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Can memory for a narrative be unfolded after compression?

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Rayna Tang¹ (), Ata Karagoz², Nichole Bouffard¹, Jacob Tartakovsky¹, Zachariah Reagh¹; ¹Washington University in St. Louis, ²University of Chicago

Memories are not exact records of experience. Rather, they are constructions that are shaped by conditions during encoding and retrieval, as well as one’s goals. While some memories are highly detailed, others are coarse, summary-level representations. In this study, we tested whether “compressing” memory of a story into a summary impaired later detailed recall. After encoding 3 stories, participants either recounted the story in great detail, summarized the story (Compression), or received no specific instructions (Control). On Day 2, all participants recounted the three stories in as much detail as possible. After recall, participants also completed a sentence recognition test to assess memory specificity. Our key question is whether Day 2 recall performance differs as a function of Day 1 encoding condition (Detail, Compression, or Control). We hypothesized that summarizing what you’ve read compresses memory in a way that makes the unmentioned details more likely to be forgotten during later recall. Preliminary analyses indicate that detailed recall on Day 1 facilitates detailed recall on Day 2, while summarizing on Day 1 did not facilitate detailed recall on Day 2. Instead, the Compression group produced recalls comparable to the Control group on Day 1. Furthermore, recall facilitation in the Detail group did not generalize to sentence recognition, as performance was similar across groups. Ongoing analyses will use natural language processing to parse the semantic content of recall across groups, with preliminary results suggesting that the language participants used in their recall differed systematically between the Detail and Compression groups.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic