Conceptual and perceptual memory: Retrieval orientations reflected in event-related potentials

Abstract

In memory retrieval, search can be guided by mental sets towards diVerent subsets of the available evidence. Such retrieval orientations have been suggested to leave an imprint on event-related potentials (ERPs). The present study aimed at characterizing orientations towards perceptual and conceptual evidence in a recognition task, where pictures and words were studied. In the recognition test, items were presented in either the same format as at study or in the opposite format. A between-subjects manipulation modiWed the task, instructing an Exclusion group to endorse only items that preserved their format from study, and an Inclusion group to endorse both formats of a studied item. It was hypothesized that exclusion instructions would instil a perceptual and inclusion instructions a conceptual orientation. As a corollary, instructions were expected to dissociate the high end from the low end of the picture-word mirror eVect. This expectation was conWrmed in a behavioural experiment. In an ERP experiment, retrieval orientations were examined in their eVects on correct rejec- G. Stenberg et al. / Acta Psychologica 122 (2006) 174-205 175 further suggest that the examined old-new eVects in ERPs are mainly linked to voluntary aspects of memory, even in a task where involuntary memory exerts eVects on reaction times.

Target-context unitization effect on the familiarity-related FN400: A face recognition exclusion task

“…Greater positive amplitudes were observed for repeated faces (old target and old nontarget) than for new ones, confirming that the parietal old-new effect reflects the implementation of controlled memory processes related to the retrieval of contextual details or associative information (Curran and Hancock, 2007;Senkfor and Van Petten, 1998;Stenberg et al, 2006), even on an exclusion task (Bridson et al, 2006;Guillaume and Tiberghien, 2013). This outcome extends previous findings indicating that the posterior modulation is not simply sensitive to repetition but should be linked to explicit memory processes during face recognition (Guillaume and Tiberghien, 2013;MacKenzie and Donaldson, 2007;Yick and Wilding, 2014).…”

Retrieving self-vocalized information: An event-related potential (ERP) study on the effect of retrieval orientation

“…Previous retrieval orientation studies showed more negative ERPs to new items in conditions that were characterized by incongruent study and test formats (e.g. pictures and words), as compared to conditions in which study and test formats were the same (Halsband, Ferdinand, Bridger, & Mecklinger, 2012;Herron & Rugg, 2003;Hornberger, Morcom, & Rugg, 2004;Robb & Rugg, 2002;Stenberg, Johansson, & Rosén, 2006). It has been suggested that the more negative ERPs in case of study-test incongruence reflect processing differences necessary to maximize overlap between cue and memory representations; in particular, the differential reliance on semantic/conceptual information derived from retrieval cues was proposed to play a major role (Hornberger et al, 2004).…”

Enactment versus conceptual encoding: Equivalent item memory but different source memory

“…Rugg and colleagues have shown that ERPs to new items in recognition tests vary depending on whether the participants attempt to remember pictures or words from the study phase. These effects take the form of more negative ERPs for test cues that are physically dissimilar from the sought-after information, and are evident over a broad region of the scalp (Herron and Rugg, 2004;Hornberger et al, 2004;Robb and Rugg, 2002; see also Stenberg et al, 2006). These studies suggest that the retrieval of specific varieties of information from an episode is subject to a fair degree of voluntary control, such that test cues undergo differential processing depending on the specific demands of the memory test.…”

“…In a general sense, these negative potentials might reflect the processes required to convert a physical test cue into an internal format more closely aligned with the information sought in memory. If this interpretation is correct, one would expect the scalp topography and wave-shape of retrieval orientation effects to vary somewhat depending on the nature of the initial format (the physical cue) and the target format (the internal retrieval cue), as observed in some of these prior studies using words and pictures (Hornberger et al, 2004;Stenberg et al, 2006). By this perspective, there is no single "retrieval orientation effect", but rather a set of processes that help to align test cues with stored information.…”