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Scalp-recorded ERPs were employed in four experiments to explore the strategic control of recollection in a recognition exclusion task. For each experiment, the study phase comprised two study lists. The test required the endorsement of 'targets' from study list 2 and the rejection of 'non-targets' from study list 1 and 'new' items. Experiments 1-3 showed that the ERP signature for recollection, the 'left parietal old/new effect', was elicited by correctly rejected non-targets only when memory for targets was poor (cf. Herron & Rugg, 2003a). These findings support the proposal that, when there is good memory for targets, the adoption of a 'retrieval orientation' allows test cues to selectively probe memory for target source information. However, when target and non-target study tasks were identical (Experiment 4), left parietal effects were additionally found for non-targets despite high target accuracy. This indicates that the degree of similarity between target and non-target study contexts moderates the extent to which it is possible to focus retrieval attempts exclusively on target memories. However, when target and non-target study contexts were partially distinct (Experiment 4), a late posterior negativity was seen to attenuate an emerging left parietal effect for non-targets suggesting that non-target recollection was not completely precluded in this condition. Furthermore, the magnitude of the late posterior negativity was observed to correlate with the amount of contextual information associated with each item type that was irrelevant to the task demands. It was proposed that this negativity reflects processes acting upon a mismatch between the targeted memory representation and the contextual details that are actually retrieved. When such mismatches occur, an additional strategic control process, 'attentional suppression', may provide an account of how target memories can be successfully isolated from among competing alternatives.

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The production of false alarms in recognition memory tests has long been of interest to memory researchers. A recent paradigm devised to demonstrate false recognition was the "hension" effect paradigm (Whittlesea & Williams, 1998), where the false alarm (FA) rate for regular nonwords (e.g., HENSION) was found to exceed that for natural words (e.g., CURTAIN) and for irregular nonwords (e.g., STOFWUS). The hension effect has been cited as empirical evidence for the discrepancyattribution hypothesis, which assumes that the high FA rate for regular nonwords arose because the processing of these fluent, yet meaningless items is discrepant. Discrepancy in tum prompts fluency misattribution (i.e., false alarms) to occur. An objective ofthis thesis was to examine the suitability of the discrepancyattribution hypothesis in explaining the hension effect. In Experiments 1 - 4, the sense of discrepancy associated with the hension effect materials was manipulated. These experiments found that discrepancy did not appear to underlie false recognition. As an alternative explanation for the hension effect, it was argued that recognition judgments are dependent on fluency-based processes for regular and irregular nonwords. However, the low FA rate observed for natural words was due to their high memorability levels (as substantiated by ratings data in Experiment 5), which allowed participants to correctly reject these items when they acted as lures. Compelling evidence for the involvement of a memorability-based, metacognitive strategy in lure rejection came from the finding of a FA rate decrease for items whose memorability levels have been experimentally enhanced (Experiments 7 - 8). These results were interpreted from the perspective oftwo signal-detection models, one based on criterion shifts and one based on distribution shifts (a multi-process model). Support for the multi-process model was found in Experiments 9 - 10, where it was demonstrated that lure groups of differing intrinsic (item-based) and extrinsic (experimentally-manipulated) memorability levels are located on distinctly separate points on a hypothetical strength-of-evidence scale.

in order to explore the cognitive processes underlying false and veridical recognition memory in young and old adults, a new false memory task was developed. Pictorial representations of items belonging to categories such as kitchen utensils and musical instruments were collated. A large scale validation allowed non-presented "critical distractors" (CDs) to be grouped into high, medium or low structural similarity with respect to the other items in their category.

The main aim of this thesis was to increase understanding of the decision processes and strategies underlying line-up identifications in child and adult eyewitness. In the first experiment, 8- to 10-year-olds witnessed a staged-crime event then identified the target from a sequential, fast elimination or slow elimination line-ups. Measures of children's pre-decision and post-decision confidence were also obtained. Correct identifications of the target were significantly higher with the fast elimination line-up. A main effect of line-up type was not found in target-absent conditions. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed and some limitations of the experiment are highlighted. Experiment 2 examined the identification accuracy of 5- to 6-year-olds, 9- to 10-year-olds and adults in target-present and target-absent simultaneous, sequential and fast elimination line-ups. Measures of children's and adults pre-decision and post-decision confidence were also obtained. Age related differences in identification accuracy were found such that 5- to 6-year-olds were less likely than 9- to 10-year-olds or adults to make a correct line-up rejection. However, 9- to 10-year-olds' correct rejections were equivalent to adults'. Both groups of children were less likely than adults to correctly identify the target with a sequential line-up. Experiment 3 aimed to establish whether seeing the line-up members as moving images would influence children's discrimination of line-up members. Identification accuracy of 5- to 6-year-olds, 9- to 10-year-olds and adults was examined across Target-absent conditions of simultaneous line-up and fast elimination line-ups. The results from this experiment were found to be comparable to those of Experiment 2 such that 9- to 10-year-olds' correct rejections were equivalent to adults.

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