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Psychological Phenomena

State-Dependent Memory

Memory Biases and Effects

State-dependent memory, or state-dependent learning, is the phenomenon in which people recall more information when their physical or mental state at the moment of recall matches the state they were in when they originally encoded that information. It has been studied extensively both for synthetic states of consciousness, such as those produced by psychoactive drugs, and for organic states such as mood, and it is distinguished from the related context-dependent memory: context-dependent memory concerns a person's external environment and conditions, such as the room where studying and testing take place, while state-dependent memory concerns a person's internal condition, such as substance use or mood.

Facts
Core Claim
State-dependent memory is the finding that people recall more information when their physical or mental state at the moment of recall matches the state they were in when they encoded that information. 1
First Described Year
1784 1
Classification
Type of Phenomenon
Cognitive Phenomenon 1
Connections

Associated With

Source Wikipedia: State-dependent memory

In Branch

Sources
1. Wikipedia: State-dependent memory
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Wikipedia: State-dependent memory, lead paragraph
    State-dependent memory or state-dependent learning is the phenomenon where people remember more information if their physical or mental state is the same at time of encoding and time of recall.
  • Wikipedia: State-dependent memory, History section (Puységur)
    In 1784, a French aristocrat named Marquis de Puységur, realized that when people were put in a hypnotic state then awoken, they had no recollection of what they were told.
  • lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
    State-dependent memory or state-dependent learning is the phenomenon where people remember more information if their physical or mental state is the same at time of encoding and time of recall.
  • Associated With: Context-Dependent Memory, Wikipedia: State-dependent memory, lead paragraph (vs context-dependent)
    While state-dependent memory may seem rather similar to context-dependent memory, context-dependent memory involves an individual's external environment and conditions while state-dependent memory applies to the individual's internal conditions.
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