title: Event-related potential correlates of interference effects on recognition memory.
abstract: The question of interference (how new learning affects previously acquired knowledge and vice versa) is a central theoretical issue in episodic memory research, but very few human neuroimaging studies have addressed this question. Here, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to test the predictions of the complementary learning systems (CLS) model regarding how list strength manipulations (strengthening some, but not all, items on a study list) affect recognition memory. Our analysis focused on the FN400 old-new effect, a hypothesized ERP correlate of familiarity-based recognition, and the parietal old-new effect, a hypothesized ERP correlate of recollection-based recognition. As is predicted by the CLS model, increasing list strength selectively reduced the ERP correlate of recollection-based discrimination, leaving the ERP correlate of familiarity-based discrimination intact. In a second experiment, we obtained converging evidence for the CLS model's predictions, using a remember/know test: Increasing list strength reduced recollection-based discrimination but did not reduce familiarity-based discrimination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA. knorman@princeton.edu
authors.forename: Kenneth A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Norman
authors.forename: Katharine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tepe
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nyhus
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Curran
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D018910:Video Games