Episodic vs. Semantic Memory

• Memory records a multitude of things

Episodic Memory vs Semantic Memory

• Episodic memory enables the ability to "relive" events
• Semantic memory is memory for facts irrespective of context
• Years later, women may relive taking a selfie (episodic) and recall the occasion (episodic), and even those who took it (semantic)
• Episodic and semantic elements interact

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

• LTM stores information for long periods and is an “archive” of information about past events and knowledge
• Storage stretches from moments ago to as far back as memories extend
• LTM coordinates with working memory to create ongoing experience

Comparing Short-Term Memory (STM) and LTM Processes

• The serial position curve distinguishes between short-term and long-term processes
• The serial position curve is created by presenting a list of words and having participants recall them in any order
• The curve plots the percentage of participants that remembered the word versus its position on the list
• Memory is better for words at the beginning and end of the list
• Primacy effect: Participants are more likely to remember words presented at the beginning of a sequence
• Participants rehearse these words and transfer them to LTM
• Recency effect: Better memory for stimuli presented at the end of a sequence
• Lately presented words are still in STM

Coding in Short-Term and Long-Term Memory

• Coding refers to the form in which stimuli are represented
• Types include: visual, auditory and semantic
• Visual coding: remembering a pattern by representing it visually
• Auditory coding: misidentifying target letters as another letter that sounds like the target
• Semantic coding: releasing from proactive interference depending on words' categories

Neuropsychology

• HM or Henry Molaison, had his hippocampus removed, and thus lost ability to form new LTMs
• Working memory and short-term memory remained
• Patient KF had normal LTM and poor STM
• Double dissociation: Indicates STM and LTM operate independently

Episodic and Semantic Memory Distinctions

• Episodic: Memory for experiences, "reliving", involves mental time travel
• Semantic: Memory for facts, involves accessing knowledge about the world, does not need to be tied to a memory

Brain Imaging

• Brian Levine discovered brain activation associated with episodic and semantic memories using cross-section brain images (Yellow and blue areas respectively)
• This shows that although there can be overlap between both memory types, there are major differences

Interaction between Episodic and Semantic Memory

• Episodic and semantic memories are often intertwined
• Knowledge affects experience and autobiographical memory
• Autobiographical Memory: Memory for specific experiences from one's own life, which can include both episodic and semantic components
• Personal semantic memories are semantic memories that are associated with personal experiences
  • These personal experiences can enhance the recall of semantic information
• Semantic memory for “facts” is enhanced only when episodic memory is present
• A memory losing its episodic character

Remember/Know procedure

• Recollection (episodic)
• Familiarity (semantic)
• Procedure is based on the idea that recollection is associated with episodic memory, and familiarity is associated with semantic memory.

Back to the Future

• Recalling past events and imaging future events are linked
• A suggested function of episodic memory is to help anticipate future needs and guide future behavior

Types of Long-Term Memory

• Explicit: memories a person is aware of
• Implicit: occurs when learning from experience is not accompanied by conscious remembering

Procedure

• Also called skill memory
• Procedural: motor skills and implicit
• The implicit nature of procedural memory has been demonstrated in patients who have impaired explicit memory, but can still learn new skills
• Procedural memory enables one to carry out skilled acts without thinking, or expert-induced amnesia

Is the Link Between Semantic and Episodic Memory Similar to the Link between Procedural and Semantic Memory

• Both indicate knowledge and can be used to enhance a particular type of information

Priming

• Presentation of one stimulus (the priming stimulus) changes the way a person responds to another stimulus (the test stimulus)

Classical Conditioning

• Classically conditioned emotions occur in everyday experience
• Involves the implicit system when two stimuli are paired, and a response is observed

Depictions of Memory Loss in Movies

• Jason Bourne is an example of loss of both memory and identity, but is still able to use skills
• A rare condition this is related to is psychogenic fugue
• Dory from Finding Nemo has trouble making new LTMs
• The movie “50 First Dates” depicts what it is like to have amnesia, forgetting everything at the end of each day