Improving recall and imagination of past and future events through Episodic Specificity Induction: A French adaptation and validation study

Episodic Specificity Induction (ESI)—a brief training in recollecting details of a recent event—increases the production of episodic (internal) details in the subsequent description of a recalled or imagined event (i.e., memory or imagination tasks). The absence of a French adaptation and validation of the ESI does not currently allow French-speaking researchers to benefit from the theoretical and practical interests of this method. The present study proposes to carry out this work with young adults without cognitive impairment. Participants received the ESI or a control induction (CI) about details of a recently viewed videotape, prior to the memory and imagination tasks. They produced more internal details and fewer external (semantic) details after the ESI than after the CI for both tasks. This method could allow us to study the influence of episodic processes on a given task, and to envisage the development of a cognitive stimulation program.