The present study was undertaken in order to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of associative memory encoding. Both nonexperimental (i.e., baseline) and experimental methods were used to study variations in associative memory encoding levels, using the method of loci, on high frequency neural activity (HFA) (measured using EEG gamma activity) and low frequency neural activity (LFA) (measured using EEG theta activity). It was hypothesized that successful memory encoding would lead to a decrease in LFA and an increase in HFA. The baseline methods found a strong correlation between memory encoding and HFA, but not with LFA. Ultimately, the present experimental results did not support these hypotheses. These results are contrary to other studies, though the present study is limited in both the number of participants and number of trials. It is suggested that more research is necessary in order to determine reliability.
