Abstract
Although many types of learning require associations to be formed, little is known about the brain mechanisms engaged in association formation. In the present study, we measured event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants studied pairs of semantically related words, with each word of a pair presented sequentially. To narrow in on the associative component of the signal, the ERP difference between the first and second words of a pair (Word2-Word1) was derived separately for subsequently recalled and subsequently not-recalled pairs. When the resulting difference waveforms were contrasted, a parietal positivity was observed for subsequently recalled pairs around 460 ms after the word presentation onset, followed by a positive slow wave that lasted until around 845 ms. Together these results suggest that associations formed between semantically related words are correlated with a specific neural signature that is reflected in scalp recordings over the parietal region.
Highlights
Cognitive theorists have made a qualitative distinction between memory for individual items and for associative information [1]
A repeated-measures ANOVA was conducted on the negative deflection at about 130 ms (N130), positive deflection at about 460 ms (P460) and the sustained positivity observed between 645–845 ms, which will hereafter be referred to as the positive slow wave, to test whether the amplitude of these components demonstrated an interaction between subsequent memory performance and word order
The present study extends our previous investigation of cognitive association formation [21], by differentiating the electrical brain activity underlying item encoding and association formation
Summary
Cognitive theorists have made a qualitative distinction between memory for individual items and for associative information [1]. The encoding-related EEG data that were re-examined in the present study were originally analyzed on the basis of intra-list semantic similarity and subsequent paired associate recall, the results of which have been reported previously [21]. To separate the electrical brain activity corresponding to association formation from that corresponding to item encoding, the present study extended our previous investigation by examining the difference between the encoding-related ERPs to the first and second words of a pair (Word and Word, respectively). In light of previous work demonstrating interdependence between processes engaged in encoding and retrieval [25], combined with findings that the parietal old/new effect reflects recollection of associative information [26,27], any ERP differences reflecting association formation were expected to occur over the parietal scalp region during the time range of the parietal old/new effect (about 400–800 ms post-stimulus)
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