episodic memory
the ability to remember personally experienced events associated with a particular time and place. As defined in 1972 by Endel Tulving, episodic memory supplements semantic memory as a form of declarative memory. Although Tulving’s original description of episodic memory required recollecting the three ‘Ws’ of an event—what, where, and when—it has since been revised to include a sense of self-awareness and a subjective conscious experience as well (termed autonoetic consciousness). In other words, in addition to recalling the facts of a past event, an individual has to engage in “mental time travel” and remember that he or she was the one who lived the event. The hippocampus plays a key role in episodic memory formation and retrieval. Atrophy of this area and structures in the associated hippocampal formation is a hallmark feature of Alzheimer’s disease, although episodic
memory also declines considerably with normal aging. See also autobiographical memory.