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Enhanced semantic encoding underlies the memory benefit of the pretesting effect

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Zsuzsanna Nemecz¹ (), Karl-Heinz Bäuml¹; ¹University Regensburg, Germany

Tests can enhance long-term memory even when administered before initial study—a phenomenon known as the pretesting effect. Competing accounts attribute this effect to semantic, attentional, or episodic processes, but its underlying neurocognitive mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, 35 participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while studying and later recalling weakly associated word pairs. On half of the study trials, participants were prompted to covertly generate a plausible target word based on a cue (e.g., handyman – ?) before viewing the intact pair (e.g., handyman – hammer), whereas on the other half of study trials, there was no prior target word generation. Replicating prior behavioral findings, participants recalled more targets in the pretest condition compared to the study-only condition. Subsequent memory analyses revealed that successful encoding of pretested word pairs, relative to study-only pairs, was associated with greater activation in semantic and language-related regions, including the bilateral temporal pole, middle temporal gyrus, angular gyrus, and insula. Enhanced activation was also observed in prefrontal regions, comprising the orbitofrontal cortex, frontopolar cortex, and middle frontal gyrus. Moreover, across participants, the behavioral advantage for pretested over study-only pairs was positively correlated with the magnitude of activity differences between the two conditions in clusters located in the temporal pole, insula, frontopolar cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex. Together, these findings provide first neuroimaging evidence in support of the semantic account of the pretesting effect, and they suggest that enhanced semantic encoding is facilitated by prefrontal functions.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic