Memory for the Time of 60 Minutes Stories and News Events

This study tested whether impressions of the temporal distances of past events provide differentiated information about the times of events from the past months. Participants judged the times of stories from the television show 60 Minutes that were not easily linked to contemporaneous events and, in a comparison condition, of news events. They also compared the relative recency of pairs of 60 Minutes stories that had been broadcast the same week or during different weeks. Results showed that the times of 60 Minutes stories could be differentiated if they fell within the past 1 to 2 months, but the times of older events were mainly undifferentiated. Memory for the temporal contiguity of 60 Minutes stories was also very poor. The times of news stories were accurate throughout the range of times. These findings provide information about the time course over which distance information is useful