Jamie Cockcroft
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jamiecockcroft.bsky.social
Jamie Cockcroft
@jamiecockcroft.bsky.social
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Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of York.

Research interests in schema, memory, generalisation, event boundaries, retrieval practice, open science and educational assessment.

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jamiecockcroft.bsky.social
🚪🧠 Ever wondered if walking through doors really changes your memory? At #ESCOP25 today I’m at Board 19 showing how spatiotemporal boundaries impact recall in VR. Although time matters, it’s more to do with using it effectively!
This poster presents work that examines how spatiotemporal boundaries influence recall. Previous research suggests that such boundaries improve memory (Logie & Donaldson, 2021). It remains unclear, however, whether the benefit comes directly from the boundaries or from the post-encoding processes they permit, such as elaborative rehearsal. Across three experiments, participants studied words in a virtual environment under different conditions: (1) Non-segmented: continuous word presentation in a single room; (2) Segmented: a new room introduced every four words, creating spatiotemporal boundaries; (3) Non-segmented (time): continuous word presentation in one room, with structured pauses to match the timing of the segmented condition. In Experiment 3, the segmented condition was replaced by a non-segmented (task) condition, which used the same timing as the non-segmented (time) condition but filled the pauses with a 2-back task to prevent rehearsal. Findings were as follows: Experiments 1 and 2 showed better recall in the segmented and non-segmented (time) conditions compared to the non-segmented condition, with no difference between segmented and non-segmented (time). Experiment 3 found reduced recall when a task replaced the free period. However, it did not replicate the earlier benefit of non-segmented (time) over non-segmented. Overall, the results suggest that recall advantages observed in earlier work may be due to post-encoding processes rather than the boundaries themselves. The next experiment will test whether elaborative rehearsal or resource allocation during encoding better explains these effects by systematically varying the presence of free periods and tasks.
September 3, 2025 at 6:50 AM