1. Introduction Autobiographical Fluency Task Question 2: Does the way a memory is accessed affect how it is remembered? Investigating the structure of Autobiographical Memory (AM): The impact of spatial and event cues on an AM Fluency Task S. Chu, S. Sheldon Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada Acknowledgements: We thank Wendy Wang and Julia Donahue for their help with memory scoring References Condition EVENT THEMESPATIAL BROADAccomplishments Social Outings Travelling Romantic Experiences Concert Venue Mall Park Market SPECIFICWork/School Tasks Getting or Giving a Gift Memorable Meals Holiday Celebrations Waiting Room Coffee Shop Office Classroom Autobiographical memory (AM), or the ability to recall past personal events, is a fundamental cognitive process implicated in everyday functions ranging from remembering and planning, to problem solving and learning 1. When an AM is retrieved, related or overlapping events are recalled so that the memory can be integrated into relational schemas or knowledge structures 1. The nature of these knowledge structure is unclear. In the current study, we tested whether AM knowledge structure was based upon event similarity or scene-similarity to determine whether our personal, episodic memory store was accessed based on a general function of coherence or correspondence 2. We also determine how accessing AM via event or scene cues during retrieval subsequently affected how these memories were recalled. Sample: 28 students from McGill University Age: 18-35; 22 Females and 6 Males Key Analysis 1.How are memories organized and subsequently retrieved? 2.Does the way a memory is accessed affect how it is remembered? Participants Materials Methods Verbal Fluency Task (60s per task) Phonemic: Subjects list as many words as possible that start with same letter Category: Subjects list as many animals as possible Episodic Elements 1)Conway, M. A., Singer, J. A. & Tagini, A. (2004) The Self and Autobiographical Memory: Correspondence and Coherence. Social Cognition, 22(5), 491-529. 2)Harris, C. B., O'Connor, A. R., & Sutton, J. (May 01, 2015). Cue generation and memory construction in direct and generative autobiographical memory retrieval. Consciousness and Cognition, 33, 204-216. 3)Reiser, B. J., Black, J. B., & Abelson, R. P. (1985). Knowledge structures in the organization and retrieval of autobiographical memories. Cognitive psychology, 17(1), 89-137. Episodic Memory Accomplishments Holiday Celebrations Romantic Experiences Event Themes High School Graduation Receiving an A on a paper Winning a soccer game Working first job Events Weather Location Smells Sights Outfit Sounds Who was present Question 1: How are memories organized and subsequently retrieved? Event cues access memories from the “Event Themes” category. In contrast, spatial cues access memories from the “Episodic Elements” category. Average number of years of education: 14 Cue  Generate as many memories as possible 90s Date Scale of 1-6 Vividness Scale of 1-5 3 mins Part 1 Part 2 Describe the first and last memories for each cue type in detail Event Theme Spatial Age 3.063.13 Vividness 3.923.85 Average Age and Vividness by Condition Results The number of memories generated for event cues is significantly greater for event cues compared to spatial cues, suggesting that when we access memories by an event theme, we can remember more instances pertaining to that theme In contrast, the reaction time to generate a memory suggests a trend in which spatial cues are faster. This suggests that when given a location, we access a memory directly from the pool of episodic elements. This enables us to recall an instance faster, but we may generate less instances pertaining to that node Autobiographical Interview A method used to quantify the elements in a recounted episodic memory Internal Details External Details Details related to the event. More details here indicate a richer episodic memory Perceptual Emotion/Thought Place Time Factual details Details not directly related to the event Semantic Repetition Other Results Conclusions Average age and vividness of the memory differed non-significantly, suggesting that the memories differed only on the number of memories and the time required to access them The first and last memories differed significantly for vividness but not for age, suggesting that memories that are activated less strongly by the same cue are recalled less vividly, but may not differ in age On average, first memories have more Internal details compared to last memories. This pattern does not hold true for external memories. This suggests that the first memory a cue elicits draws on more episodic details, contributing to its increased vividness Analysis of the percent of internal details indicates a trend towards First-Spatial memories having a higher percentage of internal details compared to First-Event memories. This provides support for the model that directly cueing memories based on “Episodic Elements” will lead to increased activation of similar episodic elements within that level of the AM system. This pattern no longer holds true for the last memories, which may be more variable in nature. Conclusions (t(64)=-1.487, p =.04) F(1,31) =0.946, p = 0.338 F(1,12.1) =.001, p <.05