Environmental context-dependent memory: A review and meta-analysis

Changing environmental context during encoding can influence episodic memory. This study examined the memorial consequences of environmental context change in children. Kindergartners, first and fourth graders, and young adults studied two lists of items, either in the same room (no context change) or in two different rooms (context change), and subsequently were tested on the two lists in the room in which the second list was encoded. As expected, in adults, the context change impaired recall of the first list and improved recall of the second. Whereas fourth graders showed the same pattern of results as adults, in both kindergartners and first graders no memorial effects of the context change arose. The results indicate that the two effects of environmental context change develop contemporaneously over middle childhood and reach maturity at the end of the elementary school days. The findings are discussed in light of both retrieval-based and encoding-based accounts of context-dependent memory.

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Meta‐analysis shows the evidence for context‐dependent mating behaviour is inconsistent or weak across animals

Ecology Letters ◽

10.1111/ele.13679 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Liam R. Dougherty

Keyword(s):

Mating Behaviour ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Context Dependent

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Restoration Enhances Wetland Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service Supply, but Results Are Context-Dependent: A Meta-Analysis

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0093507 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. e93507 ◽

Cited By ~ 90

Author(s):

Paula Meli ◽

José María Rey Benayas ◽

Patricia Balvanera ◽

Miguel Martínez Ramos

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Service ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Wetland Biodiversity ◽

Context Dependent

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The effect of prominence and cue association on retrieval processes: A computational account

10.31234/osf.io/w2ckt ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Felix Engelmann ◽

Lena A. Jäger ◽

Shravan Vasishth

Keyword(s):

Sentence Processing ◽

Cognitive Processes ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Empirical Evaluation ◽

Experimental Designs ◽

Empirical Results ◽

Retrieval Processes ◽

Context Dependent ◽

Retrieval Interference ◽

Partial Success

We present a comprehensive empirical evaluation of the ACT-R-based model of sentence processing developed by Lewis & Vasishth (2005) (LV05). The predictions of the model are compared with the results of a recent meta-analysis of published reading studies on retrieval interference in reflexive-/reciprocal-antecedent and subject-verb dependencies (Jäger, Engelmann, & Vasishth, 2017). The comparison shows that the model has only partial success in explaining the data; and we propose that its prediction space is restricted by oversimplifying assumptions. We then implement a revised model that takes into account differences between individual experimental designs in terms of the prominence of the target and the distractor in memory and context-dependent cue-feature associations. The predictions of the original and the revised model are quantitatively compared with the results of the meta-analysis. Our simulations show that, compared to the original LV05 model, the revised model accounts for the data better. The results suggest that effects of prominence and variable cue-feature associations need to be considered in the interpretation of existing empirical results and in the design and planning of future experiments. With regard to retrieval interference in sentence processing and to the broader field of psycholinguistic studies, we conclude that well-specified models in tandem with high-powered experiments are needed in order to uncover the underlying cognitive processes.

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Meta-analysis of mouse transcriptomic studies supports a context-dependent astrocyte reaction in acute CNS injury versus neurodegeneration.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.738419708.793589779 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ted Dawson

Keyword(s):

Meta Analysis ◽

Cns Injury ◽

Context Dependent ◽

Transcriptomic Studies

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Measuring context-dependent memory in rodents: a systematic review and meta-analysis of important variables in the object-in-context task.

10.1101/2021.03.12.435070 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Milou Sep ◽

Marijn Vellinga ◽

R. Angela Sarabdjitsingh ◽

Marian Joëls

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Animal Experiments ◽

Data Driven ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Critical Factors ◽

Context Dependent ◽

Set Up ◽

Rats And Mice ◽

Learning Trials

Environmental information plays an important role in remembering events. Information about stable aspects of the environment (here referred to as ‘context’) and the event are combined by the hippocampal system and stored as context-dependent memory. In rodents (such as rats and mice), context-dependent memory is often investigated with the object-in-context task. However, the implementation and interpretation of this task varies considerably across studies. This variation hampers the comparison between studies and - for those who design a new experiment or carry out pilot experiments – the estimation of whether observed behavior is within the expected range. Also, it is currently unclear which of the variables critically influence the outcome of the task. To address these issues, we carried out a preregistered systematic review (PROSPERO CRD42020191340) and provide an up-to-date overview of the animal-, task-, and protocol-related variations in the object-in-context task for rodents. Using a data-driven explorative meta-analysis we next identified critical factors influencing the outcome of this task, such as sex, testbox size and the delay between the learning trials. Based on these observations we provide recommendations to create more consensus in the set-up, procedure and interpretation of the object-in-context task for rodents. This could contribute to a more robust and evidence-based design in future animal experiments.

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