False Memory: P300 Amplitude, Topography, and Latency

Two experiments are described in which the P300 component of the Event-Related Potential was recorded in a modification of the Roediger & McDermott (1995) paradigm. P300 amplitudes and topographies were evaluated in both true recognition of previously presented (Old) words and in false recognition of associatively related, never presented (Lure) words. In the first experiment, P300 topographies and amplitudes differed between recognized and rejected items of both types (Old vs. New words, falsely recognized Lures vs. correctly rejected Lures), while P300 did not appear to differ in either amplitude or topography between true and false recognition. However, false recognition of Lures produced substantially shorter P3 latencies than did the true recognition of Old words. This latency difference, as well as most of the topography results, were replicated in the second experiment, and discussed within the Fuzzy Trace Theory framework.