Relationships between individual differences in dual process and electrophysiological signatures of familiarity and recollection during retrieval

Our everyday memories can vary in terms of accuracy and phenomenology. One theoretical account that can help understand how to categorize these differences delineates between memories that are remembered versus familiar. This difference largely hinges on whether the memories contain information about both an item itself as well as associated details (Remember) versus those that are devoid of these associated contextual details (Familiar). This distinction has been supported by computational modeling of behavior, studies in patients, and neuroimaging work including differences both in electrophysiological and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Yet, compelling convergent evidence directly linking individual differences in estimates of Recollection and Familiarity, the mathematical estimates of differences in Remember versus Familiar judgments, with their concomitant electrophysiological signatures is lacking. The present study measured memory responses to a recognition memory task while participants underwent simultaneous electrophysiological recordings of brain activity. Non-parametric cluster-based permutation analyses revealed selective associations between electrophysiological signatures ofFamiliarity and Recollection with their respective behavioral estimates. These results support the idea that Recollection and Familiarity are distinct phenomena and is the first to relate individual differences in both Recollection and Familiarity to electrophysiological signatures.