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An electrophysiological signature of unconscious recognition memory

Nature Neuroscience volume 12, pages 349–355 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Contradicting the common assumption that accurate recognition reflects explicit-memory processing, we provide evidence for recognition lacking two hallmark explicit-memory features: awareness of memory retrieval and facilitation by attentive encoding. Kaleidoscope images were encoded in conjunction with an attentional diversion and were subsequently recognized more accurately than those encoded without diversion. Confidence in recognition was superior following attentive encoding, although recognition was markedly accurate when people claimed to be unaware of memory retrieval. This 'implicit recognition' was associated with frontal-occipital negative brain potentials at 200–400 ms post-stimulus-onset, which were spatially and temporally distinct from positive brain potentials corresponding to explicit recollection and familiarity. This dissociation between behavioral and electrophysiological characteristics of 'implicit recognition' versus explicit recognition indicates that a neurocognitive mechanism with properties similar to those that produce implicit memory can be operative in standard recognition tests. People can accurately discriminate repeat stimuli from new stimuli without necessarily knowing it.

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of experimental design.
Figure 2: Behavioral and ERP results.
Figure 3: Distinct temporal and topographic ERP patterns for accurate guess decisions compared with remember and know decisions.
Figure 4: Relationships between ERP correlates of recognition accompanied by remember, know, and guess decisions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Rearick for help with collecting pilot data and A. Gisbert and P. Reber for providing code used to generate stimuli. Financial support was provided by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (P30-AG13854) and National Science Foundation (0518800 and 0818912).

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Author notes

  1. Joel L Voss

    Present address: Present address: The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program and Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston, 60208, Illinois, USA

    Joel L Voss & Ken A Paller

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  1. Joel L Voss
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  2. Ken A Paller
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Both authors designed the experiments, J.L.V. collected and analyzed the data, and both authors prepared the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Joel L Voss.

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Voss, J., Paller, K. An electrophysiological signature of unconscious recognition memory. Nat Neurosci 12, 349–355 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2260

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