Impact on contexts of interference Sample Clauses

Impact on contexts of interference. Finally, we have interference contexts. Here again, we can expect the utility impact to scale with the encoding strength: a higher strength will give a larger impact, since the item is more likely to be retrieved. Here, though, the retrieval is against the agent’s better interests, and thus the expected utility impact will be negative. Furthermore, as for contexts of relevance, both the importance of the context and the number of permitted retrieval attempts will play a role: if, due to the interference, the agent fails to retrieve what she seeks, in many cases she will try again. Broadly, we can see that the main contributors to utility impact in contexts of interference will be much the same as those for contexts of relevance, for the same reasons. The only factor from contexts of relevance that does not enter into contexts of interference is the agent’s prior credence in the encoded item. This is because the nature of the encoded item is irrelevant in contexts of interference: its impact stems entirely from the fact it ‘gets in the way’ – an occurrence that stems only from its cues, not from its informational content. In a context of relevance, by contrast, the impact of an item stems from how it informs the agent’s actions – hence the agent’s beliefs do play a role in that case.