Changes in the temporal organization of autobiographical memories.

The temporal organization of autobiographical memories was examined through the event-cueing technique. Participants were presented a word indicating a life-time period and asked to recall autobiographical events sequentially. Temporal relations between recalled events were analyzed. Analysis suggested that recent autobiographical memories are organized temporally. As time passes, however, organization becomes ambiguous, and old autobiographical memories can evoke temporally distant memories sharing the person, life theme, or other distinctive features.