Recognition memory

Recognition memory is a subcategory of declarative memory Essentially, it is the ability to correctly remember something that has been encountered before. It can be thought of as a matching process, comparing content in the environment with the content stored in memory. Recognition occurs if the environmental content (i.e. the stimulus) matches the memory content. (If there is a mismatch then recognition does not occur.)

Recognition memory can be subdivided into two components: recollection and familiarity, sometimes referred to as "remembering" and "knowing", respectively. Recollection involves remembering in detail a particular stimulus, including the context in which it was previously experienced. In contrast, familiarity only requires knowledge of the stimulus’s features – the basic realization that one has encountered the stimulus before. Thus, the fundamental distinction between the two processes is that recollection is context dependent whereas familiarity is context-independent. Another distinction is that familiarity is generally an unconscious or automatic process whereas recollection is conscious and effortful.

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