Evidence Of Recognition Memory Research Articles

Patients with mild Alzheimer's disease attribute conceptual fluency to prior experience

Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been found to be relatively dependent on familiarity in their recognition memory judgments. Conceptual fluency has been argued to be an important basis of familiarity. This study investigated the extent to which patients with mild AD use conceptual fluency cues in their recognition decisions. While no evidence of recognition memory was found in the patients with AD, enhanced conceptual fluency was associated with a higher rate of “Old” responses (items endorsed as having been studied) compared to when fluency was not enhanced. The magnitude of this effect was similar for patients with AD and healthy control participants. Additionally, ERP recordings time-locked to test item presentation revealed preserved modulations thought critical to the effect of conceptual fluency on test performance (N400 and late frontal components) in the patients with AD, consistent with the behavioral results. These findings suggest that patients with mild AD are able to use conceptual fluency in their recognition judgments and the neural mechanisms supporting such processing is maintained.

Individual differences in infants' recognition of briefly presented visual stimuli

Infants' recognition memory has been shown to be related to individual differences in look duration and level of heart period variability. This study examined the effect of individual differences in these 2 measures on infants' recognition of briefly presented visual stimuli using a paired-comparison recognition-memory paradigm. A sample of 35 full-term infants was studied longitudinally at 14, 20, and 26 weeks of age. Recognition memory for briefly presented stimuli was tested in 6 experimental conditions, with delays corresponding to different heart-rate-defined phases of attention. The 20-and 26-week-old infants, and infants with high levels of heart period variability, generally showed more evidence of recognition memory for briefly presented visual stimuli. Greater evidence of recognition memory was observed when stimuli were presented during sustained attention. Infants with more mature baseline physiological responses show greater evidence of recognition memory, and stimulus and procedural factors may be more important for the study of individual differences in infant visual attention than has previously been suggested.