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Event-related Potentials Associated with Masked Priming of Test Cues Reveal Multiple Potential Contributions to Recognition Memory
Woollams AM, Taylor JR, Karayanidis F, Henson RN
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2008;20:1114-1129.
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Abstract
The relationship between recognition memory and repetitionpriming remains unclear. Priming is believed to reflectincreased processing fluency for previously studied items relativeto new items. Manipulations that affect fluency can alsoaffect the likelihood that participants will judge items as studiedin recognition tasks. This attribution of fluency to memory hasbeen related to the familiarity process, as distinct from therecollection process, that is assumed by dual-process models ofrecognition memory. To investigate the time courses and neuralsources of fluency, familiarity, and recollection, we conductedan event-related potential (ERP) study of recognition memoryusing masked priming of test cues and a remember/knowparadigm. During the recognition test, studied and unstudiedwords were preceded by a brief, masked word that was eitherthe same or different. Participants decided quickly whether eachitem had been studied (‘‘old’’ or ‘‘new’’), and for items calledold, indicated whether they ‘‘remembered’’ (R) the encodingevent, or simply ‘‘knew’’ (K) the item had been studied. Maskedpriming increased the proportion of K, but not R, judgments.Priming also decreased response times for hits but not correctrejections (CRs). Four distinct ERP effects were found. A medial–frontal FN400 (300–500 msec) was associated with familiarity (R,K Hits > CRs) and a centro-parietal late positivity (500–800 msec)with recollection (R Hits > K Hits, CRs). A long-term repetitioneffect was found for studied items judged ‘‘new’’ (Misses > CRs)in the same time window as the FN400, but with a posteriordistribution. Finally, a centrally distributed masked priming effectwas visible between 150 and 250 msec and continued into the300–500 msec time window, where it was topographically dissociablefrom the FN400. These results suggest that multiple neuralsignals are associated with repetition and potentially contributeto recognition memory.