A quest around preserved familiarity in memory-impaired populations

Single case assessments of patients with selective hippocampal damage, such as patient YR studied by Andrew Mayes and colleagues in the early 2000’s, contributed to shaping dual-process views of recognition memory. Moreover, these experiments relied on the idea that, in case of severe impairment of recollection, familiarity can support recognition memory performance in specific circumstances. In collaboration with Andrew Mayes and Daniela Montaldi, my early-career research focused on memory conditions in which performance can rely efficiently on familiarity only. Using speeded responding or familiarity-only decisions, we assessed the contribution of familiarity in forced-choice versus yes/no tasks and in within- and between-domain associative recognition memory tasks. Following this initial work, I conducted experiments in heathy aging which is characterized by reduced recollection and spared familiarity. These studies investigated variables that could promote the efficient use of familiarity to attenuate age-related differences in memory performance. Notably, unitization strategies and use of prior knowledge to encode pairs can foster familiarity-based associative memory in older participants. In addition to his inspiring theoretical influence, Andrew Mayes’ kind support was determinant in my research path.