Other studies have examined the oscillatory correlates of associative memory, but their contrasts did not specifically control for non-associative contributions to memory success. For example, researchers assessed power differences between successful and unsuccessful word encoding in a verbal paired-associates paradigm, which could be considered a measure of associative memory [45]. However, the contrast employed in that study compared encoding related activity for successful retrievals against unsuccessful retrievals. As such, this study’s contrast is more akin to a classic SME, in that any neural processes which may result in a recollection failure -- associative or not -- are reflected in statistical power maps (see “Why is the SME not a test of associative memory?”).
