Event memory

A theory of memory for laboratory, autobiographical, and fictional events.

Bibliographic Data

ID23344644
AuthorsDavid C Rubin (0000-0003-1756-3531, Duke University), Sharda Umanath (0000-0002-6699-4357, Duke University)
Year2015
Volume122
Issue1
Pages1-23
Publication date2015-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-295X • E-ISSN: 1939-1471
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/a0037907
PMID25330330
PMCIDPMC4295926
OpenAlexW2105162193
LanguageEN
Citations received92
References cited55

An event memory is a mental construction of a scene recalled as a single occurrence. It therefore requires the hippocampus and ventral visual stream needed for all scene construction. The construction need not come with a sense of reliving or be made by a participant in the event, and it can be a summary of occurrences from more than one encoding. The mental construction, or physical rendering, of any scene must be done from a specific location and time; this introduces a "self" located in space and time, which is a necessary, but need not be a sufficient, condition for a sense of reliving. We base our theory on scene construction rather than reliving because this allows the integration of many literatures and because there is more accumulated knowledge about scene construction's phenomenology, behavior, and neural basis. Event memory differs from episodic memory in that it does not conflate the independent dimensions of whether or not a memory is relived, is about the self, is recalled voluntarily, or is based on a single encoding with whether it is recalled as a single occurrence of a scene. Thus, we argue that event memory provides a clearer contrast to semantic memory, which also can be about the self, be recalled voluntarily, and be from a unique encoding; allows for a more comprehensive dimensional account of the structure of explicit memory; and better accounts for laboratory and real-world behavioral and neural results, including those from neuropsychology and neuroimaging, than does episodic memory.

Autobiographical memory · Chronesthesia · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Conflation · Encoding (memory) · Episodic memory · Event (particle physics) · Explicit memory · Memory errors · Recall · Reconstructive memory · Retrospective memory · Semantic memory · Visual memory · Computer Science · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Memory and Neural Mechanisms · Memory Processes and Influences · Neuroscience · Psychology

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