Neural correlates of temporal context discrimination.

This study investigated event-related potential (ERP) effects when judgments about temporal context (recency judgments) required the retrieval of different amount of information. Subjects studied two consecutively presented word lists and at test made recency judgments to word pairs composed of two previously studied words, one drawn from each list ('Old + Old different' pairs), both drawn from the same list ('Old + Old same' pairs), or two unstudied words ('New + New' pairs). A frontopolar old/new effect was elicited by correct recency judgments which did not differ between both 'Old + Old' pairs.