Recognition is the ability to identify previously encountered information when it is presented again. Multiple-choice tests rely on recognition. So does the feeling of familiarity when you see a face in a crowd and know you have met the person before, even if the name escapes you.

Because the correct item is supplied among distractors, recognition is generally easier than unaided recall. The difference is large enough that people often recognize material they cannot produce spontaneously. Dual-process theories propose that recognition can be based either on a vivid recollection of the original episode or on a more automatic feeling of familiarity.

False recognition occurs when a new item feels familiar because it shares features with studied material. The Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm produces high rates of false recognition for critical lures that were never presented. Such errors reveal that recognition is not a pure readout of stored traces.

• Identification of previously learned material
• Easier than free recall
• Supported by recollection or familiarity
• Vulnerable to false alarms

The measure remains central in both laboratory memory research and everyday situations such as eyewitness identification.