Schedule of Events | Symposia

Repetition learning produces stronger and faster recollection during recognition

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 5:00 – 7:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Chong Zhao¹ (chongzhao@uchicago.edu), Edward K. Vogel¹; ¹University of Chicago

When people repeatedly study materials for a test, their memories often feel stronger and easier to recall. However, the neural mechanisms underlying repetition learning are not well understood. To explore this, we had participants study lists of 32 real-world objects five times. After each study exposure, we gave them a recognition memory test while we recorded their brain activity using EEG. We found that brain signals related to recollection (the parietal old-new effect) became stronger and faster with more repetitions. However, signals related to familiarity (FN400) showed no such changes after the first repetition. Behaviorally, participants performed exceptionally well, reaching 98% accuracy after five repetitions, which is similar to how people perform in simple working memory tasks involving just one item. To test whether these well-learned long-term memories resembled working memory in the brain, we trained a computer model to distinguish between patterns for working memory (a single-item list) and long-term memory (a full list of 32 items). Even after repeated testing, the brain patterns for long-term memory still looked more like initial long-term memory than working memory. Our findings show that repetition boosts memory strength by enhancing recollection signals in the brain, while familiarity remains unchanged. Despite similarities in performance, the brain’s representation of these well-practiced long-term memories stays distinct from working memory.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic