Ordering autobiographical experiences

This study examined individuals' memory for the temporal order of autobiogr aphical events and for the components that constitute autobiographical even ts. Study 1 measured performance on an across-event ordering task that invo lved the chronological arrangement of cards that displayed event labels. Re sults indicated poor ordering ability across events, but a reasonable abili ty to order clusters of events. Study 2 compared within-event and across-ev ent ordering using computer-presented digital photographs. Participants wer e better at ordering the photographs in their own across-event trials than in their within-event trials. The results are discussed in terms of the ret rieval of temporal information under within- and across-event conditions.