Episodic Memory Essay

Memories, both pleasant and unpleasant, are crucial parts of human existence, and have allowed us to survive and thrive to become the civilized society we are today. Within memory, there are two distinct types, each with their own purpose. Episodic memory is recalling a specific episode from the past, and being able to remember it in detail, not simply that it occurred. Semantic memory is factual memory, or being able to recall random tidbits of information. As information is absorbed by the learner, the information is likely episodic, meaning that the learner remembers learning it. This is especially beneficial in a school setting, for example. Students often recall information for exams by remembering when they learned it, and having this

When asked where they learned a piece of information, most young children claim that they “always knew it” or they simply didn’t know when or how they learned it. The present study, then, aims to examine this phenomenon, looking specifically at children between the ages of 4-5 years old and 7-9 years old, and trying to determine at what age children are able to recall specific episodic memories, and not strictly semantic

The fact that more of the older children were able to recall the episodic memories than the younger children suggests that episodic memory recollection abilities improve with age. Additionally, researchers were interested in whether there were any gender differences in memory recall within both age groups, and the results suggested that males reported having known the answer as opposed to simply guessed it more frequently than females. However, the female participants recalled episodic memories for 57% of the questions they answered correctly, whereas males only recalled episodes for 40% of the questions they answered correctly (Bemis et al,