Abstract
Previous studies have shown that prior knowledge can have both enhancing and detrimental effects on memory for relevant information. Few studies have explored the boundary conditions under which prior knowledge facilitates or interferes with memory processes. In addition, to what extent the effects of prior knowledge change over time is unclear. In this study, we addressed this question by separating category familiarity (i.e., prior conceptual knowledge) and stimulus familiarity at different retention intervals. Participants were tested with a recognition task after they learned four types of words, that is., familiar words from familiar categories (FwordFcate) and unfamiliar categories (FwordUcate) as well as unfamiliar words from familiar (UwordFcate) and unfamiliar categories (UwordUcate). The results showed a significant interaction between category familiarity and word familiarity, that is, unfamiliar words, but not familiar words, from familiar categories were remembered better than those from unfamiliar categories. The enhancing effect of category familiarity depended on the recollection process and remained stable over time. This study suggested that stimulus familiarity modulates the effects of category familiarity on memory performance, and clarified the boundary conditions for the effects of prior knowledge.
Highlights
We more remember events that are familiar or are relevant to our prior knowledge
Further analysis showed that the difference was larger for unfamiliar than familiar categories, the difference in word familiarity was significant in both contrasts (p’s < 0.001) (Figure 1C)
Note that the significant interaction may raise the possibility that the effect of category familiarity on unfamiliar words may be due to a larger difference in word familiarity
Summary
We more remember events that are familiar or are relevant to our prior knowledge. Many studies have suggested that information that involves prior knowledge is more remembered than completely new information. Memory performance was higher after participants learned familiar (vs unfamiliar) essays (Bransford and Johnson, 1972) or after they viewed the first half of a film 1 day before a memory test (van Kesteren et al, 2010). The effect of prior knowledge, or the congruent effect, has been found when different experimental manipulations were used, such as category knowledge (e.g., DeWitt et al, 2012; Hennies et al, 2016), academic knowledge (e.g., Brandt et al, 2005; Van Kesteren et al, 2014), Prior Knowledge, Memory, Word Familiarity
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