Congruent new information is better remembered, though strongly surprising incongruent information can also be learned well¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · theoretical r2–r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? New information congruent with prior knowledge tends to be better remembered than incongruent information (the memory congruency effect). → Garvin Brod 2021 q2 i? Highly incongruent new information has been shown to be learned well when it leads to strong surprise in learners. → Garvin Brod 2021 (2)

Evidence¶

Garvin Brod 2021¶

Garvin Brod. (2021). Toward an understanding of when prior knowledge helps or hinders learning. npj Science of Learning 6:24. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-021-00103-w

q2 · i? · theoretical · r3

Review-reported memory research: the memory congruency effect, suggested to arise from a more elaborate memory trace laid down during encoding and facilitated memory search during retrieval. The commentary keeps the hedge that congruent information tends to be better remembered.

"new information that is congruent with prior knowledge tends to be better remembered than information this is incongruent with it; a phenomenon that has been dubbed the memory congruency effect"

Garvin Brod 2021 (2)¶

Garvin Brod. (2021). Toward an understanding of when prior knowledge helps or hinders learning. npj Science of Learning 6:24. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-021-00103-w

q2 · i? · theoretical · r2

Review-reported finding cited from Brod, Hasselhorn and Bunge on prediction generation and the element of surprise: incongruent information was learned well only when it produced strong surprise, a boundary condition on the congruency effect.

"Highly incongruent new information has been shown to be learned well, but only when it leads to strong surprise in learners"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Subjective reactivation of the prior-knowledge item during new learning enhances associative recall for inferred associations, for congruent and incongruent items alike — related
• Congruency enhanced item recognition of new descriptions in experiment 2 but not in experiment 1 — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• In educational learning, prior-knowledge congruency enhances associative memory for indirectly inferred BC-associations in both experiments — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Reading goal × congruency interaction on memory: study goal improves memory for congruent but not incongruent targets — related
• In the laboratory experiment, next-day recognition was higher for congruent new-word meanings than for incongruent items, while day-1 performance showed the opposite pattern — a narrower finding that bears on this claim