Bound context features are integrated at encoding

Abstract

In the present research, we tested the predictions of different accounts of context binding in "remember" judgements. Context binding, defined as the stochastically dependent retrieval of two different context features, has previously been suggested to be due to mechanisms operating at retrieval either by cueing among context features (Meiser & Bröder, 2002) or by cueing between item and context features (Starns & Hicks, 2008). These accounts, however, do not make specific assumptions regarding the underlying memory representation supporting context binding. By contrast, here we propose that a binding process at encoding integrates item and context information into a coherent memory representation. Varying the presentation of the context features during encoding either with both context features presented simultaneously or with features spread over two encoding episodes, data from two experiments corroborate the notion that binding is produced at encoding. This result suggests that a binding process integrating the context features at encoding is necessary for stochastically dependent retrieval of context features.

Successful cuing of gender source memory does not improve location source memory

“…This prediction awaits further investigation. Regardless, the present results add to the evidence that direct context-context binding is not a necessary prerequisite of stochastic dependence (e.g., Boywitt & Meiser, 2012). There is no doubt that crossdimension cuing is elusive as an empirical phenomenon, whereas stochastic dependence is almost always observed.…”

“…An important finding in these paradigms is that the probability of correctly retrieving one source attribute is often dependent on correctly retrieving the other. This phenomenon was dubbed stochastic dependence by Meiser and Bröder. Theoretically, stochastic dependence has been interpreted as indicating the successful binding of item to source information but also of source to source information, sometimes referred to as context-context binding (Boywitt & Meiser, 2012), or as the successful creation of an episodic engram of highly integrated, interdependent elements (e.g., Horner & Burgess, 2013, 2014. Other studies have reinforced this interpretation.…”

“…The vast majority of research in this field shows that above-chance stochastic dependence is found only in the context of a feeling of recollection rather than in the context of familiarity (e.g., Meiser & Bröder, 2002;Meiser & Sattler, 2007). Meiser and colleagues have also developed multinomial processing tree models that provide parameter estimates capturing the degree to which stochastic dependence is present (Boywitt & Meiser, 2012;Meiser, 2014). The most recent model offered by Boywitt and Meiser isolates a parameter dedicated to joint retrieval of source information, which they argue is a measure of context-context binding.…”

“…The interpretation of such dependence as reflecting encoding processes is certainly not controversial, although whether it represents direct context-context binding (cf. Boywitt & Meiser, 2012) or indirect context-item-context binding (cf. Starns & Hicks, 2005 is an open question.…”

Using Multidimensional Encoding and Retrieval Contexts to Enhance Our Understanding of Stochastic Dependence in Source Memory

“…Their use of the Remember/Know distinction was done to emphasize cases in which retrieval was supported by a strong sense of episodic recollection versus a more generalized sense of episodic familiarity (Gardiner, 1988;Rajaram, 1993;Tulving, 1985). Their subsequent work has emphasized this special condition of stochastic dependence being associated with recollection (e.g., Meiser, Sattler, & Weiber, 2008) and that this relationship with recollection has boundary conditions (e.g., Boywitt & Meiser, 2012a;Meiser & Sattler, 2007). For example, Boywitt and Meiser (2012a) demonstrated that stochastic dependence in the context of recollection follows only after encoding of the two source dimensions occurs close in time.…”