Professor Eli Vakil - Memory and Amnesia Lab

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The Impact of Context on Memory Processes

The effects of contextual change or consistency on memory have long been known. Still, the implications of such impacts on our fundamental understanding of associative memory have yet to be realized. In a series of studies, we have demonstrated the multifactorial nature of memory context effects. Using a variety of paradigms, we have shown how implicit effects of contextual information on memory for target information are dissociable from direct access to such contextual information.

These findings are especially important for understanding the role of frontal lobe-based processes in memory. In addition, we mapped insights into context effects on unconscious expressions of memory that can be gleaned from eye movement recordings. The application of the eye tracker in our research on context memory provides us with new insights into the underlying cognitive processes that occur while performing a memory task.

Context effect memory

  • Vakil, E., Aviv, O., Mishael, M., Schwizer Ashkenazi, S., & Sacher, Y. (2019). Direct and indirect measures of context in patients with mild-to-severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): The additive contribution of eye tracking. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 6, 644-652.
  • Vakil, E., McDonald, S., Allen, S, K., & Vardi-Shapiro, N. (2019). Facial Expressions Yielding Context-Dependent Effect: The Additive Contribution of Eye Movements. Acta Psychologica, 192, 138-145
  • Vakil, E. & Vardi-Shapiro, N. (2019). Conceptual processes involved in words and scenes context effect in face recognition. Memory, 27, 841-848.
  • Bloch, A., & Vakil, E. (2017). In a context of time: The impact of delay and exposure time on the emergence of memory context effects. Psychological Research, 81,182-190.
  • Vakil, E. & Liberman, H. (2016). Perceptual asymmetry during free viewing of words and faces: The effect of context on recognition. Brain and Cognition, 109, 43-49.
  • Vakil, E., Raz, T., & Levy, D.A. (2007). Multifactorial context effects on visual recognition memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60, 916-923.