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Implicit contributions of context to recognition
David Manier1, Ioana Apetroaia, Zissis Pappas
1Department of Psychology, GI-113, Lehman College, City University of New York, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. West, Bronx, NY 10468, USA. DManier@aol.com
Consciousness and Cognition
|September 1, 2004
Summary
Even when people cannot verbally explain contextual rules, this implicit information influences their memory recognition. This suggests unconscious contextual cues impact judgments of remembering.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Human Memory
- Implicit Learning
Background:
- Contextual information significantly impacts memory recall and recognition.
- Previous research has not fully explored implicit contextual contingency effects on recognition when the contingency is non-verbalizable.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of implicitly encoded contextual contingency on recognition judgments.
- To determine if non-verbalizable contextual information affects memory accuracy (hits and false alarms).
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted involving participants making recognition judgments.
- An implicit position contingency (location and semantic category) was encoded.
- Participants were probed for verbalizable knowledge of the contingency after 1-day and 1-week delays.
Main Results:
- Context effects were observed for both accurate recognition (hits) and inaccurate recognition (false alarms).
- These context effects persisted regardless of whether participants could verbalize their knowledge of the contingency.
- Implicit contextual information influenced recognition judgments even when not consciously accessible.
Conclusions:
- People utilize contextual information for recognition judgments even without conscious awareness of that information.
- Implicit contextual contingency plays a role in memory recognition, independent of verbalizable knowledge.
- This highlights the pervasive influence of implicit memory processes on decision-making.