When you read the word "pop" on a list, you think of it as something that might happen to a balloon. Later when someone asks you what word on the list refers to a kind of drink, you do not think of the word "pop." Why not?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The encoding specificity principle suggests that memory is best retrieved when the conditions of retrieval match the conditions of encoding. In this case, when the word "pop" was read on the list, it was not associated with a type of drink, so it was encoded differently than if it had been presented in the context of a list of types of drinks. Therefore, when asked specifically about a type of drink, the word "pop" was not easily retrieved from memory.

When You Read the Word "Pop" on a List, You