Episodic memory
Episodic memory is memory for experienced events in their particular context, including where and when they occurred. It is commonly distinguished from semantic memory, which concerns knowledge that can be used without recollecting the occasion on which it was acquired.[1]
Development of the concept
Endel Tulving introduced the distinction in 1972. His later account emphasised the relation between remembering, a sense of oneself and subjective time. In this account, recollection involves more than knowing a fact about the past: it includes a sense of re-experiencing a previous event. Tulving described this self-aware form of remembering as autonoetic consciousness. His 2002 review traced how the proposal developed from a distinction between tasks and materials into a theory informed by neuropsychology and brain imaging.[2]
Studying recollection
Tests can examine remembered information about an event, but the subjective experience accompanying an answer is a separate measurement problem. This is particularly important in animal research, where participants cannot describe their experience in language. A 2024 review by Eli Collaro and colleagues noted evidence that animals can meet behavioural criteria used to study episodic memory, while cautioning against equating that performance with an established capacity for subjective mental time travel. The authors argued that episodic memory and mental time travel should not simply be treated as synonyms.[3]
These distinctions allow researchers to ask separately what information an organism retains, how it uses that information and what, if anything, can be established about the experience of remembering. Episodic memory is thus investigated through both behavioural evidence and theories of recollection.[3]
References
- ↑ Rose M. Spielman, William J. Jenkins and Marilyn D. Lovett. How Memory Functions. In Psychology 2e. OpenStax, 2020.
- ↑ Endel Tulving. Episodic Memory: From Mind to Brain. Annual Review of Psychology 53 (2002): 1–25. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135114.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Eli Collaro, Robert A. Barton, James A. Ainge and Alexander Easton. Measuring episodic memory and mental time travel: crossing the species gap. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 379 (2024): 20230406. doi:10.1098/rstb.2023.0406.
Attribution
Prepared with reference to the structure and linked topics of the English Wikipedia article, revision 1375126884. Rewritten and checked against the sources cited above; changes have been made. Wikipedia contributors’ material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.