Article

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are unique in their ability to provide
information about the timing of activity in the neural networks that perform
complex cognitive processes. Given the dearth of extant data from normal controls
on the question of whether attitude representations are stored in episodic or
semantic memory, the goal here was to study the nature of the memory
representations used during conscious attitude evaluations. Thus, we recorded
ERPs while participants performed three tasks: attitude evaluations (i.e.,
agree/disagree), autobiographical cued recall (i.e., You/Not You) and semantic
evaluations (i.e., active/inactive). The key finding was that the parietal
episodic memory (EM) effect, a well-established correlate of episodic
recollection, was elicited by both attitude evaluations and autobiographical
retrievals. By contrast, semantic evaluations of the same attitude items elicited
less parietal activity, like that elicited by Not You cues, which only access
semantic memory. In accord with hemodynamic results, attitude evaluations and
autobiographical retrievals also produced overlapping patterns of slow potential
(SP) activity from 500 to 900ms preceding the response over left and right
inferior frontal, anterior medial frontal and occipital brain areas.
Significantly different patterns of SP activity were elicited in these locations
for semantic evaluations and Not You cues. Taken together, the results indicate
that attitude representations are stored in episodic memory. Retrieval timing
varied as a function of task, with earlier retrievals in both evaluation
conditions relative to those in the autobiographical condition. The differential
roles and timing of memory retrieval in evaluative judgment and memory retrieval
tasks are discussed.
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Langue : ANGLAIS