Context Effects in Recognition Memory of Faces: Some Theoretical Problems

By context effects we mean, in a very general way, modifications of the characteristics of specific and oriented behavior under the influence of secondary changes in the conditions under which it arises. Such effects often have an inhibiting influence on observed performance. Context effects are very common since they have been shown to exist in motor activity (Greer & Green, 1983; Reeve & Mainor, 1983), in sensory processes and perceptual activity (N.H. Anderson, 1975, 1979; Antes & Metzger, 1980; Birnbaum, 1974), in memory and learning (Horton & Mills, 1984; Perlmuter & Monty, 1982), in problem solving (Medin & Schaffer, 1978), and in speech production and understanding (Bowey, 1984; H.H. Clark & Carlson, 1981; Underwood, 1977). It is obvious that these various manifestations of context effects cannot all be simply reduced to the same psychological processes or referred back to the same explanatory models. All the same the wide application of the concept of context incontestably denotes an explanatory and descriptive significance (Tiberghien, 1985). Moreover, in the field of memory, the behavioral reality of context effects is no longer seriously questioned. It is indeed well known that the modification of conditions of retrieval of a memory trace with respect to the conditions of memorization has a definite influence on the probability of recall or recognition (for review; Lecocq & Tiberghien, 1981; Tiberghien & Lecocq, 1983).