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Amnesia And Episodic Memory

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Amnesia can be defined as “the loss of memory due to physical and/or psychological conditions” (Chara and Chara, 2013). It is often attributed to memory loss for a specific period of time. There are different types of amnesia, including organic, psychogenic, transient and persistent (Baddeley, Kopelman, and Wilson 2003). Often two different types of memory functioning are exhibited in amnesia, anterograde and retrograde. Anterograde memory is information that is gained following the onset of an injury or disease, and retrograde memory is the information that was obtained before the event happened (Baddeley at al., 2003). Other aspects of memory can also be affected by amnesia, including, long-term, declarative or non-declarative, implicit …show more content…

They question the “Multiple Trace Theory” and the “Cognitive Map Theory”. The “Multiple Trace Theory” elucidates that a “functional relation” between episodic and semantic memory are under the control of the hippocampus, while the “Cognitive Map Theory” says that ‘allocentric spatial map’ (which is a “representation encoding relations between objects, independent of the observer’s opinion”), is stored in the hippocampus, and it has been argued that “hippocampal trace access” is required to recall an event (Gomez, Rousset and Charnallet, 2011). Gomez, Rousett and Charnallet (2011) tested M.R on his ability to process “egocentric-updating of spatial information” in order to find the role of the “egocentric-updating representation” for episodic memory, and to test the “Multiple Trace Theory” hypothesis, which suggests that episodic memory has a particular role in allocentric representation. The main aims of the study were to provide insight into spatial deficits that are observed after a bilateral hippocampal lesion that involves temporo-parietal structures and to assess ego-centric updating with “self-motion representation and allocentric representation” (Gomez, Rousset and Charnallet, 2011). Patient M.R. was compared to controls and was tested on motor path reproduction tasks and path reproduction drawing tasks. It was hypothesised by the researchers that M.R. would be unable to process idiothetic information (internal cues) through either task. The results of the study revealed that M.R. fell within the impaired range when he was asked to learn the task on the basis of idiothetic information. He was also found to fall within the impaired range in the allothetic encoding condition (external cues), but this was only apparent when he needed to depend on idiothetic

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