Godden, D. R., & Baddeley, A. D. (1975). Context-Dependent Memory In Two Natural Environments: On Land And Underwater. British Journal of Psychology, 66(3), 325-331.
Abstract:
This is a pioneering study on the topic of context-dependent memory, which is the theory suggesting that the ability to recall memorized material will be better when encoding and recalling take place in the same environment than when they take place in different environments.
In this study, the researchers tested this theory with 18 participants from a university diving club. The two environmental settings were on land (Dry-D) and underwater (Wet-W). Using a within-subject 2 (Encode Dry vs. Encode Wet) * 2 (Recall Dry vs. Recall Wet) design, the researcher asked each participant to undergo 4 conditions: DD (Encode Dry, Recall Dry), DW (Encode Dry, Recall Wet), WD (Encode Wet, Recall Dry), and WW (Encode Wet, Recall Wet). The learning material was five lists of words recorded on tape. Each of the lists contained 36 unrelated, different, two-syllable or three-syllable words randomly chosen from the Toronto word bank.
In Experiment 1, a significant difference was found between the same-environment condition and the different-environment condition. Participants learning and recalling in the same context performed significantly better on the recalling task comparing to the different-environment condition. Experiment 2 was carried out to test two hypotheses addressing the possible confounding variables existing in the previous study: the differential rehearsal hypothesis and the disruption hypothesis. None of these turned out to reach the significant level.
Therefore, the research supported the context-dependent memory theory, concluding that recall is better when learning and recall take place in the same environment.