M.E. Smith (1993) obtained event-related brain
potentials (ERPs) from subjects performing a recognition
memory task using “remember” (R) and “know”
(K) judgments, and reported observing in the ERP a
“neurophysiological manifestation of recollective
experience” as a difference between the positive
waveforms elicited by stimuli that yielded R and K judgments.
We replicated his experiment and examined the componential
structure of the R>K effect in two ways. First, we found
that correction for P300 latency jitter eliminated the effect
reported by Smith. Second, the application of principal component
analysis indicated that the positive waveform elicited by the
words in the test list was a P300. These analyses do not
support the hypothesis that there is a new component (the
“memory-evoked shift”) that is a specific
manifestation of recollection.