MALE PROFESSOR: When I was a student in middle school, some of my classmates and I got an assignment to do a group presentation on tropical plants. OK, and as part of this assignment we needed to memorize the names … you know … and certain key characteristics of the plants. Then, on the morning the assignment was given, our teacher gave us time to work on the presentation during class—right there in the classroom. So there we were, during the school day, in our usual classroom, studying and memorizing the information. Uh … and our teacher and the other kids in the class were all there, too.
OK, so then later, on the night before the presentation, I invited my group members over to my house to do some final studying. And there we were … it was after dark, my parents and my brother were in the next room watching TV … and no one else was around. It felt pretty different from working in the classroom, with all our schoolmates around, like it was on that morning when we’d spent time learning the information. Anyway, at my house, when we tried to remember the plant information, we got a little worried—suddenly it was more difficult to remember all the names and different facts. But the next morning, when we were back in the classroom, the presentation actually went very smoothly—it was easier for us to remember what we needed to talk about.
Using the example from the lecture, explain the concept of state-dependent memory.
In the reading, it talks about state-dependent memory, which means that a person's ability to remember is easier and more successful if the environment is the same or similar to the original learning environment. In the listening, the professor gives out one example to illustrate this title. When the professor was in middle school. He and his friends were asked by their teacher to do an oral presentation on tropical plants. So they spent the whole morning memorizing all the names and information about the plants in their classroom. However, when they got back home and wanted to continue their preparation for their next morning's presentation they found it quite hard to remember the plant details because the professor's families were watching television and it was'nt the place they used to memorize things. However, surprisingly, next morning when they went back to the classroom and did the speech, everything turned out being very smooth. And this case demonstrated how the environment will affect our ability to remember things.
