Multifactorial context effects on visual recognition memory

Abstract

While effects of contextual change or constancy on memory are widely found when tested by free and cued recall, there is greater inconsistency in context effects on recognition. This study employed a paradigm maximizing target–context interactivity and specificity to reveal three levels of context effects on successful retrieval, as well as context effects on the generation of false alarms, thereby revealing separable contributions of target–context binding, additive familiarity, and configural constancy. The separability of these factors enables the use of memory context effects as tools for investigating associative memory.

Acknowledgments

This study was carried out as part of a PhD dissertation by Tal Raz at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. It was supported by the Paula Rich Multidisciplinary Center in Mind, Brain and Behavior, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel.