Elements of episodic memory pdf

This research is based on a Clinical-Qualitative Methodology. The sampling method is the theoretical saturation. The semi structured interview was used in order to obtain data that were submitted to content analysis. Some patients described the music as a companion, as something that diverts their attention from fear, transporting them to an imaginary place, to another dimension.

The episodic memory, the capacity to recognize a musical excerpt for which the spatiotemporal context surrounding its former encounter could be recalled, was also important, with surprising results, in the case of patients who underwent catheterization in the presence of music and, later, angioplasty without the presence of music. Related Articles:. Home References Article citations. Journals A-Z. These issues are discussed from two perspectives.

Firstly, from the point of view of 'detached science': the emphasis here is on ideas, hypotheses, evidence, logic and theory. The second is a personal commentary on the development of ideas at the first viewpoint, and provides observations about the psychology and sociology of a developing science. Inchoate Distinction 3.

Argument for Differences 4. Debate About Memory 5. Empirical Evidence 6. Conceptual Framework 8. Elements of Encoding 9. Encoding Specificity Criticisms of Encoding Specificity Recognition Failure Recognition and Recall. Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.

Koriat et al. The former, which grew out of traditional laboratory research and characteristically involves memory for words from a list, focuses on the number of items remembered. The latter grew out of the everyday memory tradition and considers the degree of correspondence between the original event and what is reported. Some of the topics we discuss are more easily conceptualized according to the store- house metaphor and other topics according to the correspondence metaphor. Our understanding is enhanced when we examine questions about memory using both metaphors.

For example, a recent finding Barkin et al. However, it is equally important to consider the accu- E1 racy of the information that was remembered, whether the most important information c Both metaphors have something to offer. This overview of episodic memory is organized in two sections. The first focuses on the factors that influence what is retained in episodic memory.

We consider factors that relate to how much is retained consistent with the storehouse metaphor and what is retained consistent with the correspondence metaphor. These factors are depicted through research and examples. The second section focuses on the underlying processes that support episodic memory, notably a dual-process heuristic consisting of familiarity and recollection.

Various methodologies are also highlighted. For example, episodic memory is responsible for a fear of tiny, cantankerous dogs because I remember being bitten by one as a child. A useful way to conceptualize episodic memory is to posit that each experience creates a representation of the experience.

This so-called exemplar approach has been influential in many fields e. Semon coined the term engram to refer to the physical trace he believed to be recorded in the nervous system as the result of a previous experience. He proposed that events and stimuli left a trace in the brain, which could be replayed and experienced again. Although neuroscientists continue to examine the trace in terms of neural activity and plasticity, cognitive psychologists use it as a metaphor for the mental representation of stored information, despite the fact that some researchers e.

Utilizing the trace metaphor, the next section describes factors that enhance the retention of a trace, including its strength, the role of repetition and spacing, and the type of information represented by the trace. Then we describe factors that can decrease the retention of a trace: forgetting and the overlap between the trace and the retrieval cue used to access it. These factors map onto the storehouse metaphor.

Finally, we consider factors that can modify the trace or add information to it, resulting in a reconstructive memory. These factors fit with the correspondence metaphor. There are some events we remember easily and in great detail, others that are hazy and seem to fade quickly, and memories at every grada- tion between.

While it is easy to propose that traces differ in strength, it is much more complicated to explain why this is so. One part of the explanation is that not all traces are created equally; that is, certain stimuli or circumstances leave a stronger, more memo- rable trace than others. An individual is more likely to remember a trace that encapsulates a performed action rather than one that is spoken Koriat et al.

Additional processes are needed to perform an action and these enrich the memory trace Zimmer Sign language seems to tap into this advantage. Deaf individuals who signed an action had better memory than the deaf par- ticipants who simply read the action.

An important component in the effectiveness of note-taking is that the individual is gen- erating not only material, but an event in which they are involved.

Non-linear strategies in note-taking are particularly effective; that is, those who create outlines and graphs to organize the material are more likely to remember than those who simply write down 2 what has been said Piolat et al. Paivio hypothesized that the ease of imaging a word enhances the ability to learn and remember it.

While Paivio found that participants had much better recall for pictures than for words, this disparity decreased when participants imaged, rather than spoke, the word. A word that evokes an image may create a verbal and a visual trace for that word which can enhance its recall.

The use of images can facilitate the learning of a second language. Spanish learners can enhance their memory of vocabulary by using the keyword method Beaton et al. The learner is presented with a Spanish word that is phonologically similar to an English word and told to create an image of the two items. For example, vaca cow is similar to vacuum. By imaging a cow using a vacuum cleaner, participants learn this vocabulary word.

People are adept at remembering visual informa- tion Shepard , and a picture superiority effect has been found across many studies e. Another characteristic that enhances retention of the trace is the meaningfulness of the stimuli. Craik and Lockhart discussed the role of the depth of processing of a stimulus and how that affected memo- rability: The deeper or more meaningfully some information was encoded, the more memorable it became.

Logan, pers. A focus on meaning led to better memory than an emphasis on perceptual details. Advertisers are well aware of the relationship between meaningful- ness and memory see MacInnis et al. This obliges the viewer to focus on the ad, thereby increasing the likelihood of remembering and buying? Advertisers also know that consumers pay more attention and process ads more deeply if the material is self-relevant Kendzierski We will have more to say about depth of processing when we discuss the encoding—retrieval overlap in the next section.

It seems trite to suggest that strengthening a trace through rehearsal enhances memory; but, in fact, this is not always the case. In the next section we illustrate why trace strength, like depth of processing, does not translate into enhanced retention. Rohrer et al. Although their recall was better at one week than those who had not over- learned, the information was not retained better over the long term.

Such findings emphasize the importance of spaced study. Ross and Landauer , p. The key idea is that a new trace is added to memory if the existing trace is not retrieved when it is repeated resulting in two retrieval routes to the information. However, if the existing trace is retrieved, information is added to it and the existing trace is strengthened. The spacing effect is an example of what Bjork , called desirable difficul- ties: manipulations that often harm short-term retention but result in superior long-term retention.

Desirable difficulties also include the aforementioned generation effect and interleaving better long-term retention if two concepts A and B are experienced as ABAB rather than as AABB. Richland et al. Interleaving resulted in better integration of concepts on a posttest, and successful generation enhanced memory for single facts. These results also are an important demonstration of what many basic researchers believe. Findings from the laboratory can scale up to the complexities of the real world.

Distinctiveness is another factor that can enhance how much is retained. In fact, many of the aforementioned factors are effective because they involve the creation of a more distinctive trace e.

Imagine that you are driving home from work and a song comes on the radio. Not only do you recognize the song, but you know it played during a scene in a movie you saw last month. But you cannot remem- ber which movie if that song has been used in many soundtracks.

However, you would remember the movie if the song you heard the cue was unique to a particular movie e. Prospective memory involves the use of episodic memory to remember future actions e. For example, let the degree of match between a cue and a trace equal ten units.

Note that the matching strength or overlap between the cue and the trace did not change, yet the likelihood of retrieving that trace decreased because the cue also was strongly connected to other traces Nairne However, a change of the cue used to access the trace can overcome the cue overload and increase the likelihood of successful remembering.

For example, an attorney, unable to remember a precedent-setting case during an exchange with the judge might remember it on her way back to the office. The courtroom context is a poor cue for the desired information because it is related to many different aspects of the case. However, on her way to the office, a new cue — spotting an SUV like the one involved in the hit-and-run accident — provides a better cue for the precedent-setting case. Hunt distinguished between two types of distinctiveness: item- and event-based.

The picture superiority effect is a good example of item-based distinctiveness. Not only are certain stimuli such as pictures inherently more distinctive, but non-distinctive stimuli can be made more distinctive via encoding manipulations event-based distinctive- ness.

For example, Jacoby et al. Participants had to decide which of two words was most related to a third word. Participants had better memory for the words that were part of the difficult choices. Thus, the words associated with more difficult choices became more distinctive compared to those words associated with easy choices. For the same reason solving a word problem for the correct answer will lead to higher retention than rote memorization of the correct answer.

Factors that Decrease How Much is Retained To this point the focus has been on how the properties of the trace enhance how much is remembered. However, a common outcome of memory is forgetting. Is forgetting simply the loss or decay of a trace? Explanations that assume that forgetting is due to the decay of a trace have not fared well Medin et al. An alternative explanation is that for- getting is caused by interference with a trace caused by new learning.

Two explanations have been proposed for how new learning can interfere with a trace. Wixted proposed a consolidation hypothesis whereby forgetting results when newly formed traces fail to consolidate due to the interfering effect of other mental activi- ties. In an experiment that supports this hypothesis, Sisson had participants study a ten-item list.

A subsequent list was presented either immediately after the initial list, in the middle of the retention interval, or just prior to test. Performance on the initial list was affected by when the subsequent list was learned.

Worse performance resulted when E1 the subsequent list was learned immediately after the initial list, thereby interfering with the consolidation process. Dudai proposed that consolidation of a trace may not c Reactivation of a trace might make it labile and subject to renewed consolidation. Renewed consolidation opens up possibilities for training the reacquisition of a skill or for the treatment of pathologies that involve obsessive recollection e.

Perhaps future treatments will allow therapeutic forgetting; it works in the movies Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The most commonly accepted explanation for forgetting is retrieval failure.

In this case a trace is lost in memory rather than from memory, much like a library book that has been placed on the wrong shelf. This is why episodic memory is referred to as cue-dependent. Retrieval failure becomes more likely as the overlap between encoding and retrieval decreases. In a subsequent recognition test, participants must determine which words were from the initial list.

Encoding specificity is responsible for worse performance for recognizing words that are re-paired with a different studied word e. The method of loci mnemonic Bower capitalizes on encoding specificity by linking to-be-learned items to sequentially organized locations e. At retrieval, by mentally retracing your route to work, you regenerate the best possible cue for each item: the cue used when learning that item.

One aspect of the cognitive interview involves reinstating the context of the crime. Kohnken et al. Malpass suggested other procedures based on context reinstatement that might improve lineup identification accuracy.

For example, his guided memory interview involves reminding the witness of key elements from the event while encouraging visualization of the details. Transfer-appropriate processing is an extension of the encoding specificity principle. Memory retention suffers to the extent that the operations required at retrieval do not overlap or fail to recapture the operations used during encoding Morris et al. Brain imaging experiments illustrate a neural basis for trans- fer-appropriate processing.

Wheeler et al. At test, they were provided with the same label seen previously and were asked to mentally recall the cor- responding referent i. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI showed that successful picture recall activated the same part of the visual cortex as was activated during encoding of the picture, and successful sound recall activated the same auditory cortical regions activated during encoding of the sound.

They concluded that the E1 cortical areas involved in the initial perception of an event become part of the trace for c Thus, when the same or similar context is reinstated, the same cortical areas become active, paving the way for retrieval of that trace. Like encoding specificity, transfer-appropriate processing has many applications. Stacy et al. Could participants remember which were the alcohol ads, and, if so, could they remember the particular brand?

Results indicated that commercials were more likely to be recognized as advertising beer in the Super-Bowl cue condition compared to a control group, and two Budweiser commercials both featuring the Budweiser frogs were remembered better than any other which probably has something to do with distinctiveness. Although Wixted suggested that forgetting by retrieval failure does not play a substantial role outside of the laboratory, we believe that both consolidation and retrieval failure provide important insights into applied problems.

For example, if a patient forgets what the physician told her to do after completing her course of antibiotics, is it because at the initial examination the physician also told her to limit salt intake and begin taking a multivitamin thereby hampering consolidation of the instructions regarding the antibi- otic , or because the patient learned what to do in the context of personal health-related issues and is having trouble remembering it later while walking the dog?

In the former case, the correct course of action is no longer in memory and the physician should have provided an external memory aid a list to ensure that the directives were followed. In the latter case, thinking back to the situation in the examination room might result in remembering what to do. Thus far, we have learned about properties of a memory trace that enhance retention of a trace. We also have examined the impact of new learning and how that can decrease access to a trace.

Before moving on, we will assimilate these ideas by exploring tactics an instructor could use to enhance retention. An instructor can shift course content from verbal to visual. Rather than describing the corporate hierarchy, a figure that depicts the information would be better remembered.

Retention will also be improved if students complete tasks themselves rather than simply writing down what they are told. Students will perform better on both multiple-choice based on recognition and short-answer or essay questions based on recall if the mate- rial they learn is encoded with some difficulty. These factors serve to make the information more distinctive.

There are improvements an instructor can achieve through the appropri- ate sequencing of course content; creating desirable difficulties by spacing out the learning is beneficial.

Providing meaning and structure to the course content supplies the proper context for interpretation. It also helps organize a set of cues to aid subsequent retrieval much like what the method of loci does. Retention is improved if elements of the test match those used to encode the material.

Roediger and Karpicke found the effect of testing to be more effective than an equivalent amount of additional study. According to transfer-appropriate processing, testing improves performances because it practices retrieval skills that are the same as those needed for the final test.

Also, testing results in a more distinctive memory trace and thereby overcomes cue overload. Whenever critical new information is conveyed, an instructor should be mindful to minimize interference from new learning in order to maximize consolidation i.

In sum, an instructor can use various techniques c Factors that Affect What is Retained In the two prior sections, the trace was treated as an accurate depiction of what was experienced, and the likelihood of retrieving a trace was shown to be a joint function of the encoding—retrieval overlap which determines memory strength and the distinctive- ness of the cue.

However, we often remember things differently from the way in which they actually happened, or even remember something that never occurred. But for the next 60 years, the study of memory largely focused on exactly that.

When the focus is on the number of events remembered, events that are not remembered correctly are considered forgotten. However, when the focus shifts to accuracy, the correspondence between what actually happened and what is reported becomes paramount.

Several taxonomies have been proposed for categorizing factors that decrease the accu- racy of what is remembered e. We follow the taxonomy of Koriat et al. Workload also may affect the level of abstraction that is retained. Moray argued that the operators of a complex system create mental models at varying levels within a network defined by different levels of abstraction.

Problems arise when an operator works at too low a level of generality; for example, when a pilot needs to know the exact location of the severe weather but only remembers that it is near Tulsa.

At a low workload, an air traffic controller might remember the speed of each aircraft, but at a higher workload, might remember only the important aircraft or only the relative speeds Gronlund et al. Finally, we have meta-cognitive control over the level of abstrac- tion.

Goldsmith et al. For example, the height of an individual involved in a bar-room fight could be reported at a detailed grain size height in feet and inches or an imprecise grain size taller than me. As the retention interval increased, Goldsmith et al. This E1 c Schooler and Tanaka called these compromise recollections; Azuma et al. Azuma et al. A therapist might instruct a client to use journaling, whereby a client free-associates to images she has had.

In cases involving false accusations of sexual abuse e. The problem is that activating two memories e. Misinformation effects in eyewitness identification provide one example Loftus Witnesses are exposed to an event, are subsequently misin- formed about a detail in the event e. Witnesses were less likely to choose the original detail when an alternative was suggested compared to the situation where no alternative was suggested.

McCloskey and Zaragoza argued that both the original detail and the suggested detail were represented in memory, and that the misinformation effect was the result of competition between them. If two memories for the event of interest coexist, techniques can be used to help distinguish between them e.

Clearly, this effort is misplaced if a compromise recollection was created and the memory of the original event has been replaced. This could negatively affect exam performance if the new memory from the study group replaces the old from the textbook.

Even if McCloskey and Zaragoza are correct, there will be competition between the two traces and a chance that the incorrect answer prevails. Zaragoza et al. Participants subsequently reported that some of these fake events actually happened. Wiley found that low- E1 knowledge individuals tended to recall more arguments consistent with their position on a controversial issue, but high-knowledge individuals could remember arguments on both c Interestingly, when a text was structured such that supporting and opposing arguments were interleaved, differences due to prior knowledge were eliminated.

This finding is germane to journalists, web designers, honest politicians, or anyone who presents information for a living. The self is a uniquely important knowledge structure that influences episodic memory. Although some claim that the influence is better conceptualized as occurring in a related system called autobiographical memory e. Tulving considered using the latter when he first proposed the distinction between the characteristics of memories for person- ally experienced events episodic and memory for general facts semantic.

Some evi- dence supports the idea that episodic and autobiographical are not the same, including studies of the amnesic patient K. However, the autobiographic memory demon- strated by K. Studies that examine neural activity in an attempt to dissociate episodic from autobiographical memory have been conducted, but Gillihan and Farah argued that most suffer from confounds and found little support for the idea that memory for the self is qualitatively, or functionally, different from other episodic memories.

We will not resolve this issue here, but note that much of what we have discussed is relevant to autobiographical memory, no matter its relationship to episodic memory. For example, life experiences may be forgotten, changed, emphasized, or even confabulated, in order to maintain a stable self. Furthermore, Conway emphasized that because many autobiographical memories are interpretations of events, not literal records, we must consider accuracy for the event as well as accuracy for the self-image.

The role of decisional processes has long been recognized through applications of signal detection theory e. However, given the reconstruc- tive nature of memory, the challenge clearly involves more than assessing memory strength and determining whether or not it exceeds a decision criterion.

For example, as described above, greater inaccuracy results if we fail to regulate the grain size of what we report. An innocent bystander is selected from a lineup if we fail to ascertain why that individual appears familiar.

A client might not believe the images revealed while under hypnosis or dreaming unless informed by their therapist that they must be true or they would not have revealed themselves. What is retrieved from memory is only the starting point regarding what we report remember- ing.

In the next section, we turn our attention to the processes that underlie episodic memory and describe a distinction that helps us to understand the memorial, inferential, and decisional contributions to episodic memory. Recollection is the process responsible for the recall of details surrounding the c Recollection informs us how we know the person at the gym e. Familiarity is automatic, effortless, and quick; recollection is conscious, effortful, and relatively slow. Single-process explanations of recognition in episodic memory rely on familiarity and are cast in signal detection terms for applications of signal detection to memory, see Banks Familiarity arises from matching a test probe against everything in memory for an overview of global matching models, see Clark and Gronlund The resultant global match is compared to a decision criterion that converts continuous match strength into a typically binary decision.

If the global match exceeds the criterion value, a positive response is made and the event is reported as having been experienced previously. A witness to a crime might rely on familiarity to decide whether the individual presented to her in a show-up stole her purse.

However, in contrast to a continuous familiarity process, recollection typically is assumed to be an all-or-nothing threshold process recollect the item or not. Although many dual- process models have been proposed e. In what follows, we equate recollection and recall although the exact relationship between them remains unclear e.

Dual-Process Distinctions The heuristic distinction between familiarity and recollection subsumes at least three related distinctions. One such distinction involves item and associative or relational information Humphreys Retrieval of item information, whether an item occurred previously or not, is driven by a familiarity process; retrieval of associative information, whether two previously occurring items occurred together or as part of two separate events, requires a recollection process.

A second distinction recasts associative informa- tion as memory for the source Johnson et al. Source confusions contribute to faulty eyewitness identifications when a witness chooses an innocent suspect from a mug-shot and subse- quently picks that same person from a lineup.

A final distinction involves automatic versus intentional processing Jacoby An automatic process is unaffected by dividing attention at test, but an intentional process based on recollection is hampered. All three distinctions are consistent with the idea that familiarity is quick and automatic, while recollection is effortful and under a degree of strategic control. Gronlund and Ratcliff used the response signal paradigm Reed to show that item informa- tion was retrieved before associative information.

In the response signal paradigm, the time course of information is mapped by requiring that a participant responds upon receiving a signal e.

Results from E1 their study were consistent with other work that showed that automatic influences occur c The response signal paradigm is useful for tracing how accuracy and speed trade off in a recognition situation.

For example, the pilot of an attack helicopter chooses when and how often to emerge from the trees to assess the battlefield situation. During that brief interval, the pilot must collect information about potential targets and discriminate friend from foe in a complex, dynamic, and hostile environment. To increase the accuracy of these assessments the pilot must spend more time in the open. However, to survive the pilot must decrease the time of these assessments, thereby reducing their accuracy.

One way to validate the usefulness of automated target recognition ATR systems is to map recognition accuracy across time using the response signal paradigm. For example, if color is important for recognizing targets, and if the availability of color is speeded by the introduction of the ATR system, the system will benefit performance. However, if allies and enemies have tanks of a similar color, reliance on quick familiarity for identification is problematic and slower recollection may need to play a role.

Faulty source monitoring plays an important role in the reconstructive nature of epi- sodic memory. Faulty monitoring also results in the misattributed fluency of processing Jacoby et al.

This is why the apocryphal Sebastian Weisdorf is deemed famous by many participants in memory experiments Jacoby et al. At test, those participants in the divided attention condition were more likely to classify Sebastian Weisdorf as famous. Aging also harms monitoring, which results in greater degrees of false memory in older adults e. Measuring Familiarity and Recollection There is great interest in measuring the respective contributions of the fast, automatic, familiarity process and the slower, strategic, recollection process.

We could avoid much embarrassment if we could determine which process was responsible for making a face at the mall seem familiar before we run over and say hello to a total stranger who resembles a golfing buddy. In the courtroom, the jury needs to know if a positive identification is based on familiarity he looks most like the guy who robbed me or recollection he is the robber because he has the same crooked teeth and tattoo.

Arthur Carmona was selected from a show-up only after the police placed a Lakers cap on him known to be worn by the assailant. This made Arthur more familiar to the witnesses. Not only are tasks not purely episodic as mentioned previ- ously with regard to semantic contributions , they also are not based solely on familiarity F or recollection R.

The simplest assumption is to assume that the processes are independent an assumption that has garnered some controversy; see, e.

Jacoby introduced a methodology called process dissociation for separating automatic familiarity from strategic recollection contributions. In the process dissocia- tion procedure, two lists of items are presented. The study phase is followed by a test phase which includes three types of test: items from list 1 L1 , items from list 2 L2 , and items not viewed previously New. The tests are conducted in two ways. In an inclu- sion condition, positive responses are made to L1 and L2 items.

In an exclusion condition, positive responses are reserved for items from only one of the lists e. Subtracting Equation 5. Once obtained, an estimate of F alone also can be achieved. This is depicted graphi- cally in Figure 5. Figure 5. Once it is known where the problem is, treatment and training options can be tar- geted to maximum benefit. For example, Jennings and Jacoby enhanced the memory of older adults by training recollection. The key was that the growing familiarity of the repeated items, which arises from having experienced them before, must be opposed by recollection.

For one group, the spacing between repetitions increased as training progressed, putting a gradually increasing demand on recollection. For the other group, spacing varied randomly. Performance was enhanced for the former group and the benefit was maintained four months later. As originally conceptualized, familiarity and recollection represented phenomenologically distinct memorial states, and therefore, a participant could specify whether or not a particular memory decision was accompanied by the recollection of a contextual association.

Before saying hello to that man in the mall, can I remember a detail about him that places him in the proper context resulting in a remember response? If no such detail is forthcoming, I make a know response I just know he is the guy, but cannot specify why.

It makes the strong assumption that familiarity and recollection are mutually exclusive. In other words, a memory decision is based either on familiarity or on recollection, whereas independence allows responses to be based on familiarity, recollection, or both processes. Words studied at a medium DOP is the word commonly used?

The classification of medium DOP words should not be affected by this manipulation if memory decisions reflect the processes that give rise to them. Bodner and Lindsay argued that these judgments are better viewed as attributions than as reflections of the underlying memory processes. Wixted and Stretch highlighted another problem when they argued that a recognition decision was based on the aggregated strength of a combined familiarity and recollection signal, both of which they assumed were continuous variables.

There is much that still needs to be learned about when and how familiarity and recol- lection operate in recognition. In fact, even the debate about the need for dual processes continues e. Despite there being no universally accepted methodology for measuring the contributions of familiarity and recollection, most researchers now agree that two processes are useful for explaining a wide range of phenomena Yonelinas E1 c Furthermore, it is our opinion that the dual-process heuristic can be profitably applied to many situations of interest to the practitioner.