Overlap between events can lead to interference because of a trade-off between encoding the present event and retrieving the past event. Temporal context information, “when” something occurred, a defining feature of episodic memory, can cue retrieval of a past event. However, the influence of temporal overlap, or proximity in time, on the mechanisms of interference is unclear. Here, by identifying brain states using scalp eEEG from male and female human subjects, we show the extent to which temporal overlap promotes interference and induces retrieval. In this experiment, subjects were explicitly directed to either encode the present event or retrieve a past, overlapping event while perceptual input was held constant. We find that the degree of temporal overlap between events leads to selective interference. Specifically, greater temporal overlap between two events leads to impaired memory for the past event selectively when the top-down goal is to encode the present event. Using pattern classification anal...