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

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Li, Bingcan 
Han, Meng 
Guo, Chunyan 

Abstract

Although it is often assumed that memory of episodic associations requires recollection, it has been suggested that, when stimuli are experienced as a unit, earlier memory processes might contribute to their subsequent associative recognition. We investigated the effects of associative relations and perceptual domain during episodic encoding on the ability to utilize early memory processes to retrieve associative information. During the study phase, participants encoded compound and noncompound words pairs, presented either to the same sensory modality (visual presentation) or to different sensory modalities (audiovisual presentation). At the test phase, they discriminated between old, rearranged, and new pairs while ERPs were recorded. In an early ERP component, differences related to associative memory emerged only for compounds, regardless of their encoding modality. These findings indicate that episodic retrieval of compound words can be supported by early-onset recognition processes regardless of whether both words were presented to the same or different sensory modalities, and suggests that unitization can operate at an abstract level, across a broad range of materials.

Description

Keywords

episodic memory, familiarity, recognition, recollection, unitization, Adult, Association, Cerebral Cortex, Electroencephalography, Evoked Potentials, Female, Humans, Male, Memory, Episodic, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Recognition, Psychology, Speech Perception, Young Adult

Journal Title

Psychophysiology

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0048-5772
1469-8986

Volume Title

56

Publisher

Wiley

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_00005/8)