Intrusions in episodic memory: reconsolidation or interference?

Abstract

It would be profoundly important if reconsolidation research in animals and other memory domains generalized to human episodic memory. A 3-d-list-discrimination procedure, based on free recall of objects, with a contextual reminder cue (the testing room), has been thought to demonstrate reconsolidation of human episodic memory (as noted in a previous study). Our goal was to replicate the central result, a high intrusion rate during recall of the target list, and evaluate the reconsolidation account relative to an alternative account, based on state-dependent learning and interference. First, replication was not straightforward (Experiment 1). Second, using a very unique, highly salient context (Experiment 2), the method produced a qualitative replication, but it was small in magnitude. A critical assumption of the reconsolidation account, that the target list is reactivated and destabilized during re-exposure to the study context, was not supported (Experiment 3). Although troubling for the reconsolidation account, the findings can be easily accommodated by an alternative account that does not assume additional neurobiological processes underlying the destabilization of consolidated memories, instead explaining intrusion rates simply in terms of well-established cognitive effects, such as item-to-context binding and interference during retrieval.