Recollection and familiarity: Examining controversial assumptions and new directions

“…and Brown, 2006; Diana et al., 2007), and have led to the development of a number of dual-process theories of recognition (e.g., Atkinson and Juola, 1974; Mandler, 1980; Jacoby, 1991; Yonelinas, 1994; Aggleton and Brown, 1999; Reder et al., 2000; Kelley and Wixted, 2001; Rotello et al., 2004).”

“For example, in a review of remember/know, source memory and ROC studies that included recollection and familiarity contrasts, 16 of 19 studies showed that the hippocampus was involved in recollection, whereas only two showed hippocampal involvement in familiarity (Eichenbaum et al., 2007).”

“…1998; Kopelman et al., 2007), and damage to the PFC is associated with more pronounced deficits in tests of source memory than tests of item recognition (e.g., Milner, 1971; Milner et al., 1985; Janowsky et al., 1989; Shimamura et al., 1990; Johnson et al., 1997; but see Swick et al., 2006).”

“This idea is supported by evidence that PFC lesions disrupt recall more than recognition (for reviews, see Wheeler et al., 1995, 1997; but see Kopelman and Stanhope, 1998; Kopelman et al., 2007), and damage to the PFC is associated with more pronounced deficits in tests of source memory than tests…”

“In studies of patients with relatively selective hippocampal damage, recall is often found to be disrupted to a greater extent than recognition (Vargha-Khadem et al., 1997; Holdstock et al., 2000; Baddeley et al., 2001; Mayes et al., 2001; Bastin et al., 2004; Holdstock et al., 2008; Adlam et al.,…”

“Evidence from a broad range of paradigms has provided support for these claims (for earlier reviews, see Aggleton and Brown, 1999, 2001; Yonelinas, 2002; Eichenbaum et al., 2007).”

“This notion is supported by a growing body of evidence (for review see Yonelinas et al., 2010), including intact memory for unitized associations in healthy older adults (Bastin et al., 2013; Delhaye et al., 2018; Delhaye & Bastin, 2018; Memel & Ryan, 2017; Troyer et al., 2011).”

“The same procedure was used for Set B, but the aspect of the three other doors was very different from the door to recall, requiring retrieval of detailed qualitative information from memory (conscient rememorization) (Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“Recognition paradigms allow us to separate fine-grained recollection processes from more familiarity-based memory (see Yonelinas, 2002; Yonelinas et al., 2010 for detailed discussion of recollection and familiarity).”

“That is, one is making a judgment based on objective (or quasi-objective) information – whether or not some event matches information in memory, or produces a feeling of familiarity (Yonelinas et al., 2010)).”

“That is, according to the dual-process model of memory, a “remember” response reflects recollection (retrieval with specific details) and a “know” response indicates familiarity (retrieval without specific details; Slotnick, 2013; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“Based on previous literature, the semantic conceptual processing increases recognition memory based on familiarity-related FN400 (Meyer et al., 2007), while elaborate information processing enhances recognition memory based on recollection-related LPC (Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“In line with the dual-process model, recollection and familiarity have been associated with di ff erent brain regions such that recollection seems to tap the hippocampus, whereas familiarity judgments seem to tap the perirhinal cortex (e.g., Schoemaker et al., 2014; Yonelinas et al., 2005, 2010).”

“enable the formation of a unitized representation (Quamme et al., 2007; Tibon et al., 2014; for review, see Mecklinger & Jäger, 2009; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“These results are consistent with the idea of an engagement of the episodic system in case of novelty or when the item is inconsistent with the available prototype (see also Bonasia et al., 2018; Dudai et al., 2015; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“memory can be performed by fitting the dual-process model of recognition memory to the ROC derived from the confidence ratings (Dunn, 2010; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“, 2017) to calculate parameter estimates of their Decision Criterion (C), Response Bias (B), Recollection (Ro), and Familiarity (F) process contributions to performing the memory task (Yonelinas, 2002; 2004; Park & Yonelinas, 2011; Yonelinas et al., 2010; Koen et al., 2017).”

“Thus, individuals can remember more or less of the precise episodic details of an event and this will translate into variations in the responses on the rating scale; albeit with all such memories being rated as high on the response sale continuum (Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“According to the dual-process model of recognition memory (Yonelinas et al , 2010), recollection is a threshold process which constitutes the recall of detailed and specific qualitative information.”

“…literature on prefrontal encoding of unfamiliar information (e.g., Lee et al., 2014; Tulving et al., 1996), as well as with electrophysiological literature predicting a smaller anterior negativity to more familiar than new items (e.g., Yonelinas et al., 2010, Proverbio and Orlandi, 2016).”

“However, studies on a computational recognition memory model for lifelong learning remain insufficient.”

“Compared to recognition paradigms, this task places greater demands on the content and fidelity of the encoded representation, as successful memory cannot be supported by familiarity judgements alone (Yonelinas, 2002; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“Associative memory satisfies that requirement better than a broad “ memory impairment ” label because it is hippocampus-dependent, dissociable from more familiarity-based item recognition, and strongly tied to binding operations that are vulnerable in later life [39 – 41].”

“…Remember responses as a measure of subjective RM is consistent with traditional (Eichenbaum et al., 1992) and contemporary views (e.g. Butterworth et al., 2023; Dimsdale-Zucker et al., 2022; Dolcos et al., 2005; Frithsen et al., 2019; Sadeh et al., 2018; Wais et al., 2010; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“In the context of recognition memory, familiarity is the sense that something has been encountered before, but without being able to recall specifics of the prior encounter (Yonelinas, 2002; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“There is evidence that recall and recognition tap neuroanatomically separable brain networks, with recall relying more heavily on the hippocampus, whereas recognition may rely on cortical regions in the surrounding temporal lobes (Yonelinas, 2002; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“We consider recency a more precise term than familiarity even if the latter has been linked to the general notion of memory strength affected among others by stimulus recency 28 .”

“According to dual-process models, memory retrieval involves two processes: familiarity and recollection (Yonelinas 2002; Yonelinas et al. 2010).”

“The advantage of separa;ng the laoer is that the dele;on process can react rapidly to the need for space, and informa;on loss is delayed to the last moment so that priori;es can be revised based on the latest input (which the most useful according to heuris;c 1).”

“Nevertheless, the difference in performance between the familiarisation and repetition detection tasks likely reflects distinct memory processes (Buchler et al., 2008; Yonelinas et al., 2010), and successful repetition detection may not always translate directly to better memory performance.”

“Recollection involves retrieving specific details about a past event, while familiarity refers to a general sense that something has been encountered before, without recalling specific details 47 .”

“Familiarity is a sensation of having previously encountered something or someone without retrieving any additional information, while recollection involves retrieving additional contextual informationabout the previous encounter(Yone-linas, 2002; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“…whether the same brain regions that are responsible for the detection of familiarity versus novelty are also important for episodic recollection (Mandler, 1980; Eichenbaum et al. 2007; Yonelinas et al., 2010), e.g. of the valence of past social experiences to generate social fear specificity.”

“Both computational models and theoretical dual process models (DPM) have considered episodic memory retrieval as dichotomic, with reactivation of the neuronal ensemble occurring when the available information exceeds a given threshold [35, 36].”

“One such controversy focuses on the involvement of two putative, distinct memory processes: familiarity and recollection (Mandler 1980; Yonelinas et al. 2010).”

“This is in line with the dual process signal detection model (DPSD) of recognition memory, which assumes that some of the queried words – namely, those that are recollected – are accompanied by neural reinstatement of the associated information (Eichenbaum et al., 2007; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“→Familiarity rather refers to as a mere feeling of prior occurrence, without any information retrieval about the study episode, typically leading to a large range of confidence in memory judgment (Endel Tulving, 1985; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“167 clear yet whether they can be considered as variations of the same process (Dunn, 2004; Wixted, 2009) or emerge from distinct ones (Jacoby, 1991; Mandler, 1980; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“Bien que le rôle de ces structures dans le souvenir et la familiarité fasse encore débat, de nombreux auteurs s'entendent sur l'implication du cortex périrhinal dans la familiarité et de l’hippocampe dans le souvenir (Brown and Aggleton, 2001; Eichenbaum et al., 2007; Kafkas and Migo, 2009; Squire et al., 2007; Yoneli…”

“The third type of tests is called associative tests; this is a kind of memory task which is thought to make familiarity-based decisions insufficient to support correct responding (Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“Selon ce principe en effet, la familiarité peut contribuer à établir des jugements de reconnaissance associative ou de source, si la paire d’items ou l’item et sa source ont été ‘unitizées’ à l’encodage : c’est-à-dire traitées comme un seul item ‘unitizé’, plutôt que comme deux items séparés arbitrairement reliés entr…”

“If this criterion value is exceeded by an individual item’s memory strength (such as a word or an image in a memory task) it is classified as “old” (Squire et al., 2007; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“Importantly, whereas both processes can account for recognition of item information, recognition of associated information depends primarily on recollection (Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“Conversely, the parahippocampal gyrus can only deal with representations which are non-relational in nature (Aggleton & Brown, 2006; Diana, Yonelinas, & Ranganath, 2007; Henke, 2010; Montaldi & Mayes, 2010; Opitz, 2010b; Ranganath, 2010; Mayes, Montaldi, & Migo, 2007; Yonelinas et al., 2010).”

“One model (Yonelinas et al., 2010) assumes that recollection is a discontinuous process; i.e., that recollection depends on whether a test item elicits a recollection signal.”