Long-Term Memory Specificity Depends on Inhibition of Distantly Related Items

Participants studied abstract shapes. At test, they responded “old–remember”, “old–know”, “new–related” or “new–unrelated” to old, variably related, and new shapes. Distantly related and new item “new–related” response rates were equivalent, which suggests long-term memory specificity depends on inhibition of distantly related items rather than recall-to-reject.