User:Ryan Butler Sr/sandbox

Episodic memory is the memory of autobiographical events (times, places, associated emotions, and other contextual who, what, when, where, why knowledge) that can be explicitly stated. It is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place. According to Tulving episodic memory allows "mental time travel" that allows us to relive particular episodes in life.[1] For example, if one remembers the party on his or her 6th birthday, this is an episodic memory. The capacity to recall a specific event is a crucial feature of episodic memory.[1] They allow an individual to figuratively travel back in time to remember the event that took place at that particular time and place.[2] The recollection of a specific episode or event requires a mental filing system that is capable of differentiating familiar events from other occasions.[1] Baddeley has separated the mental filing system into three categories. According to Baddeley[1] the first system allows you to encode that particular experience in a way that will distinguish it from others. Second, system requires a method of storing the event in a durable form, and the third system requires a method of searching the system and retrieving that particular memory.These filing systems allows us to build a memory catalog of particular events took place in the past. Conjuring up the sequence of events from the past causes a person to relive the experience in their minds.[3] Semantic and episodic memory together make up the category of declarative memory, which is one of the two major divisions of memory – the other is implicit memory.[4] The capacity to recollect specific events (episodic memory) assist in forming the basis of semantic memory.[1] The term "episodic memory" was coined by Endel Tulving in 1972. He was referring to the distinction between knowing and remembering. Knowing is more factual (semantic) whereas remembering is a feeling that is located in the past (episodic).[5] Tulving has seminally defined three key properties of episodic memory recollection. These are a subjective sense of time (or mental time travel), connection to the self, and autonoetic consciousness. Autonoetic consciousness refers to a special kind of consciousness that accompanies the act of remembering which enables an individual to be aware of the self in a subjective time. Subjective experiences go hand and hand with episodic memory.[3] Aside from Tulving, others named the important aspects of recollection which includes visual imagery, narrative structure, retrieval of semantic information and the feelings of familiarity.[6] Events that are recorded into episodic memory may trigger episodic learning, i.e. a change in behavior that occurs as a result of an event.[7][8] For example, a fear of dogs after being bitten by a dog is a result of episodic learning. Episodic learning protects one from reliving unpleasant events that happened in the past. Unpleasant memories of the past can be so strong that is causes one to uproot themselves from a harmful place.[9] One of the main components of episodic memory is the process of recollection. Recollection is a process that elicits the retrieval of contextual information pertaining to a specific event or experience that has occurred. Nine properties There are essentially nine properties of episodic memory that collectively distinguish it from other types of memory. Other types of memory may exhibit a few of these properties, but only episodic memory has all nine:[10] Contain summary records of sensory-perceptual-conceptual-affective processing. Retain patterns of activation/inhibition over long periods. Often represented in the form of (visual) images. They always have a perspective (field or observer). Represent short time slices of experience. They are represented on a temporal dimension roughly in order of occurrence. They are subject to rapid forgetting. They make autobiographical remembering specific. They are recollectively experienced when accessed. Cognitive neuroscience The formation of new episodic memories requires the medial temporal lobe, a structure that includes the hippocampus. Without the medial temporal lobe, one is able to form new procedural memories (such as playing the piano) but cannot remember the events during which they happened (See the hippocampus and memory). The prefrontal cortex (and in particular the left hemisphere) is also involved in the formation of new episodic memories (also known as episodic encoding). Patients with damage to the prefrontal cortex can learn new information, but tend to do so in a disordered fashion. For example, they might show normal recognition of an object they had seen in the past, but fail to recollect when or where it had been viewed.[11] Some researchers believe that the prefrontal cortex helps organize information for more efficient storage, drawing upon its role in executive function. Others believe that the prefrontal cortex underlies semantic strategies which enhance encoding, such as thinking about the meaning of the study material or rehearsing it in working memory.[12] Researchers do not agree about how long episodic memories are stored in the hippocampus. Some researchers believe that episodic memories always rely on the hippocampus. Others believe the hippocampus only stores episodic memories for a short time, after which the memories are consolidated to the neocortex. The latter view is strengthened by recent evidence that neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus may ease the removal of old memories and increase the efficiency of forming new memories.[13] Relationship to semantic memory Endel Tulving originally described episodic memory as a record of a person's experience that held temporally dated information and spatio-temporal relations.[14] A feature of episodic memory that Tulving later elaborates on is that it allows an agent to imagine traveling back in time.[15] A current situation may cue retrieval of a previous episode, so that context that colours the previous episode is experienced at the immediate moment. The agent is provided with a means of associating previous feelings with current situations. Semantic memory, on the other hand, is a structured record of facts, concepts, and skills that we have acquired. Memory recall is a social process.[16] Semantic information is derived from accumulated episodic memory. Episodic memory can be thought of as a "map" that ties together items in semantic memory. Specific memories become more significant as the memories become a requirement of social expectation[16]. For example, all encounters with how a "dog" looks and sounds will make up the semantic representation of that word. All episodic memories concerning a dog will then reference this single semantic representation of "dog" and, likewise, all new experiences with the dog will modify the single semantic representation of that dog. The formulation of semantic memory relies on prior experiences and knowledge. Memory is built upon experiences and knowledge that consist of semantic and episodic memory. Together, semantic and episodic memory make up our declarative memory.[17] They each represent different parts of context to form a complete picture. As such, something that affects episodic memory can also affect semantic memory. For example, anterograde amnesia, from damage of the medial temporal lobe, is an impairment of declarative memory that affects both episodic and semantic memory operations.[18] Originally, Tulving proposed that episodic and semantic memory were separate systems that competed with each other in retrieval. However, this theory was rejected when Howard and Kahana completed experiments on latent semantic analysis (LSA) that supported the opposite. Instead of an increase in semantic similarity when there was a decrease in the strength of temporal associations, the two worked together so semantic cues on retrieval were strongest when episodic cues were strong as well.[19] Age differences Further information: Memory and aging Episodic memory emerges at approximately 3- to 4-years-of-age.[20] Activation of specific brain areas (mostly the hippocampus) seems to be different between younger and older people upon episodic memory retrieval.[21] Older people tend to activate both their left and right hippocampus, while younger people activate only the left one. Age has an effect on episodic memory. One of the many contributors of not being able to recall specific memories is learning newer recallable memories.[22] The storage capacity of human memory maybe unlimited but the retrieval of memory capacity is very limited. Events that are not relived through memory on a consistent basis become harder to retain as one ages. For example, one receives a compliment in their adolescent years and runs into the same person that complimented them in middle adulthood but does not recall the person nor do they recall the compliment. As one ages, the memories that were once recallable become unrecallable.[22] Memory that has been lost due to aging can be retrieved or enhanced through exposure of past memories. According to Bruno memory can be recalled using the three stages of operation to recall past memories.[23] The first stage is remembering the encoding of materials into memory by manipulating how and when the stimuli is being presented. Second, store the memory over a period of time. The duration of storage and when the storage is being retrieved are two factors that are used to test memory. Lastly, the successful retrieval of the required material from the memory that was stored. Relationship of emotion and memory The relationship between emotion and memory is complex, but generally, emotion tends to increase the likelihood that an event will be remembered later and that it will be remembered vividly. Flashbulb memory is one example of this. An example of this would be an experience such as a close family member dying or the Christmas that you got the exact toy you wanted as a kid.The experience holds so much emotional significance that it is encoded as an extremely vivid, almost picture-perfect memory. Memories of schools and roads that were traveled frequently hold a history of emotions and memories.[9] However, whether the vividness of the flashbulb memory is due to a virtual "flash" that occurs because of the emotional experience has been hotly contested. Flashbulb memories may occur because of our propensity to rehearse and retell those highly emotional events, which strengthens the memory <McCloskey, Wibble & Cohen, 1988 The recollection of memories that are unfavorable or less emotional will not be as vivid as the memories that are pleasant or the memories that are recalled of a joyful episode'''. References Hasselmo, M. E. (2011). How We Remember : Brain Mechanisms of Episodic Memory. Cambridge, US: The MIT Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.library3.webster.edu Benjamin, A. S. (Ed.). (2011). Successful Remembering and Successful Forgetting : A Festschrift in Honor of Robert A. Bjork (1). London, US: Psychology Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.library3.webster.edu Bruno, D. (Ed.). (2015). The Preservation of Memory. Florence, US: Psychology Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.library3.webster.edu Starzmann, M. T., & Roby, J. R. (Eds.). (2016). Cultural Heritage Studies : Excavating Memory : Sites of Remembering and Forgetting. Gainesville, US: University Press of Florida. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.library3.webster.edu Series in Continental Thought : Time, Memory, Institution : Merleau-Ponty’s New Ontology of Self (1). (2015). Athens, US: Ohio University Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.library3.webster.edu Baddeley, A., Eysenck, M., & Anderson, M. (2009). Memory. New York, NY: Psychology Press