Neuroimaging studies of episodic memory retrieval have revealed activations in the human
frontal, parietal, and medial-temporal lobes that are associated with memory strength. However, it
remains unclear whether these brain responses are veritable signals of memory strength or are
instead regulated by concomitant subcomponents of retrieval such as retrieval effort or mental
search. This study used event-related fMRI during cued recall of previously memorized word-pair
associates to dissociate brain responses modulated by memory search from those modulated by the
strength of a recalled memory.