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Document Type

Research Paper

Abstract

Understanding memory processes can be enhanced by observing the types of errors that people make when memory fails, as well as by observing correct responses. This research examined the types of errors made involving implicit memory as a function of expectations and context. Of special interest were those memory failures considered to be construction errors. Errors of this type occur when various letters of a test phrase are combined to form a novel word, one that was not studied during the encoding phase of the experiment. A retrieval task consisted of 64 phrases that involved finding a target word embedded in other distractor words. Expectations were violated by giving correct or incorrect category cues before the target search task. Context was manipulated by including both meaningful and non-meaningful phrases in the retrieval task. Results indicated that there was a priming effect for implicit memory, that is, memory was better for those words that had been previously studied than for those that had not. More importantly, incorrect category cues resulted in a greater number of construction errors. There was also an effect of context at retrieval. The more meaningful phrases were more likely to reinstate the encoding conditions, and thus enhanced priming.

Publication Date

1996

Journal Title

Conference Proceedings: Undergraduate Social Science Research Conference

Volume

1

Issue

1

First Page

92

Last Page

96

Copyright

©1996 by the University of Northern Iowa

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Publisher

University of Northern Iowa

City

Cedar Falls, IA

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