title: Familiarity and personal experience as mediators of recall when planning for future contingencies.
abstract: In this article, we demonstrate that planning tasks enhance recall when the context of planning (a) is self-referential and (b) draws on familiar scenarios represented in episodic memory. Specifically, we show that when planning tasks are sorted according to the degree to which they evoke memories of personally familiar scenarios (e.g., planning a picnic), recall is reliably superior to tasks that fail to do so (e.g., planning an Arctic trek). We discuss the implications of these findings for planning tasks and their relation to episodic memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. klein@psych.ucsb.edu
authors.forename: Stanley B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Theresa E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: Andrew W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Delton
authors.forename: Moshe L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Lax
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012649:Self Concept; D055815:Young Adult