The Effects of Environmental Boundaries on Event Segmentation and Memory

Hartley, Conall Antoin (2025) The Effects of Environmental Boundaries on Event Segmentation and Memory. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

Preview

PDF Download (3MB) | Preview

Abstract

Event segmentation is the process in which we break up continuous streams of information from our everyday life into discrete units of memory. The most dominant model currently exploring event segmentation in visual experience, the Event Horizon Model, acknowledges the complexities of segmenting conscious experience; however, research surrounding the model falls short for representing the effects event segmentation can have on memory performance. Research often reports a forgetting effect of event segmentation on memory performance; however, there are some concerns for how representative these findings are of real-world experience. The project primarily utilised Virtual Reality to conduct experiments to create a research paradigm that would produce more ecologically valid research than previously conducted on the topic. Chapter 2 examines the current research surrounding event segmentation and tries to replicate the forgetting results commonly reported, but in more ecologically valid test conditions. Upon not being able to reliably find forgetting effects for event segmentation, Chapter 3 explored the concepts of environments and boundaries. To draw out memory effects, these features of the space were manipulated to be highly contrasting, testing memory performance for two similar and two distinct spaces in one experiment, and assessing differences in memory performance across a doorway and corridor segmenting a space. Chapter 4 then expands on our testing methods to assess whether there are other cognitive processes, namely route learning, that are influenced by event segmentation. Participants learned a route and identified skips in a sequence of images depicting the route, with the sequence either having a high or low segmentation focus, finding an influence of event segmentation on route learning. Chapter 5 took a different approach, utilising both qualitative and quantitative methods to understand the thought process behind segmenting behaviours, where participants had to draw maps of an explored space, and answer questions based on the map they drew. Familiarity with the environment resulted in a change of attitudes towards participants, with participants responding with confidence to high familiarity spaces, and uncertainty in low familiarity spaces. The concluding chapter consolidates these findings into a series of recommendations to amend the Event Horizon Model, which take more consideration of individual differences, as well as possible variations in spaces. Methodological recommendations were also made, highlighting the importance of ecological validity, and emphasising the importance of results which can be found and applied to real-world scenarios.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User:	Bethany Turner
Date Deposited:	22 Sep 2026 10:41
Last Modified:	22 Sep 2026 10:41
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/104611
DOI:

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item