Event boundaries in perception affect memory encoding and updating.

Full Abstract

Memory for naturalistic events over short delays is important for visual scene processing, reading comprehension, and social interaction. The research presented here examined relations between how an ongoing activity is perceptually segmented into events and how those events are remembered a few seconds later. In several studies, participants watched movie clips that presented objects in the context of goal-directed activities. Five seconds after an object was presented, the clip paused for a recognition test. Performance on the recognition test depended on the occurrence of perceptual event boundaries. Objects that were present when an event boundary occurred were better recognized than other objects, suggesting that event boundaries structure the contents of memory. This effect was strongest when an object's type was tested but was also observed for objects' perceptual features. Memory also depended on whether an event boundary occurred between presentation and test; this variable produced complex interactive effects that suggested that the contents of memory are updated at event boundaries. These data indicate that perceptual event boundaries have immediate consequences for what, when, and how easily information can be remembered. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Author information

Author/s: Swallow, Khena M (KM); Zacks, Jeffrey M (JM); Abrams, Richard A (RA);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington University in St. Louis, USA. swall011(-atsign-)umn.edu

Grants: R01 MH070674 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. General (J Exp Psychol Gen), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-May; vol 138 (issue 2) : pp 236-57

Dates: Created 2009/04/28; Completed 2009/06/26;

PMID: 19397382, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 6/26/2009, IMS Date: 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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