School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Pevensey I, Falmer, BN1 9QH, UK.
Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2022 Jun;22(3):492-508. doi: 10.3758/s13415-021-00971-0. Epub 2021 Dec 29.
People often want to recall events of a particular kind, but this selective remembering is not always possible. We contrasted two candidate mechanisms: the overlap between retrieval cues and stored memory traces, and the ease of recollection. In two preregistered experiments (Ns = 28), we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to quantify selection occurring before retrieval and the goal states - retrieval orientations - thought to achieve this selection. Participants viewed object pictures or heard object names, and one of these sources was designated as targets in each memory test. We manipulated cue overlap by probing memory with visual names (Experiment 1) or line drawings (Experiment 2). Results revealed that regardless of which source was targeted, the left parietal ERP effect indexing recollection was selective when test cues overlapped more with the targeted than non-targeted information, despite consistently better memory for pictures. ERPs for unstudied items also were more positive-going when cue overlap was high, suggesting that engagement of retrieval orientations reflected availability of external cues matching the targeted source. The data support the view that selection can act before recollection if there is sufficient overlap between retrieval cues and targeted versus competing memory traces.
人们常常希望回忆起特定类型的事件，但这种选择性记忆并不总是可行的。我们对比了两种候选机制：检索线索和存储记忆痕迹之间的重叠，以及回忆的容易程度。在两个预先注册的实验中（N=28），我们使用事件相关电位（ERP）来量化检索前发生的选择，以及被认为实现这种选择的目标状态-检索取向。参与者观看物体图片或听到物体名称，并且在每个记忆测试中指定其中一个来源作为目标。我们通过用视觉名称（实验 1）或线条图（实验 2）探测记忆来操纵线索重叠。结果表明，无论目标是哪个来源，当测试线索与目标信息比非目标信息重叠更多时，索引回忆的左顶叶 ERP 效应都是有选择性的，尽管图片的记忆始终更好。当线索重叠较高时，未学习项目的 ERP 也更正向，这表明检索取向的参与反映了与目标来源匹配的外部线索的可用性。这些数据支持这样一种观点，即如果检索线索与目标记忆痕迹之间有足够的重叠，那么选择可以在回忆之前发生。
