The current study introduced a new measure for the study of naturalistic memory, which involved the use of a homogeneous, controlled event for all participants. We tested participants’ memory for this so-called staged event with both the Autobiographical Interview (AI) and our novel receiver operating characteristic (ROC) task. Statistical analyses indicated that scores on the AI and on our new ROC measure showed time sensitivity consistent with the literature. These data were difficult to interpret, however, because of a confound of age. We will need to age-match our groups before drawing any major conclusions. That said, we found a significant positive correlation between measures of recollection on both the AI and ROC task, which was a promising finding in terms of validating the new measure against an established procedure. Overall, our results suggest that assessing recall and recognition for a staged event is a viable method for studying naturalistic memory.

The current study introduced a new measure for the study of naturalistic memory, which involved the use of a homogeneous, controlled event for all participants. We tested participants’ memory for this so-called staged event with both the Autobiographical Interview (AI) and our novel receiver operating characteristic (ROC) task. Statistical analyses indicated that scores on the AI and on our new ROC measure showed time sensitivity consistent with the literature. These data were difficult to interpret, however, because of a confound of age. We will need to age-match our groups before drawing any major conclusions. That said, we found a significant positive correlation between measures of recollection on both the AI and ROC task, which was a promising finding in terms of validating the new measure against an established procedure. Overall, our results suggest that assessing recall and recognition for a staged event is a viable method for studying naturalistic memory.