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Abstract:
Can we predict whether an event will be recalled as
contextually vivid ("remember") or vaguely familiar ("know")?
Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from young adults
during the study and recall phases of a recognition memory
paradigm. Participants studied a list composed of equally frequent
words that either followed (regular) or did not follow (irregular)
standard phonological rules. During recognition testing,
participants made old/new followed by remember/know judgments. To
assess differences in encoding word-type (regular vs. irregular),
ERPs recorded during study were averaged as a function of accurate
"old" judgments with subsequent "remember" and "know" judgments at
recall. Behaviorally, participants were more likely to "remember"
irregular words as compared to regular words. Robust differences in
electrophysiological activity for words later judged as "remember"
or "know" occurred in both the study and recall phases. At study,
regular words could be distinguished by enhanced negativity for
those words that were later "remembered". Moreover, all irregular
words showed enhanced negativity during the study phase. This
pattern of results suggests that by examining electrophysiological
differences during encoding, we can predict what events will be
recalled as contextually vivid or as familiar.
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