The following experiments looked at how encoding information and available cues at test can influence context effects. More specifically, the present experiments investigated the overshadowing and outshining hypotheses. Experiment 1 established a new method for attaining robust reinstatement effects by using movie scenes. Experiment 2 found support for the outshining hypothesis. So, if verbal and contextual cues were encoded and verbal cues were present at test, then context reinstatement through the reinstatement of the movie scenes would have little effect on memory. However, in the absence of verbal cues at test, significant context effects were found showing that the verbal cues were able to outshine the context (i.e., the movie scenes). Experiment 3 extended the outshining hypothesis by showing that strengthening the association between the verbal cues and the target items led to greater outshining of the movie scenes by the verbal cues. Experiment 4 looked at the overshadowing hypothesis and showed that if the context (i.e., the movie scenes) was not encoded well, but the verbal cues were then the context was overshadowed by the verbal cues. Further, if the association between the verbal cue and target items was encoded, then the overshadowing effect was greater as compared to cases where the association between the two items was not encoded. Finally, Experiment 5 found that if context was well encoded but verbal cues were not well encoded then the verbal cues were overshadowed by the context. It was also found that encoding the association between the context and target led to a more robust overshadowing effect as compared to cases where the association was not encoded.

This research examines a possible relationship between intentional memory and possible phonologic cues in the human voice. Specifically, if someone has told us something in the past, does hearing that same voice at the time of recall affect our ability to remember what was said? Also, if voice cues do affect memory, is the effect voice-specific? Since most standardized assessments of student learning and tests of human memory rest their conclusions about human learning solely on non-aural tests, it is necessary to determine if student performance changes with test modality. Via a computer program, ninety-five adults each listened to a male voice read a one-minute story and were then randomly assigned to take one of three different tests consisting of multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank items. In the first test, the male voice from the story read all questions and possible answers. The second test used a different male voice to read while the third test was text-only. All tests contained identical content and gave single-modality cues only, text or speech. Results show no significant difference in long-term recall or recognition with respect to test-modality. Further research in this area is encouraged to determine if conclusions are generalizable to wider populations and hold for longer memory intervals. / Ph. D.

Categorizing knowledge into different disciplines and units may block knowledge within separate “folders”, which could limit its later retrieval and transfer to new contexts. To test this hypothesis, two experiments had been conducted. In one experiment, participants memorized a list of words with or without cuing which category these words belonged to. One week later, they were asked to recall all the positive adjectives, which required them to retrieve words that came from different categories. In the other experiment, participants read exactly the same story but embedded in two different subject domains or no context. A survey report was presented to test whether people from different contexts would have different transfer effect. The current study replicated previous results that successful transfer was hard to observe in the laboratory settings without explicit prompts. The memory test and transfer task in this study were too difficult and resulted into to the poor performance of the participants. The initial hypothesis had been neither supported nor rejected. To test the hypothesis, future studies could reduce the time interval between study and test, and modified the transfer task to lower the difficulty of the experiment. / text