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

Unitization modulates recognition of within-domain and cross-domain associations: Evidence from event related potentials

“…Our first key finding was that associative recognition of compounds (but not of noncompounds) was associated with modulation of an early frontal effect-the putative electrophysiological correlate of familiarity-as indicated by decreased frontal negativity for old compared to rearranged compounds in the early time window. Several previous electrophysiological studies Diana et al, 2011;Guillaume & Etienne, 2015;Jäger et al, 2006;Jäger et al, 2010;Kamp et al, 2016;Kriukova et al, 2013;Li, Mao, Wang, & Guo, 2017;Lyu, Wang, Mao, Li, Guo, 2018;Rhodes & Donaldson, 2008;Tibon et al, 2014a;Tibon et al, 2014b;Zheng et al, 2015) support the notion that familiarity is enabled for unitized associations. However, only two prior electrophysiological investigations of unitization effects at the higher end of the LOU continuum (where stimuli already share strong associative relationships prior to the experiment) employed a design that allows conclusive attribution of mnemonic effects to associative recognition (Kriukova et al, 2013, Zheng et al, 2015.…”

“…In our study, the distinction between the two processes supporting recognition memoryfamiliarity and recollection-is built of the temporal and spatial distribution of the early and late old/rearranged ERP effects. Like many other studies (e.g., Bader et al, 2010;Guillaume & Etienne, 2015;Jäger et al, 2006;Kamp et al, 2016;Rhodes & Donaldson, 2008;Tibon et al, 2014b;Zheng et al, 2015, to list just a few), we link the early frontal negativity with familiarity, and the late posterior positivity with recollection. While this type of reverse inference has its limitations (Poldrack, 2006), our interpretations build on decades of intensive research that strongly associates these ERP components with the particular memory processes reported here (reviewed by Mecklinger, 2000, Rugg & Curran, 2007, Wilding & Ranganath, 2011.…”

“…In recent years, however, research has suggested that familiarity can contribute to associative recognition when pairs of items are unitized (i.e., treated as a single unit rather than as a pairing of two separate items). This notion is supported by a growing body of evidence (for review, see Mecklinger & Jäger, 2009;Yonelinas, Aly, Wang, & Koen, 2010), including behavioral studies (e.g., Ahmad & Hockley, 2017;Diana, Yonelinas, & Ranganath, 2008;Parks & Yonelinas, 2015;Robey & Riggins, 2017;Shao, Opitz, Yang, & Weng, 2015;Tibon, Greve, & Henson, 2018;Tibon, Vakil, Goldstein, & Levy, 2012;Tu, Alty, & Diana, 2017) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies (Bader, Opitz, Reith, & Mecklinger, 2014;Diana et al, 2009;Ford, Verfaellie, & Giovanello, 2013;Haskins, Yonelinas, Quamme, & Ranganath, 2008;Memel & Ryan, 2017), as well as electrophysiological studies showing modulation of the mid-frontal ERP effect associated with familiarity, following unitization encoding (e.g., Bader, Mecklinger, Hoppstädter, & Meyer, 2010;Diana, Van den Boom, Yonelinas, & Ranganath, 2011;Guillaume & Etienne, 2015;Jäger, Mecklinger, & Kipp, 2006;Jäger, Mecklinger & Kliegel, 2010;Kamp, Bader, & Mecklinger, 2016;Rhodes & Donaldson, 2008;Tibon, Ben-Zvi, & Levy, 2014;Tibon, Gronau, Scheuplein, Mecklinger, & Levy, 2014;Zheng, Li, Xiao, Broster, & Jiang, 2015).…”

Unitization modulates recognition of within‐domain and cross‐domain associations: Evidence from event‐related potentials

“…Our first key finding was that associative recognition of compounds (but not of noncompounds) was associated with modulation of an early frontal effect—conventionally interpreted as the putative electrophysiological correlate of early retrieval processes such as familiarity—as indicated by decreased frontal negativity for old compared to rearranged compounds in the early time window. Several previous electrophysiological studies (Bader et al, ; Diana et al, ; Guillaume & Etienne, ; Jäger et al, , ; Kamp et al, ; Kriukova et al, ; Li, Mao, Wang, & Guo, ; Lyu, Wang, Mao, Li, & Guo, ; Rhodes & Donaldson, ; Tibon, Ben‐Zvi, & Levy, ; Tibon, Gronau et al, ; Zheng et al, ) also suggest that early retrieval processes are selectively enabled for unitized but not for nonunitized pair associates. However, only two prior electrophysiological investigations of unitization effects at the higher end of the LOU continuum (where stimuli already bear strong associative relationships prior to the experiment) employed a design that allows conclusive attribution of mnemonic effects to associative recognition (Kriukova et al, , Zheng et al, ).…”

“…Indeed, in addition to behavioral studies (e.g., Ahmad & Hockley, 2017;Diana, Yonelinas, & Ranganath, 2008;Parks & Yonelinas, 2015;Robey & Riggins, 2017;Shao, Opitz, Yang, & Weng, 2015;Tibon, Greve, & Henson, 2017;Tibon, Vakil, Goldstein, & Levy, 2012;Tu, Alty, & Diana, 2017) and fMRI studies (Bader, Opitz, Reith, & Mecklinger, 2014;Diana, Yonelinas, & Raganath, 2009;Ford, Verfaellie, & Giovanello, 2010;Haskins, Yonelinas, Quamme, & Ranganath, 2008;Memel & Ryan, 2017), electrophysiological studies have established that the early midfrontal ERP effect, which indicates early retrieval processes, is modulated following unitization encoding (e.g., Bader, Mecklinger, Hoppstädter, & Meyer, 2010;Kamp, Bader, & Mecklinger, 2016 [definition vs. sentence, as described above]; Diana, Van den Boom, Yonelinas, & Ranganath, 2011 [integral vs. contextual encoding of source information]; Guillaume & Etienne, 2015;Jäger, Mecklinger, & Kipp, 2006;Jäger, Mecklinger & Kliegel, 2010 [intrinsic vs. extrinsic Zheng, Li, Xiao, Broster, & Jiang, 2015 [compound vs. unrelated word pairs]).…”