biostudies-literatureUnknownDelarazan AINational Institutes of HealthNIH HHSNational Science FoundationOffice of Naval ResearchMemories of experiences are often tied together, where remembering one experience can spark memories of others. One may link temporally distant events based on their meaning or recall closely occurring events together. Linking based on temporal organization has been studied in simple list-learning paradigms, but less is known about how these effects manifest in real-life experiences. Here, we investigate how meaningful connections in a narrative interact with temporal context to influence recall. Participants encoded picture stories featuring multiple subplots, some of which connected across time (coherent narratives), while others did not (unrelated narratives). Replicating prior findings, coherent narratives were better recalled than unrelated narratives, regardless of temporal distance Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognitionhttps://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12333392biostudies-literatureNarrative coherence warps the timeline of recalled naturalistic events.PMC12333392DGE-2139839; DGE-1745038N00014-17-1-2961R01AG062438GR0028512Zacks JMBosak EReagh ZMCohn-Sheehy BIFoureaux-Lee VDelarazan AIfalseNarrative coherence warps the timeline of recalled naturalistic events.Memories of experiences are often tied together, where remembering one experience can spark memories of others. One may link temporally distant events based on their meaning or recall closely occurring events together. Linking based on temporal organization has been studied in simple list-learning paradigms, but less is known about how these effects manifest in real-life experiences. Here, we investigate how meaningful connections in a narrative interact with temporal context to influence recall. Participants encoded picture stories featuring multiple subplots, some of which connected across time (coherent narratives), while others did not (unrelated narratives). Replicating prior findings, coherent narratives were better recalled than unrelated narratives, regardless of temporal distance 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z2025 Jul2026-05-01T08:42:03.342Z2026-04-07T16:46:10.117ZS-EPMC123333924074276210.1037/xlm0001516