On the antecedents of an electrophysiological signature of retrieval mode

It has been proposed that people employ a common set of sustained operations (retrieval mode) when preparing to remember different kinds of episodic information. In two experiments, however, there was no evidence for the pattern of brain activity commonly assumed to index these operations. In both e...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Williams, Angharad N., Evans, Lisa H., Herron, Jane E., Wilding, Edward L.
Format: Article
Published: Public Library of Science 2016
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39430/
_version_ 1848795834336935936
author Williams, Angharad N.
Evans, Lisa H.
Herron, Jane E.
Wilding, Edward L.
author_facet Williams, Angharad N.
Evans, Lisa H.
Herron, Jane E.
Wilding, Edward L.
author_sort Williams, Angharad N.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description It has been proposed that people employ a common set of sustained operations (retrieval mode) when preparing to remember different kinds of episodic information. In two experiments, however, there was no evidence for the pattern of brain activity commonly assumed to index these operations. In both experiments event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded time-locked to alternating preparatory cues signalling that participants should prepare for different retrieval tasks. One cue signalled episodic retrieval: remember the location where the object was presented in a prior study phase. The other signalled semantic retrieval: identify the location where the object is most commonly found (Experiment 1) or identify the typical size of the object (Experiment 2). In both experiments, only two trials of the same task were completed in succession. This enabled ERP contrasts between 'repeat' trials (the cue on the preceding trial signalled the same retrieval task), and `switch' trials (the cue differed from the preceding trial). There were differences between the ERPs elicited by the preparatory task cues in Experiment 1 only: these were evident only on switch trials and comprised more positive-going activity over right-frontal scalp for the semantic than for the episodic task. These findings diverge from previous outcomes where the activity differentiating cues signalling preparation for episodic or semantic retrieval has been restricted to rightfrontal scalp sites, comprising more positive-going activity for the episodic than for the semantic task. While these findings are consistent with the view that there is not a common set of operations engaged when people prepare to remember different kinds of episodic information, an alternative account is offered here, which is that these outcomes are a consequence of structural and temporal components of the experiment designs.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:38:23Z
format Article
id nottingham-39430
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:38:23Z
publishDate 2016
publisher Public Library of Science
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-394302020-05-04T18:26:51Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39430/ On the antecedents of an electrophysiological signature of retrieval mode Williams, Angharad N. Evans, Lisa H. Herron, Jane E. Wilding, Edward L. It has been proposed that people employ a common set of sustained operations (retrieval mode) when preparing to remember different kinds of episodic information. In two experiments, however, there was no evidence for the pattern of brain activity commonly assumed to index these operations. In both experiments event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded time-locked to alternating preparatory cues signalling that participants should prepare for different retrieval tasks. One cue signalled episodic retrieval: remember the location where the object was presented in a prior study phase. The other signalled semantic retrieval: identify the location where the object is most commonly found (Experiment 1) or identify the typical size of the object (Experiment 2). In both experiments, only two trials of the same task were completed in succession. This enabled ERP contrasts between 'repeat' trials (the cue on the preceding trial signalled the same retrieval task), and `switch' trials (the cue differed from the preceding trial). There were differences between the ERPs elicited by the preparatory task cues in Experiment 1 only: these were evident only on switch trials and comprised more positive-going activity over right-frontal scalp for the semantic than for the episodic task. These findings diverge from previous outcomes where the activity differentiating cues signalling preparation for episodic or semantic retrieval has been restricted to rightfrontal scalp sites, comprising more positive-going activity for the episodic than for the semantic task. While these findings are consistent with the view that there is not a common set of operations engaged when people prepare to remember different kinds of episodic information, an alternative account is offered here, which is that these outcomes are a consequence of structural and temporal components of the experiment designs. Public Library of Science 2016-12-09 Article PeerReviewed Williams, Angharad N., Evans, Lisa H., Herron, Jane E. and Wilding, Edward L. (2016) On the antecedents of an electrophysiological signature of retrieval mode. PLoS ONE, 11 (12). e0167574/1-e0167574/19. ISSN 1932-6203 http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0167574 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0167574 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0167574
spellingShingle Williams, Angharad N.
Evans, Lisa H.
Herron, Jane E.
Wilding, Edward L.
On the antecedents of an electrophysiological signature of retrieval mode
title On the antecedents of an electrophysiological signature of retrieval mode
title_full On the antecedents of an electrophysiological signature of retrieval mode
title_fullStr On the antecedents of an electrophysiological signature of retrieval mode
title_full_unstemmed On the antecedents of an electrophysiological signature of retrieval mode
title_short On the antecedents of an electrophysiological signature of retrieval mode
title_sort on the antecedents of an electrophysiological signature of retrieval mode
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39430/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39430/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39430/