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.

Browse dictionary by letter

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Psychology term of the day

January 18th 2025

repression

1. in classical psychoanalytic theory and other forms of depth psychology, the basic defense mechanism that excludes painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from consciousness. Repression operates on an unconscious level as a protection against anxiety produced by objectionable sexual wishes, feelings of hostility, and ego-threatening experiences and memories of all kinds. It also comes into play in many other forms of defense, as in denial, in which individuals avoid unpleasant realities by first trying to repress them and then negating them when repression fails. See primary repression; repression proper.

2. the oppression or exclusion of individuals or groups through limitations on their personal rights and liberties.

3. more generally, the process of restricting, restraining, or subduing something or someone. Compare suppression. —repress vb.