minnesrespons

Minnesrespons is a term used in cognitive science and psychology to describe the set of behavioral and neural responses that occur when a memory is retrieved or when a memory cue elicits a response. The phrase translates roughly to "memory response" from Swedish, and it is more common in Swedish-language literature than in English. In practice, minnesrespons encompasses both observable outcomes, such as accuracy and reaction time in memory tasks, and physiological correlates, such as brain activity patterns associated with retrieval.

In research, minnesrespons is studied through tasks that prompt recall or recognition from studied material, followed by measurements of response latency, confidence, and choice. Neurophysiological methods, including electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), are used to characterize the underlying processes, with attention to components and networks linked to retrieval success, effort, encoding strength, and context reinstatement. Typical findings relate retrieval to hippocampal and prefrontal engagement, and to characteristic ERP signals, like old/new effects, which differ with the type of memory (recollection vs familiarity).

The term is routinely employed in Swedish textbooks and articles on memory to describe the interaction between memory strength, cue effectiveness, and the subsequent response. It is less common in English-language psychology, where researchers may refer to memory retrieval, retrieval cues, or retrieval-related neural activity instead. See also memory, recall, recognition, retrieval, hippocampus.