Effect of environmental context manipulations on explicit and implicit memory for categorised and random words

Two experiments investigated the effect of environmental context (EC) and word type manipulations on explicit and implicit measures of memory. In Experiment 1 an odour cue was or was not present at study and test. In Experiment 2 EC cues were manipulated by having study and test phases in same and different rooms. Comparisons were made in both experiments between categorised and uncategorised words, including words related to the odour in Experiment 1. In both experiments reinstatement of EC cues facilitated explicit memory performance but did not have a significant effect on implicit memory performance. Explicit memory was also sensitive to manipulations of word-type, but consistent effects of word-type were not found for implicit memory. We conclude that the present experiments strengthen the proposal that EC cues can facilitate explicit memory performance by showing this facilitation in two very different domains. We discuss the implications of our dissociation between explicit and implicit measures for theories of memory.