high

Memory recall is context-dependent.

People search for their keys by reconstructing a timeline and scene and events that led up to their realisation of losing the location of their key - this is recreating the context? or cues?

In note-taking, we can't note down everything, but we fear the worst of forgetting too much if we don't note everything down. This suggest our reliance on the cues is perhaps unjustifiably (hysterically) more on the context (?).

Reading Signs - an introduction to semiotics

There could be inspiration in this book for the study of note-taking and reading.

Two keywords here: Onomasiology vs. semasiology

According to wiki, Onomasiology, as a part of lexicology, starts from a concept which is taken to be prior^[1] (i.e. an idea, an object, a quality, an activity etc.) and asks for its names. The opposite approach is known as semasiology: here one starts with the a word and asks what it means, or what concepts the word refers to. Thus, an onomasiological question is, e.g., "what are the names for long, narrow pieces of potato that have been deep-fried?" (answers: french fries in the US, chips in the UK, etc.), while a semasiological question is, e.g., "what is the meaning of the term chips?" (answers: 'long, narrow pieces of potato that have been deep-fried' in the UK, 'slim slices of potatoes deep fried or baked until crisp' in the US).

The note generation seems to fit the definition of Onomasiology, while note expressions fit the semasiology.

The next step is to find what methodologies are used in Onomasiology and Semasiology.