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

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.