Episodic / Semantic Memory Part 2

Question 1

What is Phenomenology?

Answer 1

the direct investigation and description of phenomena as consciously experienced.

Question 2

Where did phenomenology originate?

Answer 2

• Originated as a philosophical movement in the 20th Century, often tied to the work of Edmund Husserl, but can be traced back to thinkers like Hegel (who himself was motivated by the work of Immanuel Kant).

Question 3

How do we test/examine phenomenology in psychology?

Answer 3

In psychology, we examine phenomenology through methods like subjective ratings and narrative (oral/written) descriptions.

Question 4

Phenomenology of Semantic Memory

Answer 4

Characterized by noetic consciousness: “allows an organism to be aware of, and to cognitively operate on, objects and events, and relations among objects and events, in the absence of these objects and events”

Question 5

Key idea of noetic consciousness?

Answer 5

memories are recalled independent from their context of acquisition (where/when they were obtained)

Question 6

Phenomenology of Episodic Memory

Answer 6

Autonoetic consciousness: “mediates an individual’s awareness of their existence and identity in subjective time extending from the personal past through the present to the personal future”

Question 7

Key point of autonoetic consciousness?

Answer 7

memories are tied to context of acquisition → autobiographical reference/mental time travel.

Question 8

RECAP: main differences between the key points of noetic vs autonoetic memory?

Answer 8

• Noetic (semantic): NOT tied to the context of acquisition
• Autonoetic (episodic): IS tied to the context of acquisition

Question 9

Hippocampus + Memory: how does it help encode place? RAT EXAMPLE

Answer 9

Rats placed in perceptually similar looking rooms → place cells (which activate with an animal in a certain environment/location) still showed unique firing patterns in each room; they were able to create cognitive maps despite looking very similar

Question 10

How does the hippocampus help encode time?

Answer 10

Time cells consistently fire for brief periods at successive moments within temporally structured experiences

Question 11

How to time cells + place cells work together?

Answer 11

• Time cells are in the same population of neurons as place cells (some cells function as both) → both work together to encode events.

Question 12

Limitations of Episodic and Semantic Distinction - how should the two be conceptualized?

Breaking Down the Distinction: Continuum Perspective

Answer 12

Though historical research has supported a distinction between episodic and semantic memory, converging evidence is highlighting that the distinction ought not to be conceptualized as categorical.

Question 13

How should semantic and episodic memory be conceptualized?

Answer 13

Instead, semantic and episodic memory can be thought of as two extremes on a memory continuum, a theory we will refer to as the continuum perspective.

Question 14

Phenomenological Evidence for the Continuum Perspective

Answer 14

• Personal semantic forms of memory: encapsulates forms of memory which are intermediate on a semantic-episodic continuum.
• This is an example of an event that neither falls directly into semantic or episodic, but rather, draws from both
• Our focus - repeated events (EX: weekly soccer practice, annual birthdays)

Question 15

Intermediate Memories: WHY? - personal semantic forms of memory + context of acquisition

Answer 15

• Personal semantic forms of memory are, to varying degrees, attached to their context of acquisition (i.e., the time/place the memory was learned) and personal (autobiographically referential).
• Memories which are more attached to their context of acquisition and more personal are more related to episodic memory

Question 16

Neuroscience Evidence For the Continuum Perspective

Answer 16

Episodic and semantic memory both activate a common neural network (the default-mode network) but activity in this network increases when moving along the semantic-episodic continuum

Question 17

REVIEW

Question 18

1) (Re)define semantic and episodic memory and their phenomenological characteristics

Answer 18

• Semantic memory: memory of facts, information, general knowledge, detached from context of acquisition; involves noetic consciousness
• Episodic: memory of specific events localized in time and place, attached to context of acquisition; involves autonoetic consciousness

Question 19

2) Describe the neuroscience of semantic and episodic memory at a macro (brain region/network) level and micro (cellular) level