Context dissociations of the FN400 and N400 are evidence for recognition based on relative or absolute familiarity

P Andrew Leynes; Tanushi Upadhyay

doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2022.105903

Context dissociations of the FN400 and N400 are evidence for recognition based on relative or absolute familiarity

Brain Cogn. 2022 Oct:162:105903. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2022.105903. Epub 2022 Aug 26.

Authors

P Andrew Leynes¹, Tanushi Upadhyay²

Affiliations

¹ The College of New Jersey, USA. Electronic address: leynes@tcnj.edu.
² Case Western Reserve University, USA.

PMID: 36030708
DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2022.105903

Abstract

Fluency, the ease of processing, can increase familiarity and the ability to recognize previously encountered information. Mixing or blocking the pre-experimental familiarity of test probes alters the pattern of recognition Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) for picture stimuli (Bruett & Leynes, 2015). The present study tested this idea further by mixing or blocking pre-experimental familiarity of word stimuli. A test with only pre-experimentally familiar words (Experiment 1) elicited the prototypical mid-frontal FN400 old/new ERP difference, which is a correlate of familiarity. However, tests with a mix of pre-experimentally familiar and unfamiliar words (Experiment 2) elicited posterior N400 old/new differences. Based on the Unexpected Fluency Attribution model (Mecklinger & Bader, 2020), this pattern of results suggests that pre-experimental fluency can influence the use of relative (changes from recent exposure) or absolute (baseline levels accrued from experience) familiarity to make a recognition judgment.

Keywords: FN400; Familiarity; Fluency; N400; Recognition.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Electroencephalography*
Evoked Potentials*
Female
Humans
Judgment
Male
Recognition, Psychology