Facilitation effect of incidental environmental context on the computer screen for paired-associate learning

Abstract

Three experiments, in which a total of 198 undergraduates engaged, investigate whether the incidental environmental context on the computer screen influences paired-associate learning. Experiment 1 compared the learning of foreign and native language words between a constant context condition, where the stimulus and response pairs were presented twice on the same 5-s video background context, and a varied context condition, where the pairs were presented twice on different video contexts. Repetition in the same context resulted in better learning than in different contexts, evaluated with a paper-and-pencil test. Experiment 2 investigated learning of paired-associate foreign and native words in the same video-contexts, or photograph-contexts, or on a neutral gray background. Both the video and the photograph contexts equally facilitated the paired-associate learning compared to the gray background. Experiment 3 investigated whether the incidental environmental context similarly facilitated face-name paired-associate learning. We added a new condition of spot illustrations, and a second testing one day later. The repetition of face-name pairs within the same complex incidental environmental context on the computer screen (either video or photograph background) facilitated the paired-associate learning. There was no significant difference in learning performance between video and photograph background contexts, which were significantly better than gray or spot illustration backgrounds which did not differ from each other. The retention interval did not interact with the effect of the background. The present results show that repetition within the same video or photograph context, covering the entire background of the video screen on which each item pair was superimposed, facilitates paired-associate learning.

Reduction of Forgetting by Contextual Variation During Encoding Using 360-Degree Video-Based Immersive Virtual Environments

“…Conversely, the effect disappeared and indicated a slightly constant-condition dominance when restudying (word representation only). This constant-condition dominance was replicated by Isarida et al [26].…”

“…Compared to the reinstatement effect, research on the decontextualization effect is limited, and the correctness of the hypotheses remains unclear. Contrarily, cases have reported that the superiority of the constant and varied conditions is interchanged depending on the type of environmental context being manipulated [25], [26] or the type of repeated learning [5], [26]. Considering the former, Isarida and Isarida [25] validated that recall was higher in the varied condition than in the constant condition when using simple-place context, where the only place was manipulated as the environmental context.…”