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.

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Psychology term of the day

November 16th 2024

trajectories of dying

the rate of movement and the length of the passage from a life-threatening condition to death. In 1968, U.S. sociologists Barney G. Glaser (1930– ) and Anselm L. Strauss (1916–1996) developed a classification of dying trajectories, two of which have received particular attention from clinicians and researchers. The first, the lingering trajectory, is often characteristic of long-term, terminally ill patients who seldom receive aggressive, all-out treatment. By contrast, the second is the quick trajectory associated with an emergency situation, in which any possible intervention to save a person’s life might be attempted.