Dissociating types of associative memory: Evidence and theoretical implications

The ability to recognize explicitly newly learned individual pieces of information (item memory) is reliant on familiarity, which is a memory process characterized by a decontextualized sense of oldness. Conversely, the ability to recognize the associations between these items (associative memory) relies on recollection, which is a memory process characterized by the retrieval of contextual information that depends on binding operations at encoding to create these associations and on recall-like operations to access these links consciously at retrieval. It remains possible, however, that some types of associative representations, like familiarity, are accessed without recourse to recall-like processes. The main goal of this study is to investigate the latter possibility and determine whether different types of associative memory rely on different memory processes and neural substrates. I demonstrated that these types of associative memory are dissociable from item memory and familiarity on the basis of their reliance on relational binding at encoding, and are dissociable from one another on the basis of their reliance on recall-like, strategic retrieval processes. Associative reinstatement does not rely on recall-like processes or recollection, but instead depends on associative familiarity. This process is distinct from that involved in item recognition and may index binding of information at encoding without involving the conscious re-experiencing characteristic of recollection at retrieval. I discuss these findings within a neuropsychological framework, in which the different types of associative memory are subserved by different MTL structures and differentially rely on frontal regions. In six experiments, I investigated two types of associative memory: (1) associative identification, which relies on recall-like processes and recollection to explicitly distinguish between studied and novel associations, and (2) associative reinstatement, which does not involve recall-like processes and represents how the reinstatement of associative information enhances item memory performance. I contrasted these measures in young adults under experimental manipulations designed to modulate relational binding at encoding (Exp. 1---levels-of-processing) and recall-like processes at retrieval (Exp. 2---response deadline; Exp. 3---speed-accuracy tradeoff; Exp. 4---overlapping pairings) and in populations with impaired binding following medial temporal lobes (MTL) lesions (Exp. 5---unilateral MTL excisions patients) or impaired recall-like abilities due to sub-optimal frontal function (Exp. 6---older adults).

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