The mnemonic functions of episodic memory

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21591765
AutoresAngela Boyle (0000-0001-8827-5479, University of Cambridge, autor correspondente)
Ano2022
Volume35
Fascículo3
Páginas327-349
Data de publicação2022-04-03
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPhilosophical Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0951-5089 • E-ISSN: 1465-394X
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09515089.2021.1980520
OpenAlexW3200677545
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas13
Referências citadas43

Episodic memory is the form of memory involved in remembering personally experienced past events. Here, I address two questions about episodic memory’s function: what does episodic memory do for us, and why do we have it? Recent work addressing these questions has emphasized episodic memory’s role in imaginative simulation, criticizing the mnemonic view on which episodic memory is “for” remembering. In this paper, I offer a defense of the mnemonic view by highlighting an underexplored mnemonic function of episodic memory – namely, its role in the encoding, storage and retrieval of the type of information more standardly associated with semantic memory. I argue that in healthy individuals, episodic memory plays a central role in the encoding, storage and retrieval of prototypically semantic information, analogous to the role played by mind palaces in the method of loci, and may have been selected on for this reason. This suggests new directions for studying episodic memory, particularly in nonhuman animals

Autobiographical memory · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Episodic memory · Explicit memory · Eyewitness memory · Mnemonic · Recall · Reconstructive memory · Retrospective memory · Semantic memory · Child and Animal Learning Development · Memory and Neural Mechanisms · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior · Neuroscience · Psychology