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When space divides, time expands: the role of boundaries in retrospective duration

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Omran K. Safi¹ (), Charles Y. Lin¹, Kimberley Marty¹, Daniela J. Palombo¹; ¹University of British Columbia

Psychological time is a rich and multifaceted phenomenon. Prior research suggests that retrospective duration estimates are shaped by the contents of memory for events. Event segmentation theory proposes that our continuous experiences are parsed into discrete events, a process that has been shown to hold implications for memory. However, the effect of such segmentation on retrospective duration for naturalistic events remains unclear. In the present study, we examined the interplay of event segmentation and duration memory using a naturalistic virtual reality paradigm. We conducted a within-subjects study (N = 54) in which participants navigated a series of events with or without a boundary (doorway). Subsequently, we asked participants to provide retrospective duration estimates for these events. We hypothesized that events containing boundaries would be recalled as being longer in duration compared to those without boundaries due to increased segmentation. We tested this using a linear mixed effects model that controlled for actual time. Consistent with our hypothesis, events with boundaries were recalled as being longer than those without. Additionally, we observed a general compression effect wherein events were recalled as being shorter than their true duration. A second experiment introduced a one-week delay between encoding and retrieval to investigate the persistence of the effect. Future work will explore the effects of perceptual versus cognitive boundaries on remembered duration. Together, our findings underscore the significant role of event boundaries in shaping retrospective duration estimates, suggesting that the organizational structure of events in memory can influence subjectively experienced time.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic