There is disagreement in the literature as to whether episodic memory maintains an inherent temporal organisation, that is, whether learned items are necessarily organised along some temporal dimension or whether temporal organisation is a task-specific occurrence. The current series of experiments explored this issue. In Experiment 1, we tested whether temporal or spatial contiguity was present in an incidental encoding task where either strategy (but not both together) could be employed at test. In Experiment 2, we attempted to facilitate the use of a spatial retrieval strategy at test by asking participants to recall the location where target items had been displayed at study, after incidental encoding. Experiment 3 explored the role of study-test congruency by informing participants at encoding that they would be tested on either their memory for the temporal sequence or spatial locations, and then testing both at retrieval. Finally, Experiment 4 employed a masking task at encoding to ensure participants could not predict the true nature of the task, despite it being incidental, and a surprise free recall task. Predominantly, participants displayed recall performance consistent with temporal contiguity, although there was evidence for spatial contiguity under certain conditions. These results are consistent with the notion that episodic memory has a stable and predictable temporal organisation.

关于情节记忆是否保持固有的时间组织，即所学项目是否必须沿着某个时间维度组织，或者时间组织是否是特定于任务的事件，文献中存在分歧。目前的一系列实验探讨了这个问题。在实验 1 中，我们测试了偶然编码任务中是否存在时间或空间连续性，其中任一策略（但不能同时使用）可以在测试中使用。在实验 2 中，我们试图通过要求参与者在偶然编码后回忆在研究中显示目标项目的位置来促进空间检索策略的使​​用。实验 3 通过在编码时告知参与者他们将测试他们对时间序列或空间位置的记忆，然后在检索时测试两者，从而探索了学习-测试一致性的作用。最后，实验 4 在编码时采用了掩蔽任务，以确保参与者无法预测任务的真实性质，尽管它是偶然的，并且是一项无意外回忆任务。主要是，参与者表现出与时间连续性一致的回忆表现，尽管在某些条件下有空间连续性的证据。这些结果与情景记忆具有稳定和可预测的时间组织的概念一致。实验 4 在编码时采用了掩蔽任务，以确保参与者无法预测任务的真实性质，尽管它是偶然的，并且是一项无意外回忆任务。主要是，参与者表现出与时间连续性一致的回忆表现，尽管在某些条件下有空间连续性的证据。这些结果与情景记忆具有稳定和可预测的时间组织的概念一致。实验 4 在编码时采用了掩蔽任务，以确保参与者无法预测任务的真实性质，尽管它是偶然的，并且是一项无意外回忆任务。主要是，参与者表现出与时间连续性一致的回忆表现，尽管在某些条件下有空间连续性的证据。这些结果与情景记忆具有稳定和可预测的时间组织的概念一致。