Fig. 2.

Quantitative and qualitative subsequent memory effects. In the subsequent memory paradigm, subjects encountered a list of concrete nouns on colored backgrounds during encoding and were asked to imagine the referent of each noun in the presented color and to determine if this combination is likely found in the real world (i.e. is plausible or not; A). Subjects were later asked to free recall as many words as possible, and then their recognition memory for the words and the associated colors was assessed (B). The hippocampus and ventrolateral prefronal cortex exhibited a quantitative effect across memory conditions (item recognition, associative recognition, and free recall; C), suggesting that the process supported by those regions is important for both associative binding that supports later recognition memory as well as for later free recall. By contrast, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex exhibited a qualitative difference between associative recognition and free recall (D), suggesting that the computations carried out in these brain regions are differentially important for free recall and do not contribute to the ability to later recognize associated episodic details (Staresina & Davachi, 2006).