The Use of Physical Context Information in Psychological Processing: An Investigation Into the Environmental Context Reinstatement Effect

Rutherford, Andrew (1986) The Use of Physical Context Information in Psychological Processing: An Investigation Into the Environmental Context Reinstatement Effect. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

A great deal of anecdotal evidence indicates that people employ context as an aid to memory. Psychological accounts of memory also have made much use of context as a theoretical construct. An examination of the psychological literature revealed that the term "context" has been used to refer to four classes of information; process, semantic, physiological and environmental. Studies investigating the use of process, semantic and physiological information in psychological processing were reviewed generally, while a much more detailed review was carried out with respect to studies investigating the use of environmental context information. The review of environmental context studies reported numerous investigations obtaining such effects and identified several factors that may have been responsible for the reputed unreliability of such phenomena. Consideration of the reviews of the four types of context also indicated that there was greater similarity than difference in their effects suggesting a possible equivalence of psychological function.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Cognitive psychology
• Date of Award: 1986
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1986-77471
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 14 Jan 2020 11:53
• Last Modified: 14 Jan 2020 11:53
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/77471