In this article, we reveal the temperature memory effect (TME) in a commercial thermoplastic polymer, namely ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), within its glass transition range via a series of differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) tests. In addition, we investigate the influence of heating holding time and also compare the observed TME in current study with that of shape memory alloys (SMAs). It is concluded that the TME via DSC (without any macroscopic shape change) is achievable within the glass transition range of a polymer. Conversely, although the observed TME shares the many similar features as those in SMAs, due to the nature of micro-Brownian motion in the glass transition of polymers, the resulted TME is strongly affected by the heating holding time. (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.