Classic and false memory designs: an electrophysiological comparison

In false memory tasks new items either overlap with the semantic concepts of studied items (LURE) or do not (NEW). ERP differences between OLD and NEW items in false memory tasks have been interpreted as similar to episodic memory effects observed in classic recognition studies. However, NEW items in a false memory task can be rejected on the basis of semantic information alone, a strategy useless in classic tasks. Here a medial frontal (400 to 500 ms) episodic memory effect was revealed in both classic and false memory tasks, whereas a parietal (500 to 700 ms) episodic memory effect was found only in the classic task. In the false memory task a large, parietally focused positivity was evident for NEW items, assumed to reflect a targetlike response to new semantic information. The brain activity underlying false memory effects, therefore, cannot be interpreted as a straightforward example of that arising during a standard recognition task.