The P3 brain potential indexes prediction-error magnitude that predicts consolidated-schema updating — but it does not mark a "tuning vs restructuring" distinction

Richter's EEG study establishes a single, continuous, magnitude relationship: prediction-error (PE) size at encoding — indexed by the P3 event-related potential — predicts how much a consolidated long-term memory schema updates after a 24-hour delay, with the effect concentrated when the material is schema-inconsistent. In her own abstract: "PEs predicted the updating of a schema after a 24-hour delay, especially when participants were faced with inconsistent compared to consistent material," and "the P3 amplitude tracked both the PE at the time of learning as well as the updating of the memory schema in the inconsistent condition." Her framing: "similar neural mechanisms underlie the updating of consolidated long-term memory schemas and short-term belief structures."

The premise correction the promotion carries. The harvested topic asked whether this paper marks P3 as distinguishing "schema tuning" from "schema restructuring." It does not — that binary appears nowhere in the abstract or in two independent secondary summaries. "Tuning/restructuring" belongs to the separate Rumelhart-Norman taxonomy (claim-schema-change-four-mode-taxonomy), four decades older and EEG-free. This is the same artifact the vault caught in the Linnainmaa-"Annales" venue error: a real citation fused to a plausible-but-unsourced elaboration upstream. P3 measures PE magnitude, not a mode of change.

Why the vault keeps it: PE-as-update-trigger is the mechanism under claim-schema-change-four-mode-taxonomy ("each triggered by prediction error") and the neural echo of the vault's own contradiction discipline — inconsistent input is what drives schema change (claim-cognitive-conflict-prerequisite-for-restructuring). The consistent/inconsistent asymmetry is the same shape as question-consolidation-pass-vs-revisit-protocol's reconciliation problem. Entity candidate flagged not decided: F. R. Richter.