Participants took part in a two-stage investigation examining the changes in memory for conversation over time. The impact of memory expectancy and mode of recall were also examined. Participants could recall only about 10% of their conversations immediately after the conversations. One month later this fipre had dropped to 4%. Examination of recall protocols revealed that after a one month delay, participants recalledless content and reported more descriptive statements, made more inferences, and were less accurate than when they had recalled immediately. In addition, expectancies about memory and mode used to report recollections affected the amount and type of information reported. Finally, participants recalled more of their partner's contributions to the conversations than their own contributions. M EMORY is an integral component of communicative ability. To converse appropriately people must minimally rely on their memory for linguistic rules and grammars as well as topical information. Moreover, competent communicators must retrieve memories about specific events that occurred with particular others in order to devise trajectories for the likely directions that their conversations may take (Stafford & Daly, 1984).