Levels-of-processing effects on context and target recollection for words and pictures

The effects of levels of processing (LoP) on memory performance have been extensively studied in cognitive psychology for about half a century. The initial observation of superior memory for words studied under a semantic orienting task rather than a perceptual orienting task elicited a theoretical debate about the underlying mechanisms of this effect. Next, research on LoP effects was extended to pictorial stimuli and connected with analyses of recollection and familiarity processes of recognition memory. The main aim of the current study was to explore the effects of LoP on two distinct components of recollection memory: context recollection, and target recollection—processes recently differentiated in dual-recollection theory. Verbal and pictorial materials were used in several experiments and the participants were asked to remember the study context defined by the kind of orienting task performed. LoP effects were confirmed for context and target recollection when words were used as stimuli. However, reversed LoP effects for context recollection were found in experiments using pictures as the to-be-remembered material. The function of the distinctiveness of pictorial material and the role of the effortfulness of cognitive operations for recollection were analysed and discussed from the perspective of the sensory-semantic model and the source monitoring framework.