We tend to mentally segment a series of events according to perceptual contextual changes, such that items from a shared context are more strongly associated in memory than items from different contexts. It is also known that temporal context provides a scaffold to structure experiences in memory, but its role in event segmentation has not been investigated. We adapted a previous paradigm, which was used to investigate event segmentation using visual contexts, to study the effects of changes in temporal contexts on event segmentation in associative memory. We presented lists of items in which the inter-stimulus intervals (ISIs) ranged across lists between 0.5 and 4 s in 0.5 s steps. After each set of six lists, participants judged which one of two test items were shown first (temporal order judgment) for items that were either drawn from the same list or from consecutive lists. Further, participants judged from memory whether the ISI associated to an item lasted longer than a standard interval (2.25s) that was not previously shown. Results showed faster responses for temporal order judgments when items were drawn from the same context, as opposed to items drawn from different contexts. Further, we found that participants were well able to provide temporal duration judgments based on recalled durations. Finally, we found temporal acuity, as estimated by psychometric curve fitting parameters of the recalled durations, correlated inversely with within-list temporal order judgments. These findings show that changes in temporal context support event segmentation in associative memory.
