framework.

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“…This seems intuitive because more study opportunities in the varied-encoding condition mean more ways in which memory representation is elaborated. In this regard, it is worth noting the recent contextual variability results by Smith and Handy (2016). Participants studied Tagalog–English pairs superimposed over context photographs and later completed between one and five cycles of retrieval practice (with feedback) for those pairs with either original or varied contexts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the memory benefits of repeated study with variable tasks.

Zawadzka¹,

Baloro²,

Wells³

et al. 2021

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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Encoding variability refers to the situation in which repeated items are processed in different ways on each presentation. Superior memory performance resulting from encoding variability is sometimes argued to underlie important phenomena in human memory such as the spacing effect. However, the memory benefits of encoding variability are often elusive. Here we investigated encoding variability in ten experiments in which participants studied words with the same or different orienting tasks across repetitions. We have found the benefits of variable encoding to depend on the number of learning cycles and the retrieval demands at test. These results are interpreted in light of a distinction between different components of memory representations established at study, suggesting that encoding variability promoted via different orienting tasks-as implemented in the present study-fosters more elaborate encoding of semantic features. This augmented semantic component benefits memory performance only when a memory test is used that taps predominantly semantic features of memory representations, minimizing the role of contextual and relational factors.

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The crutch of context-dependency: Effects of contextual support and constancy on acquisition and retention

Cited by 27 publications

References 13 publications

Chasing red herrings: Memory of distractors causes fixation in creative problem solving

Chasing red herrings: Memory of distractors causes fixation in creative problem solving

Where and how to learn: The interactive benefits of contextual variation, restudying, and retrieval practice for learning

On the memory benefits of repeated study with variable tasks.

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