The neural substrates of recognition memory retrieval were examined in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study designed to separate activity related to recollection from that related to continuous variations in familiarity. Across a variety of brain regions, the neural signature of recollection was found to be distinct from familiarity, demonstrating that recollection cannot be attributed...

The ability to recognize a previously encountered stimulus is dependent on the structures of the medial temporal lobe and is thought to be supported by two processes, recollection and familiarity. A focus of research in recent years concerns the extent to which these two processes depend on the hippocampus and on the other structures of the medial temporal lobe. One view holds that the hippocam...

The present study investigated the role of working memory capacity (WMC) in the control of recollection in young and older adults. We used electroencephalographic event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine the effects of age and of individual differences in WMC on the ability to prioritize recollection according to current goals. Targets in a recognition exclusion task were words encoded using ...

Dual-process theories of recognition memory hypothesize separate underlying familiarity and recollection processes, but the necessity of multiple processes is debated. Previous research has suggested that scalp-recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) may index the activity of separate familiarity and recollection processes. Other research indicates that the amnestic drug midazolam impair...

The current study investigated the effects of aging on the neural basis underlying true and false recollection. Although older adults, compared with younger adults, exhibited equivalent rates of true recollection, age differences in true recollection showed a pattern of activity commonly found among previous memory studies (e.g., age-related decreases in occipital and increases in prefrontal co...

Neuroimaging and lesion studies have seemed to converge on the idea that the hippocampus selectively supports recollection. However, these studies usually involve a comparison between strong recollection-based memories and weak familiarity-based memories. Studies that avoid confounding memory strength with recollection and familiarity almost always find that the hippocampus supports both recoll...