Implicit Memory for New Associations: An Interactive Process Approach

The contributions of data-driven and conceptually driven processes to implicit memory for new associations were examined using a word stem completion task. Targets encoded in the context of an unrelated word were more likely to be produced on the completion task if tested in the presence of the original, rather than a different, cue word. This context effect was obtained using a semantic elaboration encoding task and a copying task that required no elaboration, but not when orthographically or semantically similar cue words were used at test. With homograph cue words the context effect depended on reinstating the appropriate interpretation of the cue word. Implicit memory for new associations is based on episodic memory for integrated data-driven and conceptually driven encoding operations that have a converging influence on the initial interpretation of a stimulus configuration.