Getting ready to remember: the neural correlates of task set during recognition memory.

Event-related potentials (ERPs) were employed to investigate the neural correlates of episodic and semantic task sets. ERPs elicited by cues signalling an upcoming recognition memory test trial showed a sustained positivity relative to those signalling an upcoming semantic test trial, lasting from 500 ms post-cue until the arrival of the test item. However, this effect was present only on the second successive trial on which subjects performed the recognition task. Thus, when episodic vs semantic tasks vary trial-by-trial, the establishment of a recognition memory task-set is not achieved within a single trial. The findings are discussed in relation to the notion of episodic retrieval mode.