Improved spontaneous object recognition following spaced preexposure trials: evidence for an associative account of recognition memory.

Rodents' biased exploration of a novel object over a familiar object is taken as an indication of recognition memory. According to a general associative model of memory, the biased exploration is a consequence of reduced processing of the familiar object. A component of the reduction of stimulus processing is the result of the operation of Arena → Object associations that are best formed during widely spaced presentations of the stimulus. Results of extant experiments support this prediction but so, too, do accounts based on the effects of handling cues. We report an experiment in which handling cues are matched across stimulus-spacing treatments but that retain improved recognition memory with widely spaced stimulus presentation.