Prototypes Act As Memory Attractors: Concept-Driven Familiarity Versus Ambiguous Integration

We used an EEG recognition-memory task with images to explore how prototypicality biases memory. Participants encoded prototype images and ambiguous blends of two categories. Prototypes were often judged old, increasing false alarms; blends were more often rejected, reducing false memories but hindering recognition of studied items, with distinct neural dynamics.