And typically, if the states are similar as the state that was at encoding, then the degree of similarity really influences very significantly how much we will access.īF: In addition to physiological and emotional states, your physical environment also shapes memory and learning. JR: So, in a way, really different brain states allow access to different memories. Researchers have found that if we’re happy, depressed, afraid, or in some other emotional state when we experience an event, we’re better at recalling that event later when we’re in the same emotional state.
Other studies demonstrate the dependence of memory on our emotional state. The same is true for many other drugs besides alcohol, including morphine, caffeine, Ritalin, and nicotine. In terms of physiological state, several studies have shown that if you learn a task when you’re drunk, you remember it much better when you’re drunk than sober. These are your physiological state, your emotional state, and your physical environment. Three broad categories of state dependence can help you encode and later access memories. So, basically every memory system can function in a state-dependent manner.īF: Experimental research is full of examples of state-dependent memory in action. JR: It’s a very old phenomenon and the interesting thing is that it applies to every type of learning: to motor skills, to simple reflexes, to episodic memories, to semantic memories. Jelena Radulovic: I’m Jelena Radulovic, I’m the Dunbar professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University in Chicago. That gives you a lot of different access routes to a memory.
I think what you can also take from that is if you really want to have a strong memory that you can access from wherever whenever, you might want to study under very different conditions. So, when you now try to retrieve it, the more access routes you have, by reinstating your mood or your physiological state, but also environmental cues, like if you’re in the same space or have a photograph or something that triggers that memory, then you’re much better off. All of these other components are part of the memory. The idea is that when you store a memory, you store all kinds of surrounding information with the memory. I spoke with two scientists who helped me understand how it works.Īlmut Hupbach: My name is Almut Hupbach and I’m an associate professor in psychology at Lehigh University. This phenomenon is called state-dependent memory.
That’s because people and other animals, even insects, are better at accessing memories when immersed in the same environment, or emotional or physiological state, as when they learned the information originally. If you’re used to studying with loud music or with lots of caffeine in your system, you may find that you can remember the information better when you listen to loud music again or drink a huge cup of coffee.
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