  We analyse the emergence of Kovacs-like memory effects in athermal systems
within the linear response regime. This is done by starting from both the
master equation for the probability distribution and the equations for the
physically relevant moments. The general results are applied to a general class
of models with conserved momentum and non-conserved energy. Our theoretical
predictions, obtained within the first Sonine approximation, show an excellent
agreement with the numerical results.
