Potto-biographical memory ≈ autobiographical memory: on the retrieval and organisation of fictional- and personal-event memories

The present study was designed to investigate the proposition that personal-event memories and fictional-event memories are retrieved and structured, on the event level, in much the same way. We conducted three experiments using established methods for studying Autobiographical Memory (AM). Experiments 1 and 2 employed a timed word-cueing task with retrieval-strategy reports. All three experiments used an event-cueing task, collecting RTs, strategy reports, and event-pair relation endorsements. Experiment 1 compared AM with those extracted from a fictional source – in this case, the Harry Potter (HP) series. Experiments 2 and 3 focused exclusively on Potto-biographical memory. In Experiment 2, cue type (neutral vs. HP-specific) was manipulated and in Experiment 3, cue importance (important vs. unimportant) was manipulated. In general, HP and AM performance was similar. Direct retrieval was common when participants responded to word cues (ranging from 52% to 91% across conditions and experiments) and event cues (70% to 84%) and consistently faster than generative retrieval. Event cues often elicited cluster mates (50% to 75%). These results suggest shared core processes across event types that: (a) give rise to memorable event representations, (b) relate noteworthy representations to one another, and (c) enable people to access these representations directly when presented with relevant cues.