Test modality affects source monitoring and event-related potentials

P. ANDREW LEYNES
The College of New Jersey

MARTIN L. BINK
University of North Texas

RICHARD L. MARSH and JOSEPH D. ALLEN
University of Georgia

J. CHRISTOPHER MAY
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition

Two experiments investigated the effect of test modality (visual or auditory) on source memory and event-related potentials (ERPs). Test modality influenced source monitoring such that source memory was better when the source and test modalities were congruent. Test modality had less of an influence when alternative information (i.e., cognitive operations) could be used to inform source judgments in Experiment 2. Test modality also affected ERP activity. Variation in parietal ERPs suggested that this activity reflects activation of sensory information, which can be attenuated when the sensory information is misleading. Changes in frontal ERPs support the hypothesis that frontal systems are used to evaluate source-specifying information present in the memory trace.