Episodic memory is the memory of on a regular basis occasions (reminiscent of occasions, location geography, related feelings, and different contextual information) that may be explicitly said or conjured. It's the gathering of previous private experiences that occurred at explicit times and locations; for example, the occasion on one's seventh birthday. Together with semantic memory, it contains the category of specific memory, certainly one of the 2 main divisions of lengthy-time period memory (the opposite being implicit memory). The term "episodic memory" was coined by Endel Tulving in 1972, referring to the distinction between realizing and Memory Wave Method remembering: knowing is factual recollection (semantic) whereas remembering is a feeling that's located prior to now (episodic). Considered one of the principle parts of episodic memory is the strategy of recollection, which elicits the retrieval of contextual info pertaining to a specific occasion or experience that has occurred. Except for Tulving, others named extra points of recollection, together with visual imagery, narrative construction, retrieval of semantic info and feelings of familiarity.

There are primarily 9 properties of episodic Memory Wave Method that collectively distinguish it from other sorts of memory. 1. Comprise summary information of sensory-perceptual-conceptual-affective processing. 2. Retain patterns of activation/inhibition over lengthy durations. 3. Typically represented in the type of (visible) images. 4. They at all times have a perspective (subject or observer). 5. Represent short time slices of expertise. 6. They're represented on a temporal dimension roughly so as of prevalence. 7. They're subject to fast forgetting. 8. They make autobiographical remembering particular. 9. They're recollectively experienced when accessed. The formation of latest episodic recollections requires the medial temporal lobe, a structure that features the hippocampus. With out the medial temporal lobe, one is able to type new procedural recollections (corresponding to taking part in the piano) but can not remember the occasions throughout which they occurred (See the hippocampus and memory). The prefrontal cortex (and particularly the appropriate hemisphere) can also be involved in the formation of new episodic memories (also referred to as episodic encoding).

Patients with harm to the prefrontal cortex can learn new information, however tend to take action in a disordered style. For instance, they may show normal recognition of an object they'd seen prior to now, however fail to remember when or where it had been seen. Some researchers believe that the prefrontal cortex helps arrange info for more environment friendly storage, drawing upon its position in government function. Others believe that the prefrontal cortex underlies semantic strategies which enhance encoding, corresponding to pondering about the meaning of the research materials or rehearsing it in working memory. Different work has shown that portions of the inferior parietal lobe play a task in episodic memory, doubtlessly appearing as an accumulator to assist the subjective feeling that one thing is "outdated", or maybe supporting psychological imagery which allows you a sense of the vividness of memories. Researchers do not agree about how long episodic recollections are stored in the hippocampus.

Some researchers imagine that episodic recollections all the time depend on the hippocampus. Others imagine the hippocampus solely stores episodic reminiscences for a short while, after which the memories are consolidated to the neocortex. The latter view is strengthened by latest proof that neurogenesis in the grownup hippocampus may ease the removing of old reminiscences and enhance the effectivity of forming new memories. Endel Tulving initially described episodic memory as a document of an individual's experience that held temporally dated information and spatio-temporal relations. A function of episodic memory that Tulving later elaborates on is that it permits an agent to think about traveling back in time. A present situation could cue retrieval of a previous episode, in order that context that colours the previous episode is experienced at the rapid moment. The agent is supplied with a technique of associating previous feelings with present conditions. Semantic memory, alternatively, is a structured document of facts, concepts, and Memory Wave expertise that we've got acquired.