Encoding specificity in interpersonal communication.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Two experiments are reported that assess the adequacy of some people''s encodings as cues for other people''s semantic retrieval. The central finding is of encoding specificity. Encodings dedicated to some discriminative purpose are less effective for discriminations that are either more precise or more general than the intended one. The theoretical focus of the article regards parallels between episodic memory and interpersonal communication. An effective communication is one that transfers well from the initial encoding context to the discriminative context in which the message is received. An effective memory encoding is one that transfers well from the study context to the retrieval environment. Transfer-appropriate processing benefits both sorts of task relative to tranfer-inappropriate processing. The characteristics that determine the appropriateness of processing are importantly similar in memory and communication.
Funding Information
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (A8122)

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: