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 w ord type manipulations on explicit and implicit measures of memory. In Expe riment 1 an odour cue was or was not present at study and test. In Experime nt 2 EC cues were manipulated by having study and test phases in same and d ifferent rooms. Comparisons were made in both experiments between categoris ed and uncategorised words, including words related to the odour in Experim ent 1. In both experiments reinstatement of EC cues facilitated explicit me mory performance but did not have a significant effect on implicit memory p erformance. Explicit memory was also sensitive to manipulations of word-typ e, but consistent effects of word-type were not found for implicit memory. We conclude that the present experiments strengthen the proposal that EC cu es can facilitate explicit memory performance by showing this facilitation in two very different domains. We discuss the implications of our dissociat ion between explicit and implicit measures for theories of memory.