Spatial memory transforms for days to decades

Nature Human Behaviour, Published online: 21 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41562-026-02483-8 We investigated memory for real-world navigational episodes across delays of up to three decades. Our data reveal that real-world spatial memory is continuously reshaped over the years through a shifting combination of episode-dependent spatial representations and episode-independent schematic knowledge that follow distinct trajectories over time.