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Abstract:
The aim of this experiment was to investigate neural
correlates of "binding failures" in episodic memory. At study,
subjects were presented with a series of lists of word pairs formed
by pairing one of two associated words with different associates of
an unstudied theme word (e.g. kennel-door, dog-pane etc. in one
list; cobweb-bed, spider-rest etc. in another list). At test,
subjects discriminated "Old pairs" (e.g. kennel-door) from
"Intra-list Rearranged pairs" (e.g. kennel-pane), "Inter-list
Rearranged pairs" (e.g. kennel-bed), and "New" pairs (e.g.
kennel-bulb). ERPs were recorded for each class of test item.
Similar proportions of "yes" responses to Old and Intra-list
Rearranged pairs were observed. The false alarm rate to Inter-list
Rearranged pairs was markedly lower than that to the latter items.
ERPs elicited by hits to Old pairs and false alarms to Intra-list
Rearranged pairs were indistinguishable and showed the pattern of
"left parietal " and "right frontal "effects, which are
characteristic of recognition based on recollection rather than
familiarity. We conclude that in this procedure, memory conjunction
errors are mediated by the same processes supporting veridical
memory i.e. such errors reflect false recollection of the study
episode.
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