Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Episodic memories are structured by both temporal and spatial relations, yet how these dimensions shape retrieval remains unclear. We investigated how temporal and spatial dimensions differentially contribute to the benefits of retrieval practice using a behavioral paradigm in which participants encoded items in a structured spatiotemporal environment, followed by selective retrieval practice and a final free recall test (N = 54). Across analyses, we replicated contiguity effects in both domains, confirming that recall is influenced by when and where experiences occurred. Retrieval-induced benefits were selective: non-practiced items studied closer in time to retrieved items showed greater facilitation in final recall, following a graded, distance-dependent function. In contrast, spatial proximity predicted recall overall but did not exhibit comparable retrieval-induced spillover. Using continuous, item-level indices of retrieval influence, we demonstrate that retrieval practice selectively amplifies temporal structure rather than uniformly strengthening all organizational dimensions.