Another dimension of memory has been identified. The scuba divers are indeed scuba divers but the instructors are psychology professors, and an experiment has just been completed. During the first 30 minutes, both groups were shown the same list of words, on slates. This was an experiment to determine how memories are recalled. In fact, it seems to be worse.
Music turns out to be an important contextual element.
First, subjects viewed a list of words, one at a time. Two days later, they were given a test in which they simply had to recall as many of the learned words as possible. Like the scuba divers, learning and recall took place in the same or different context, but in this case the contexts were musical. The worse recall when musical context was changed was found to be due to a memory process, rather than to possible distraction. These findings show that background music can enter into memory and aid recall, when it is simply present and not necessarily consciously attended.