A gist orientation before retrieval impacts the objective content but not the subjective experience of recollection

Gist retrieval-orientation manipulations can experimentally decrease one’s ability to recollect objective details of past experience (Rudoy et al., 2009). Recent evidence further suggest that the quantity of recollected details strongly predicts the associated subjective memory experience (i.e., vividness) (Folville et al., 2019). Whether a gist retrieval-orientation manipulation can hinder both the objective and subjective aspects of episodic recollection remains unknown, however. To examine this question, young participants were tested in two experimental sessions. During each session, they took part to a cued-recollection task in which they studied pictures associated with descriptive labels. Before retrieval, participants were submitted either to a gist or a control retrieval-orientation (one per session). At retrieval, they were presented with the labels alone and they were asked to evaluate the subjective vividness of their memories of the pictures and to recall as many pictures details as they could. Results revealed that the amount of recalled details was lower following the gist than the control condition while the rates of vividness did not differ between the two manipulations. Critically, the amount of recalled details predicted the corresponding vividness ratings on a trial-by-trial basis and the magnitude of this relationship was similar in the gist and control conditions. These findings show that gist-retrieval-orientation manipulations can experimentally decrease the amount of retrieved episodic details but that recollected memory traces are still rich enough to be judged as subjectively vivid.