Familiarity and conceptual implicit memory: Individual differences and neural correlates

Abstract

Voss, Lucas, and Paller point out that explicit recognition tests can be supported by implicit processes, and that conceptual implicit memory may be reflected in ERP correlates of familiarity-based recognition. Here, we argue that an examination of individual differences indicates that familiarity is coupled with conceptual implicit memory across participants, and that fMRI and patient data indicate that the perirhinal cortex is critical for both forms of memory. We suggest that the same process that leads an item to come to mind readily in conceptual implicit tests may also lead the item to seem familiar in explicit recognition tests.