Temporal-order iconicity bias in narrative event understanding and memory

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Narrative Comprehension
• Memory Studies

Background:

• Narratives often present events out of chronological order, challenging comprehension.
• The iconicity assumption suggests readers default to assuming narrated order equals chronological order.
• The impact of this assumption on event chronology inference and memory recall remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how the iconicity assumption influences event chronology judgments and memory.
• To determine if the narrated order or chronological order exerts a stronger bias on recall.
• To explore the role of prior beliefs in narrative event understanding.

Main Methods:

• Utilized video narratives with dissociated narrated and chronological event orders.
• Conducted two experiments manipulating the presentation of event order during encoding.
• Employed a descriptive Bayesian framework for bias interpretation.

Main Results:

• Experiment 1: Narrated order biased chronological judgments, but not vice versa.
• Experiment 2: When chronological order was provided, it biased memory of narrated order, not chronological judgments.
• Findings suggest distinct biases on event perception versus memory recall.

Conclusions:

• The iconicity assumption acts as a prior belief influencing event understanding and memory.
• Narrated order primarily biases chronological inference, while chronological order can bias memory recall.
• This research offers a nuanced view of how narrative structure impacts cognitive processing.