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A central issue in the psychology of learning and memory is how memories change over time. This issue was first addressed experimentally by Ebbinghaus (1885/1964, Chap. 7) and has been pursued assiduously ever since. A related issue, raised only briefly by Ebbinghaus, is our state of awareness concerning our memories. For some memories, even distant ones, we feel a sense of reexperiencing the events during their recollection. In remembering other past events, we feel less engaged: We know the event occurred, but the act of recollection does not carry with it the strong feeling of reliving it. In other cases we may know that events happened to us, but we cannot remember their occurrence at all. In still other cases, experiences may have considerable impact on our behavior, but we cannot recollect them at all (see Jacoby, Kelley, & Dywan, 1989, for examples). These two topics—the course of retention over …