Chewing gum and context-dependent memory: the independent roles of chewing gum and mint flavour.
Two experiments independently investigated the basis of the chewing gum induced context-dependent memory effect. At learning and/or recall, participants either chewed flavourless gum (Experiment 1) or received mint-flavoured strips (Experiment 2). No context-dependent memory effect was found with either flavourless gum or mint-flavoured strips, indicating that independently the contexts were insufficiently salient to induce the effect. This is found despite participants' subjective ratings indicating a perceived change in state following administration of flavourless gum or mint-flavoured strips. Additionally, some preliminary evidence for a non-additive facilitative effect of receiving gum or flavour at either learning and/or recall is reported. The findings raise further concerns regarding the robustness of the previously reported context-dependent memory effect with chewing gum.
Johnson
Andrew J
AJ
Cardiff University, School of Psychology, Cardiff, UK. JohnsonAJ@Cardiff.ac.uk
Miles
Christopher
C
D001245:Association Learning; D002638:Chewing Gum; D003469:Culture; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D011939:Mental Recall; D031337:Mentha spicata; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D013649:Taste; D014706:Verbal Learning
D002638:Chewing Gum