Skip to main content

Episodic Memory

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
  • 184 Accesses

Synonyms

Autobiographical memory; Declarative memory; Episodic-like memory; Explicit memory

Definition

Memory of personal past events, including the what, where, and when aspects of the event that can be explicitly accessed. In addition to these content-based aspects of a remembered experience, information about the event is integrated in a single representation and can be flexibly used to support adaptive behavior.

Introduction

When Endel Tulving distinguished episodic memory (EM from here on) from semantic memory (Tulving 1972), a crucial framework for psychological studies on EM was established. Semantic memory, or knowledge or facts about the world, is unlike EM because it does not include experiential properties or sensory information related to the occasion on which information was learned. Semantic memory, like the fact that Boston is the state capital of Massachusetts, is unlinked to the occasion on which this piece of information was learned. Such facts that are simply known...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Allen, T. A., & Fortin, N. J. (2013). The evolution of episodic memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110, 10379–10386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Babb, S. J., & Crystal, J. D. (2005). Discrimination of what, when, and where: Implications for episodic-like memory in rats. Learning and Motivation, 36(2), 177–189. doi:10.1016/j.lmot.2005.02.009.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clayton, N. S., & Dickinson, A. (1998). Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature, 395(6699), 272–274.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eichenbaum, H. (2013). Memory on time. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17(2), 81–88.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hampton, R. R., Hampstead, B. M., & Murray, E. A. (2005). Rhesus monkeys demonstrate robust memory for what and where, but not when, in an open-field test. Learning and Motivation, 36, 245–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pahl, M., Zhu, H., Pix, W., Tautz, J., & Zhang, S. (2007). Circadian timed episodic-like memory – A bee knows what to do when, and also where. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 210(20), 3559–3567.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, W. A., Feeney, M. C., MacPherson, K., Petter, M., McMillan, N., & Musolino, E. (2008). Episodic-like memory in rats: Is it based on when or how long ago? Science, 320(5872), 113–115.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Templer, V. L., & Hampton, R. R. (2013a). Cognitive mechanisms of memory for order in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Hippocampus, 23(3), 193–201.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Templer, V. L., & Hampton, R. R. (2013b). Episodic memory in nonhumans. Current Biology, 23(17), R801. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.07.016.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Tulving, E. (1972). Episodic and semantic memory. In E. Tulving & W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of memory (pp. 381–403). New York: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Victoria L. Templer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this entry

Cite this entry

Templer, V.L. (2016). Episodic Memory. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3129-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3129-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics