Influence of the degree of context reactivation on retrieval-induced enhancement: A behavioral experiment

BACKGROUND: When there is low contextual overlap between the encoding context and the retrieval context, selectively retrieving a certain proportion of the studied material enhances recall of the remaining non-retrieved material. This phenomenon is termed the retrieval-induced enhancement effect (RIE). Dual-factor theory posits that context reactivation processes underlie the RIE effect. However, few studies have examined the influence of contextual reactivation on RIE. METHODS: This study comprised two experiments. Experiment 1 examined the stability of the RIE effect within a retrieval practice paradigm using a mental context change task. Experiment 2 investigated how varying degrees of context reactivation, elicited by different proportions of retrieved items, influenced RIE. RESULTS: Results revealed that the concurrent use of the retrieval practice paradigm and the mental context change task reliably produced a stable RIE effect. Furthermore, the magnitude of RIE fluctuated with the proportion of retrieved items, with robust RIE effects emerging only when the retrieval proportion reached 2/5 or higher. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the context-reactivation account and indicate that the proportion of retrieved items serves as a boundary condition for RIE.