AN EXPLORATION OF INFORMATION PROCESSING AND RECALL

Abstract

State-dependent learning suggests that memory can be enhanced if either physical or mental states can be matched at encoding and retrieval (Goodwin et al., 1969). The current research extends this effect to conditions involving food, under the assumption that in academic settings many students study while simultaneously eating some type of snack. Specifically, we used a sample of university students to test whether eating a snack while studying and when being tested at a later time would lead to increased performance on a test covering the studied material. We further tested this notion by varying whether participants received food or not at both encoding and retrieval, and whether the same food was consumed at retrieval, or not. Participants were presented with an article to read and were asked to memorize as much information as possible. They were then subsequently tested on this material after a short delay of 10 minutes. The results showed that the group that received the same food at both encoding and retrieval stages performed statistically better in the memory test than the group that received different types of foods at both stages, or no food. Interestingly, the group that did not receive any food did on average better (but not statistically) than the group that received different foods, suggesting increased specificity for stimulus type in state-depending learning, with incongruent food conditions perhaps leading to a detriment in performance.