The Effects of Chewing Gum Flavor Consistency on Auditory Memory

Using auditory encoding we examined the impact of the context of encoding and the context of retrieval had on a person's ability to recall information about a given story. Participants whose context of encoding and context of retrieval matched were predicted to score higher on a test of recall. Participants were recruited from psychology courses at a midwestern university. A 2x2 between-subjects design was conducted. Participants were given a piece of gum, flavored mint or bubblegum, during the encoding phase and a new piece during the retrieval phase. Participants were divided into four different groups based on the context of encoding and retrieval (Mint-Mint, Mint-Bubblegum, Bubblegum-Bubblegum, Bubblegum-Mint).