Abstract
Three experiments explore the contribution of a shared imaginal context to associative memory for pairs of items imaged interactively or separately. The major result is that an imagined context only contributes to association between items that share the context if the items are imagined as interacting with the context. Therefore, interaction effects do not reflect the contaminating influence of a shared context. Rather, context effects themselves obey the same relational principles that interaction effects in general do. The results are presented as support for the organization-redintegration hypothesis as an account of imaginal interaction.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Anderson, R. C., Pichert, J. W., Goetz, E. T., Schallert, D. L., Stevens, K. V.,&Trolllp, S. R. (1976). Instantiation of general terms.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,15, 667–679.
Begg, I. (1973). Imagery and integration in the recall of words.Canadian Journal of Psychology,17, 159–167.
Begg, I. (1978). Imagery and organization in memory: Instructional effects.Memory & Cognition,6, 174–183.
Begg, I. (1979). Trace loss and the recognition failure of unrecalled words.Memory & Cognition,7, 113–123.
Begg, I. (1982). Imagery, organization, and discriminative processes.Canadian Journal of Psychology,36, 273–290.
Begg, I. (1983). Imagery instructions and the organization of memory. In J. C. Yuille (Ed.),Imagery, memory and cognition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Begg, I., &Clark, J. M. (1975). Contextual imagery in meaning and memory.Memory & Cognition,3, 117–122.
Begg, I., &Young, B. J. (1977). An organizational analysis of the form class effect.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,13, 503–519.
Bower, G. H. (1970). Imagery as a relational organizer in associative learning.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,9, 529–533.
Bower, G. H. (1972). Mental imagery and associative learning. In L. W. Gregg (Ed.),Cognition in learning and memory. New York: Wiley.
Dempster, R. N., &Rohwer, W. D. (1974). Component analysis of the elaborative encoding effect in children's learning.Journal of Experimental Psychology,103, 400–408.
Kjeldergaard, P. M. (1968). Transfer and mediation in verbal learning. In T. R. Dixon & D. L. Horton (Bds.),Verbal behavior and general behavior theory (pp, 67–96). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Lesgold, A. R., &Goldman, S. R. (1973). Encoding uniqueness and the imagery mnemonic is associative learning.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,11, 193–202.
Light, L. L., &Carter-Sosell, L. (1970). Effect of changed semantic context on recognition memory.Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,9, 1–11.
Mcgee, R. (1980). Imagery and recognition memory: The effects of relational organization.Memory & Cognition,8, 394–399.
Paivio, A., Yuille, J. C., & Madigan, S. A. (1968). Concreteness, imagery, and meaningfulness values for 925 nouns.Journal of Experimental Psychology Monographs,76 (1, Pt. 2).
Petersen, R. C. (1974). Imagery and cued recall: Concreteness or context?Journal of Experimental Psychology,102, 841–844.
Reder, L. M., Anderson, J. R., &Bjork, R. A. (1974). A semantic interpretation of encoding specificity.Journal of Experimental Psychology,102, 648–656.
Tulving, E., &Thomson, D. M. (1973). Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory.Psychological Review,80, 352–373.
Winograd, E., &Lynn, D. A. (1979). Role of contextual imagery in associative recall.Memory & Cognition,7, 29–34.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The research was funded by Grant A8122 from NSERC of Canada to Ian Begg. Experiments 2 and3 were part of an honors thesis by the second author, supervised by the first.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Begg, I., Sikich, D. Imagery and contextual organization. Memory & Cognition 12, 52–59 (1984). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196997
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196997