Logo image
Agency enhances temporal order memory in an interactive exploration game
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Agency enhances temporal order memory in an interactive exploration game

Troy M. Houser, Alexa Tompary and Vishnu P. Murty
Psychonomic bulletin & review, v 29(6), pp 2219-2228
01 Dec 2022
PMID: 35869412
url
https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02152-7View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)Maybe Open Access (Publisher Bronze) Open

Abstract

Psychology Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Mathematical Social Sciences
Agency has been shown to facilitate episodic memory. However, most paradigms use simple list-learning tasks, which preclude the ability to characterize more associative forms of memory, such as binding of items into spatial and temporal context. Across two studies, we characterize the role of agency on associative memory formation. We delineate agentive from passive memory encoding by allowing agency participants to play an online text-based game meant to simulate free exploration of objects in different rooms and yoking each passive participant's trajectory to an agentive participant, thus equating their exposure to the stimuli. To assess memory differences, we gathered three measures: item descriptions, spatial location, and temporal order. While memory for spatial location and item features did not differ between groups, there was a marked enhancement of temporal order memory in the agentive group across two independent samples. These findings support a model of self-directed learning, in which agency facilitates the binding of items into a temporal context, which allows for the sequential binding of information into continuous narratives.

Metrics

12 Record Views
6 citations in Scopus

Details

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Psychology, Experimental
Psychology, Mathematical
Logo image