Schedule of Events | Symposia

The reasons we remember: Characterizing the impact of social and accuracy goals on the way complex events are encoded

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 5:00 – 7:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Christiane Marie Canillo¹ (christianecan@gmail.com), Kailin Summers¹, Can Fenerci¹, Signy Sheldon¹; ¹McGill University

Events from our lives are complex, containing a variety of details to attend to and encode into memory. The details that are included in event memories are thought to depend on the reason for which we are forming that memory. Two main functions of event memory are to fulfill social goals, which are thought to rely on forming more conceptual, gist-like memories, and directive goals, which are thought to rely on forming accurate, specific recollections. Here we tested the impact of these two goals on the way event memories are encoded. In a between-subject behavioural experiment, young participants encoded a short movie clip (“Bang! You’re Dead”) with a social goal (to entertain friends) or an accuracy goal (describe exactly what occurred) in mind. After a short delay, both groups freely recalled the movie clip in as much detail as possible. The recollections were scored using natural language processing measures. After a 24-hour delay, the groups completed two recognition memory tests, one that probed for the narrative content and another that probed for the perceptual details of the encoded event. Results from the natural language processing analysis indicate that different content was recalled after encoding with a social or accuracy goal in mind. The recognition memory test results revealed that the social goal group had more gist-based memory of the movie clip than the accuracy goal group. These findings provide insight into how two functions of retrieval shift the details that are prioritized when encoding complex events.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic