Can Language of Thought Hypothesis Provide a Solution to the Problems of Lingusitic Context Dependency in Memory?

Information is not encoded and retrieved in isolation in memory. It is encoded along with its context, and the presence of the same context at retrieval aids memory performance. This is referred to as context dependency in memory. Environmental, physiological, psychological and linguistic context dependency effects are evident in memory research. A metanalysis was conducted by Smith and Vela in 2001 to investigate the magnitude of environmental context dependency effects in memory. The underlying idea for the hypotheses of the metaanalysis is that in conditions in which one is directed to introspective thought, the magnitude of environmental context dependency effects will be reduced. In the present study, we apply this idea to linguistic context dependency, and reconsider the hypotheses of the metaanalysis. We argue that linguistic context is different from environmental context and present the problems in applications of the hypotheses to linguistic context dependency. Eventually, we propose Fodor’s Language of Thought Hypothesis as a broader framework which can be helpful in solving these problems and present an alternative explanation for linguistic context dependency in memory