Sleep and retrieval practice both strengthen and distort story recollection

• Published in: Sleep advances. 2024-11, Vol.5 (1), p.zpae083
• Main Authors: Denis, Dan, DiPietro, Carissa, Spreng, R Nathan, Schacter, Daniel L, Stickgold, Robert, Payne, Jessica D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Festschrift in Hoxnor of Dr. Robert Stickgold
• ISSN: 2632-5012; 2632-5012
• DOI: 10.1093/sleepadvances/zpae083

Over time, memories lose episodic detail and become distorted, a process with serious ramifications for eyewitness identification. What are the processes contributing to such transformations over time? We investigated the roles of post-learning sleep and retrieval practice in memory accuracy and distortion, using a naturalistic story recollection task. Undergraduate students listened to a recording of the "War of the Ghosts," a Native American folktale, and were assigned to either a sleep or wake delay group, and either a retrieval practice or listen-only study condition. We found higher accuracy after sleep compared to wake in the listen-only condition, but not in the retrieval practice condition. This effect was driven by participants in the wake, retrieval practice condition showing superior memory compared to the wake, listen-only condition. A similar pattern was found for memory distortion, with both sleep and retrieval practice being associated with more inferences of nonpresented, but story-related information, compared to the wake, listen-only condition. These findings suggest both sleep and retrieval practice contribute to narrative memory stabilization and distortion.