title: Bridging the gap: transitive associations between items presented in similar temporal contexts.
abstract: In episodic memory tasks, associations are formed between items presented close together in time. The temporal context model (TCM) hypothesizes that this contiguity effect is a consequence of shared temporal context rather than temporal proximity per se. Using double-function lists of paired associates (e.g., A-B, B-C) presented in a random order, the authors examined associations between items that were not presented close together in time but that were presented in similar temporal contexts. After learning, across-pair associations fell off with distance in the list, as if subjects had integrated the pairs into a coherent memory structure. Within-pair associations (e.g., A-B) were strongly asymmetric favoring forward transitions; across-pair associations (e.g., A-C) showed no evidence of asymmetry. While this pattern of results presented a stern challenge for a heteroassociative mediated chaining model, TCM provided an excellent fit to the data. These findings suggest that contiguity effects in episodic memory do not reflect direct associations between items but rather a process of binding, encoding, and retrieval of a gradually changing representation of temporal context.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA. marc@memory.syr.edu
authors.forename: Marc W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jing
authors.forename: Vinayak A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Jennifer P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Provyn
authors.forename: Aditya V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Datey
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning / Q000502:physiology; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics