The effect of unitization on associative recognition was not moderated by the unitization–congruence between original and rearranged picture pairs (UC) for picture stimuli

From encoding to retrieval: Change in level of unitization resolves debate about Unitization's effect on associative recognition

“…A number of studies have consistently shown that unitization could increase the contribution of familiarity to associative recognition, despite it might not improve the overall associative recognition performance (Delhaye & Bastin, 2016; Delhaye et al, 2017; Kamp et al, 2016; Liu et al, 2020). However, a few studies revealed that unitization might not affect the contribution of familiarity to associative recognition (Kriukova et al, 2013; Li et al, 2019; Liu et al, 2021; Shao & Weng, 2011). In one such study, Liu et al (2021) used semantically related and unrelated picture pairs to match the semantic relatedness between the studied and rearranged picture pairs.…”

“…However, a few studies revealed that unitization might not affect the contribution of familiarity to associative recognition (Kriukova et al, 2013; Li et al, 2019; Liu et al, 2021; Shao & Weng, 2011). In one such study, Liu et al (2021) used semantically related and unrelated picture pairs to match the semantic relatedness between the studied and rearranged picture pairs. The results showed little contribution of familiarity to associative recognition for both the related and unrelated picture pairs (.15 ± .05 and .06 ± .04).…”

“…Earlier studies suggested that both familiarity and recollection can support the item recognition (i.e., distinguish studied from unstudied items), but the associative recognition (i.e., distinguish learned item pairs from rearranged item pairs) can only be supported by recollection (Boucher et al, 2016;Donaldson & Rugg, 1998;Hockley & Consoli, 1999;Mandler, 1980;Yonelinas, 1997Yonelinas, , 2002Yonelinas et al, 2010). However, this viewpoint is challenged by recent studies (Bader et al, 2010;Liu et al, , 2021Rhodes & Donaldson, 2007Tibon, Gronau, et al, 2014;Zheng, Li, Xiao, Broster, Jiang, & Xi, 2015) showing that familiarity can also support associative recognition when the beto-learned items are bound into a new representation. This manipulation of bounding two or more items into a single unit is defined as unitization (Gobet et al, 2001;Graf & Schacter, 1989;Yonelinas, 1997;Yonelinas et al, 1999).…”

Differentiation of the Contribution of Familiarity and Recollection to the Old/New Effects in Associative Recognition: Insight from Semantic Relation

“…Dual-process models claim that item memory hinges on two functionally distinct mnemonic processes: familiarity and recollection. Familiarity is an automatic and fast-acting process that involves a generic feeling that something/someone is previously encountered; the recollection, by contrast, is a deliberate and time-consuming process with autonomous consciousness for studied episodes, which enables one to reinstate explicit contextual details associated with past encounters [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. With the accumulation of research, the dual-process models are more supported.…”

“…In daily life, one may undergo numerous events, and some of them are bound together. Research on the memory of the combination of distinct events causes great attention, and such capability to remember events experienced together is referred to as associative memory [ 6 , 7 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. In a typical associative recognition paradigm, several strings of pairs (e.g., A-B, C-D, and E-F) are studied, and in the following test, participants are instructed to determine whether a pair is intact (the same as the one in the preceding study phase, e.g., A-B), rearranged (both items in the pair are studied but are recombined, e.g., C-F), or new (both items are novel, e.g., G-H) [ 7 , 8 , 25 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ].…”