When reflecting on the past, some of our strongest memories are for experiences that took us by surprise. Extensive research has backed this intuition that we are more likely to remember surprising moments than mundane ones. But what about the moments leading up to the surprise? Are we more likely to remember those as well? While surprise is a well-established modulator of memory, it is unknown whether memory for the entire event will be enhanced, or only for the surprising occurrence itself. We developed a novel paradigm utilising stop-motion films, depicting of a sequence of narrative events, in which specific occurrences could be replaced with surprising ones, while keeping the rest of the film unaltered. Using this design, we tested whether surprise exerts retroactive effects on memory, and specifically whether any potential effect would be confined to elements in the same event as the surprising occurrence. In a large cohort of participants (n = 340), we found strong evidence that surprise did not retroactively modulate memory, neither when participants were tested immediately after study nor when they were tested 24 hours later. We suggest two possible accounts for these findings: (1) that the components of an event are encoded as independent episodic elements (not as a cohesive unit), or (2) that surprise segments experience, sectioning off the preceding elements as a separate event.

回顾过去时，我们最强烈的一些记忆是那些让我们大吃一惊的经历。广泛的研究支持这种直觉，即我们更容易记住令人惊讶的时刻而不是平凡的时刻。但是导致惊喜的时刻呢？我们是否也更有可能记住这些？虽然惊喜是一种公认​​的记忆调节剂，但尚不清楚整个事件的记忆是否会得到增强，或者只是对令人惊讶的事件本身的记忆。我们利用定格电影开发了一种新颖的范例，描绘了一系列叙事事件，其中特定的事件可以用令人惊讶的事件代替，同时保持电影的其余部分不变。使用这种设计，我们测试了惊喜是否会对记忆产生追溯影响，尤其是任何潜在影响是否仅限于与意外发生相同的事件中的元素。在一大群参与者中（n = 340），我们发现强有力的证据表明，无论是在研究后立即对参与者进行测试还是在 24 小时后对参与者进行测试时，惊喜都不会追溯调节记忆。我们对这些发现提出了两种可能的解释：（1）事件的组成部分被编码为独立的情节元素（而不是作为一个内聚单元），或（2）令人惊讶的片段经历，将前面的元素分割为一个单独的事件.