Recognition memory: what it is, characteristics, and how it works

Declarative memory, also often referred to as explicit memory, is one of two classes long-term memory in people (the other being procedural/implicit memory). This memory allows us to consciously evoke memories, being these events or concrete facts. Within the declarative memory we can find, among others, the recognition memory.

In this article we will explain what a memory phenomenon of recognition memory consists of and what is its usefulness in people's daily lives, being a fundamental element at a cognitive level.

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What is recognition memory?

Recognition memory is that type of memory that allows people to be aware that a certain stimulus present in front of them had been found some time ago. In other words, this type of memory is that capacity that people have to identify a determined stimulus, person, object or situation as something that has already been experienced, seen or known with anteriority; recognition memory being a subtype within the global set that makes up people's declarative memory.

Declarative memory, as we had already mentioned, is that type of memory that allows us to consciously evoke memories, which can be these events or specific facts. Therefore, declarative memory is what allows us to access the knowledge of everything that can be declared as data, concepts, facts, events; in other words, it enables us to access all that information that can be consciously remembered and declared.

Recognition memory can be processed in two ways, either through memory/identification (I ran into that person last week at an event) or through familiarity (for example, your face looks familiar to me) of a certain stimulus or situation. In the first case, the identification of that person has required a conscious process of elaboration to be able to recognize it by implying a indirect identification path, while in the second case of direct identification in which no processing was needed aware.

In both cases (recognition memory by recall or by familiarity), a related stimulus must be present that favors the activation of the memory. Once some stimulus has triggered the memory through recognition memory, such a memory can be located at any point along a continuum in memory, so that more related memories can emerge, starting from an inaccurate feeling of remembering correctly what that stimulus or situation experienced sounds like to them, to being able to remember a past experience in great detail.

Some of the aspects that make recognition memory a tool at a fundamental cognitive level, which in many ways facilitates the day-to-day life of people, it is because it allows certain memories that have been stored in long-term memory to be retrieved and used at will, so that thanks to some stimulation recognition memory allows people to retrieve memories that were “buried” in their memory and at the same time examine parts of that information recovered.

What mainly differentiates the information that can be retrieved thanks to recognition memory from other types of long-term memory is that ability to retrieve and examine memories and related information as the person needs it; while other memories of long-term memory, such as knowing how to ride a bicycle, are not recovered in the same way, and it is that although we have spent years without riding a bicycle, if we now ride one we would have no difficulty in starting to pedal without having to think about the mechanics of how it should be done do.

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Examples of everyday life in which recognition memory intervenes

Recognition memory intervenes in numerous situations in our daily lives, such as in those cases in which we We meet someone on the street and we have the strange experience of being almost certain that we know that person. person; however, we are not able to remember who he is, when we met, much less what his name is.

Sometimes, it may be that in a matter of seconds or even longer, the situation in which we had found ourselves in the past comes to mind or even remember her name thanks to a stimulus or related memory that evokes that moment when we met that person, being in these cases in which the recognition memory has correctly played its role to favor the evocation of a memory.

Another quite similar experience in which the recognition memory intervenes is when we are taking a multiple choice exam, where we have to choose the correct answer among several alternatives for each question, and we opt for a specific option because we are quite certain in that its content is the one that most agrees with what is being asked, although we do not remember in which part of the agenda that we have studied it was stated this; however, in this situation we do not need a memory that includes elements of previous related experiences.

When responding to a multiple choice exam, students could answer the questions correctly based on their familiarity with what they have read. That is why recognition memory is a very important tool for students who must take a multiple choice exam, as is often the case in many exams that are carried out at the university stage, when taking the theoretical exam to get the driver's license or even in various oppositions (p. exams for access to health specialist training such as the PIR, MIR, FIR, etc.).

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Theoretical dual-process models of recognition memory

There are a series of theoretical models of double process that have served to investigate about the functioning of the recognition memory, so it is convenient that we explain the most important ones to continuation.

1. The Neuroanatomical Model

Aggleton and Brown's neuroanatomical model of recognition memory postulates that the brain region of the hippocampus is critical for recall, just as structures near the hippocampus are critical for familiarity. This would explain the reason why patients who suffer specific damage to the hippocampus present a selective memory deficit; likewise, patients who have more extensive damage, with the parahippocampal gyrus being affected, present difficulties for both recall and familiarity.

On the other hand, many neuroanatomical models have associated recognition memory with the circuitry that connects the hippocampus with the anterior thalamus through the fornix, in a way that facilitates the process of memory; while the circuit that connects the medial thalamus with the perirhinal cortex (an area adjacent to the hippocampus), facilitates the familiarity process. What's more, those brain projections that start from the thalamus to the frontal lobe encourage this part of the brain to participate in both recognition memory processes (recollection and familiarity).

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2. Atkinson's model

The model of Atkinson and his collaborators is another of the theoretical models that allow us to explain the processes that intervene in the recognition memory of human beings. These researchers in the 1970s proposed a conditional search model in which the evaluated individuals had to respond quickly to the item, based on the familiarity, as long as this process did not produce an ambiguous response, which would lead them to engage in a more extensive search strategy.

This model conceives the process of familiarity in memory as an activation of nodes in a lexical store, so that each of the nodes would represent a specific object or word.

So when the person accesses a node, an activation is propitiated, gradually decreasing as time goes by. Therefore, when a recognition memory test is performed, those nodules that correspond to the previously studied items tend to be, on average, more activated. than those others that correspond to the items that had not been studied and that is why measuring the activation of the nodules allows us to discriminate between two types of items different.

According to this theoretical model of recognition memory, the recall process supports semantic information, while the familiarity process provides memory for perceptual information.

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3. Mandler's model

The model of Mandler and his collaborators maintains that in recognition memory an average decision could come to be based on both the memory search process and the assessment of the familiarity of the item.

Therefore, when an event is studied, there is an increase in familiarity or activation, this being the intra-item integration of the perceptual factors of the item studied. Likewise, the memory supports that search process that sustains the processes of recognition and recovery, thanks to which intraitems information can be retrieved (information that allows an event to be related to its context or also to other events); familiarity, on the other hand, supports decisions made through recognition memory.

For these authors, familiarity and memory are two independent processes that operate in parallel., being familiarity a faster process than recollection. In addition, it is a model that postulates that there is an association between poor performance in recall tasks and suffering from lesions in the medial temporal lobe.