The episodic context account of retrieval-based learning proposes that retrieval enhances subsequent retention because people must think back to and reinstate a prior learning context. Three experiments directly tested this central assumption of the context account. Subjects studied word lists and then either restudied the words under intentional…

In three experiments, memory for intentionally encoded words was compared with memory for encodings, induced by asking semantic, phonemic, or surface questions. Subjects were second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade students, and junior and senior high school students. (Author/MP)