An event-related potential study of retroactive interference in memory.

Neural activity associated with overcoming retroactive interference in episodic memory was investigated with event-related brain potentials (ERPs). ERPs were recorded during a combined recognition/associative recall memory test in which subjects were required to identify previous studied words and recall their study associates. A retroactive interference condition (A-B, A-C, A-?) was compared with two control conditions A-B, C-D, A-? and A-B, A-B, A-?). No ERP effect specific to the interference condition was identified. ERPs to all three classes of old word differed however from those to new words. These differences involved two effects, one with a left parietal maximum that has been described before, and a left frontal effect of earlier onset which has not been reported previously. This latter effect may indicate a role for the left prefrontal cortex in associative retrieval.