Episodic Memory
• Memory for an episode or event in your own life

Episodic Memory
• Memory for an episode or event in your own life
• Has temporal context (entails a sense of duration and date)

Episodic Memory
• Memory for an episode or event in your own life
• Has temporal context (entails a sense of duration and date)
• examples:
– recall breakfast
– what happened this weekend

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Recall is highly sensitive to context -
Similarities in context (especially smell) can trigger vivid recollections

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Memory is affected by the nature of your engagement with the information
• Levels-of-Processing Theory

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Memory is affected by the nature of your engagement with the information
• Levels-of-Processing Theory
– Consider this experiment:
List
CAT pie
PILLOW
TREE
Method of Learning
• stating capitals or lower-case
•repeating words
• putting words into a sentence
Recall is tested some time later.

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Memory is affected by the nature of your engagement with the information
• Levels-of-Processing Theory
– Consider this experiment:
List
CAT pie
PILLOW
TREE
Result:
•Best recall with “deep” processing
•Worst recall with “surface” processing

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Memory is affected by the nature of your engagement with the information
• Interpretation:
– the successful use of memory depends on the number of connections that are made between related items and the degree to which these are initially activated

Recalling Episodic Memory
• context is critical!
– location, physiological state, etc. affect ability to recall
– e.g. lists of words are recalled better when recalled where they were first learned

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Recall is a generative processes rather than simply calling up stored data

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Recall is a generative processes rather than simply calling up stored data
• Evidenced by the fact that episodic memories can be distorted or completely false under certain circumstances

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Misinformation Effect - exposure to information subsequent to storage of memory can alter the contents of the memory

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Misinformation Effect
• Consider the following example:
– Subjects were shown a video depicting a car accident

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Misinformation Effect
• Consider the following example:
– Subjects were shown a video depicting a car accident
– Then given the following question: “How fast were the vehicles going when they ______”

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Misinformation Effect
• Consider the following example:
– Subjects were shown a video depicting a car accident
– Then given the following question: “How fast were the vehicles going when they ______”
– Different subjects were asked questions that differed in the “magnitude” of the final word

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Misinformation Effect
• Consider the following example:
– Subjects were shown a video depicting a car accident
– Then given the following question: “How fast were the vehicles going when they ______”
– Different subjects were asked questions that differed in the “magnitude” of the final word
– The possible words were: Contacted, Hit,
Bumped, Collided, and Smashed

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Misinformation Effect
• Consider the following example:
– Average estimated velocity depended on the nature of the question

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Misinformation Effect
• Interpretation:
– Episodic memory can be distorted by subsequent information

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Misinformation Effect
• Interpretation:
– Episodic memory can be distorted by subsequent information
– Memory might be directly altered - the
Changed-Trace Hypothesis
– A second competing memory could be created by the question, which interferes with the initial memory - the Multiple-Trace Hypothesis

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Memory for episodes in life can be illusory

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Memory for episodes in life can be illusory
• Consider this example:
– Subjects were given a list of words to remember via a video tape of a man and a woman speaking the words

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Memory for episodes in life can be illusory
• Consider this example:
– Subjects were given a list of words to remember via a video tape of a man and a woman speaking the words
– Then given a list of words, some but not all of which had been studied, and asked to indicate which speaker had said the word or indicate “not sure”

Recalling Episodic Memory
• Memory for episodes in life can be illusory
• Consider this example:
– Subjects were given a list of words to remember via a video tape of a man and a woman speaking the words
– Then given a list of words, some but not all of which had been studied, and asked to indicate which speaker had said the word or indicate “not sure”
– 87% of the unstudied words were attributed to one of the speakers !

Recalling Episodic Memory
• A particularly difficult challenge regarding such False Memories arises when details of a crime are in question as in eye-witness testimony or repressed memories of abuse during childhood

Implicit and Explicit Memory: yet another distinction
• The successful recall of episodic memory entails a conscious awareness for the contents of the memory

Implicit and Explicit Memory: yet another distinction
• The successful recall of episodic memory entails a conscious awareness for the contents of the memory
• Explicit Memory is any memory that is both available and accessible by consciousness

Implicit and Explicit Memory: yet another distinction
• Are all memories explicit? Is all information stored in the brain subject to conscious scrutiny?

Implicit and Explicit Memory: yet another distinction
• Are all memories explicit? Is all information stored in the brain subject to conscious scrutiny?
• Implicit Memory refers to encoded memories that are not part of the “contents” of awareness

Implicit and Explicit Memory: yet another distinction
• How can we know whether memory is stored/recalled implicitly or explicitly?

Implicit Memory
• Consider the following distinction in recalling items from a list of words:

Implicit Memory
• Consider the following distinction in recalling items from a list of words:
• Free Recall - subjects can be asked to simply recall and report as many items as possible - these items are accessible as explicit memory

Implicit Memory
• Consider the following distinction in recalling items from a list of words:
• Implicit Recall - subjects can be asked to complete a word stem with any word that comes to mind (no mention of testing memory!)

Implicit Memory
• Consider the following distinction in recalling items from a list of words:
• Implicit Recall - subjects can be asked to complete a word stem with any word that comes to mind (no mention of testing memory!)
But how do you know that information is stored/recalled implicitly? Couldn’t it be explicit?

Implicit Memory
• Consider the following distinction in recalling items from a list of words:
• Implicit Recall - subjects can be asked to complete a word stem with any word that comes to mind (no mention of testing memory!)
• Twist - require subject to complete stem with a word that wasn’t on the list - if a word from the list is used preferentially, it was remembered implicitly

Implicit Memory
Consider the implications regarding the nature of consciousness and the connection between neural activity and awareness

– Repressed Memories by Beth Loftus
– Wednesday - neuropsychology of LTM and discussion of The Lost Mariner by Sacks