Separating the details while maintaining the story: within event episodic integration and across event semantic...

The within > across effect refers to improved memory for information cued from within the same event compared to across events. Although this effect has been demonstrated across various measures of event memory, including temporal order and content-based recall, prior work has primarily relied on binary measures of memory accuracy (i.e., correct/incorrect) and has not evaluated what type of information people recall, such as episodic and semantic details. Further, given that older adults often experience deficits in episodic memory but preserve semantic memory, it remains unclear whether the within > across effect reflects the same underlying processes across memory types and age groups. In two experiments, younger (18-33 years) and older adults (65-85 years) viewed a partial episode of BBC's Sherlock and later completed a cued-recall task. Cue clips were drawn from either the same event (within-event) or an event preceding the target responses (across-event). Participants were asked to recall as many details as possible about the scene following the cue. Experiment 1 presented cues in the narrative order, whereas Experiment 2 randomized cue order to control for schema driven recall. Responses were scored for episodic and semantic detail using a modified version of Levine's autobiographical memory scoring protocol (Levine et al., 2002). The within > across effect was consistently not observed for episodic details except for older adults in Experiment 1. Instead, a reversed effect (within < across) was seen for gist details across both experiments and age groups suggesting a potential mechanism which helps to maintain contiguity in narrative for otherwise temporally separated event information.