recognition memory
the ability to identify information as having been encountered previously. For example, a few days after taking a foreign language vocabulary test, a student might recognize one of the test words on a homework assignment yet be unable to recall its meaning. Recognition memory pertains only to declarative knowledge—factual material that is deliberately and consciously accessed—rather than to nondeclarative knowledge or other implicitly known information. Although the hippocampus conventionally is associated with memory, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have suggested that the parietal cortex may play a role in recognition memory. Activity in the lateral parietal cortex is correlated with the subjective impression that an item is old; it also increases with the amount of information retrieved. Existing models of recognition view the assessment of old–new similarity as a core process, and dual process theories in particular posit that recognition is driven by a fast, automatic response based on stimulus familiarity and a slower, deliberative recollection that involves episodic components, such as where and when the stimulus was seen. Interestingly, individuals may “recognize” stimuli they in fact have never experienced before, as in false memories and other phenomena.