How Cue-Dependent Is Memory? Internal Reinstatement and Cueing Effects in Recognition and Source Memory

• Main Author: Starns, Jeffrey Joseph
• Other Authors: Jason Hicks
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: LSU 2006
• Subjects: Psychology
• Online Access: http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-06232006-075937/

This study explored the role of internal context reinstatement in masking the effects of external context cues on recognition and source memory. Participants studied words paired with pictures of male and female faces. Following the study phase, participants completed either a source test in which they decided whether each test word was studied with a male or female face (Experiments 1, 3, and 4) or a recognition test in which they decided whether each test word appeared in the study phase (Experiment 2). On selected trials, a studied face was reinstated at test to serve as a cue for the memory decision. In each experiment, this cueing manipulation was factorially crossed with a manipulation designed to impair participants ability to internally construct appropriate face cues when no face was externally reinstated at test. In Experiments 1 and 2, separate groups of participants studied either sets of similar faces (high-overlap condition) or sets of distinct faces (low-overlap condition). MINERVA 2 simulation models showed that internal reinstatement was less effective in the low-overlap condition; consequently, external face cues significantly improved performance in the low-overlap condition but not the high-overlap condition. In contrast, the empirical results showed no cueing effects in either the high- or low-overlap conditions. In Experiments 3 and 4, separate groups of participants studied either a single male and female face or multiple male and female faces. Results showed that external cues improved memory performance for the multiple-face participants, but did not influence performance for participants who studied a single male and female face. This pattern is consistent with the hypothesis that presenting multiple faces disrupted participants ability to internally reinstate appropriate face cues, thus making performance more dependent on external cues.