Cheng, Shih-Kuen; (2003) Event-related brain potential studies of gist-based source memory errors. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D.), University College London (United Kingdom).

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Abstract

The experiments presented in this thesis employed a procedure that incorporated two types of memory errors: 'source memory errors' and 'gist-based false recognition', and investigated their underlying mechanisms by recording the ERPs associated with these errors. Subjects studied lists of word pairs formed by pairing one of two, or one of four, associated words with a group of semantically related or unrelated words. At test, subjects differentiated old pairs from 'rearranged pairs', whose initial words had been exchanged, and 'old-new pairs' in which a new second word was paired with an old initial word. The rearranged pairs were either in accordance or not in accordance with the gist of the study pairs. Inaccurate endorsement, or source judgement errors, to these two classes of rearranged pairs were compared. One specific point addressed was whether these memory errors comprise 'recollection' of episodic details, or alternatively, whether these errors solely reflect undifferentiated familiarity. This issue was explored by requesting subjects to report their subjective experiences associated with memory judgments (the Remember/Know procedure) in Experiments One and Three, and by examining the different ERP effects associated with recollection-based recognition memory in Experiments Two, Four, and Five. The first two experiments explored how partial source information derived from gist memories formed at encoding modulates the involvement of recollection processes in source memory errors. Experiments Three and Four explored the necessary conditions for the formation of gist memories that induce recollection-based source judgment errors. The last experiment investigated the relation between brain activity during encoding and subsequent memory judgement accuracy. The results showed that recollection is involved in source judgement errors when the rearranged pairs correspond to the gist of study pairs formed during encoding. Moreover, although correctly classified old pairs and incorrectly classified rearranged pairs appear to engage equivalent processes at the time of retrieval, these two classes of memory judgement appear to depend on qualitatively distinct encoding operations.

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