Greater Neural Pattern Similarity Across Repetitions Is Associated with Better Memory

One, Two, Three, Remember Me When a stimulus (such as a word or a face) is presented for the second, third, or fourth time, do the neural representations differ? And, if they do, are multiply represented stimuli remembered better? These questions and related ones have fascinated psychologists for decades, but only recently has it become feasible to begin tackling them using neuroimaging. Xue et al. (p. 97 , published online 9 September) provide evidence that the greater the similarity in the patterns of neural activity during encoding of the item, the greater the likelihood that the item will be remembered.