ABSTRACT
Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) are voltage fluctuations recorded on the scalp that are time locked to stimulus, response, and/or cognitive events, and reflect the synchronous changes in the polarisation of cell membranes that produce field potentials in an aggregation of neurons. The composite-trace model was initially designed to address the issue of how people episodically associate, store, and retrieve mental events. It incorporates, as a central construct, the idea that the results of many associations or events are stored by being added or superimposed in a composite memory trace. The Von Restorff paradigm is an experimental situation in which a number of events, all of which are in some way similar, are presented to subjects for later recollection. The P300 is elicited by the oddball item in the Von Restorff paradigm. Markers such as feeling-of-knowing judgements, release from proactive inhibition, Von Restorff effects, and ERPs known as the P300 characterise the monitoring/control system.
