| The process of event construction involves binding component parts of an event, including the objects, spatial locations, and goals, to form a coherent scene. To date, there is no mechanism for the process by which these components are populated for event construction to occur. In this dissertation, I introduced the differentiated memory search model that describes the differential search mechanisms employed when one recollects a past event and when one plans for a future event. The research explored how this model can help explain event construction processes during preschool years. Experiment 1 revealed that an open-ended memory search (directed towards future event construction) leads to more errors in the recollection of relevant components than a more directed memory search (directed towards past event construction for the same components). These results corroborate the model, and suggest that the fidelity of the components retrieved from an episodic memory depends on whether one is thinking about the past or envisioning the future. Experiment 2 presents a method by which one can facilitate access to past components and thereby, ease retrieval of relevant components from memory for a future event construction process. Altogether, the results of this dissertation indicate that there are differential memory search mechanisms that underlie construction of a past versus future scene, and further, that the representation of the underlying event structures is temporally connected and content-specific. Further, the results of this dissertation suggest that memory processes are a precursor to future thinking abilities, and access to the underlying event structures can allow children to flexibly extract and manipulate the necessary components from memory to create the future scene. |
