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. 2008 Jul;34(4):730-40.
doi: 10.1037/0278-7393.34.4.730.

The effects of unitization on familiarity-based source memory: testing a behavioral prediction derived from neuroimaging data

Rachel A Diana  1 , Andrew P Yonelinas, Charan Ranganath
Affiliations

The effects of unitization on familiarity-based source memory: testing a behavioral prediction derived from neuroimaging data

Rachel A Diana et al. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2008 Jul.

Abstract

Performance on tests of source memory is typically based on recollection of contextual information associated with an item. However, recent neuroimaging results have suggested that the perirhinal cortex, a region thought to support familiarity-based item recognition, may support source attributions if source information is encoded as a feature of the relevant item (i.e., "unitized"). The authors hypothesized that familiarity may contribute to source memory performance if item and source information are unitized during encoding, whereas performance may rely more heavily on recollection if source information is encoded as an arbitrary contextual association. Three source recognition experiments examining receiver operating characteristics and response deadline performance indicated that familiarity makes a greater contribution to source memory if source and item information are unitized during encoding. These findings suggest that familiarity can contribute to source recognition and that its contribution depends critically on the way item and source information are initially processed.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Source ROCs based on average unitized source and non-unitized source data collapsed across participants in Experiment 1. Solid lines represent dual process signal detection model fits to the data. (B) Source z-ROCs based on average unitized source and non-unitized source data collapsed across participants in Experiment 1. Solid lines represent polynomial trend lines fit to the data.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Parameter estimates from the individual source ROCs in the unitized source and non-unitized source conditions for Experiment 1. Recollection (yellow) indicates the recollection estimate for items studied on a yellow background and recollection (red) indicates the recollection estimate for items studied on a red background. Error bars indicate the standard error.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Source ROCs based on average unitized source and non-unitized source data collapsed across participants in Experiment 2. Solid lines represent dual process signal detection model fits to the data. (B) Source z-ROCs based on average unitized source and non-unitized source data collapsed across participants in Experiment 2. Solid lines represent polynomial trend lines fit to the data.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Parameter estimates from the individual source ROCs and z-ROCs in the unitized source and non-unitized source conditions for Experiment 2. Recollection (green) indicates the recollection estimate for items studied on a green background and recollection (red) indicates the recollection estimate for items studied on a red background. Error bars indicate the standard error.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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