What Is Episodic Memory?
With each of us in the past, many interesting stories are pleasant and, on the contrary, unpleasant to remember. Episodic memory is responsible for storing such data. With this, we form our own life experiences. Episodic and autobiographical memories play an essential role in your self-identification.
How Does Episodic Memory Work?
When you meet old friends, it is sometimes enjoyable to remember different stories that happened to you in the past. At the same time, you can remember that other participants in events can remember the situation differently, depending on what feelings and emotions they experienced simultaneously.
The storage of episodic and autobiographical memories plays an essential role in forming a person’s personality and worldview.
Research shows that several brain parts are responsible for storing and recalling episodic memories: the temporal, parietal, frontal cortices, the diencephalon, and the cerebellum. How well you reproduce the necessary memories is influenced by practice, genetics, and experience.
Types Of Episodic Memory
Researchers identify several types of episodic memory:
- Specific events;
- Personal facts;
- General events;
- Flash memories.
Specific events are memories of particular events in your life (first kiss, friend’s birthday, first day of school, and more). The hallmark of this type of memory is that the person remembers the time and place of events, other participants, and various other details.
Personal facts store enough personal information that others may not know, such as the name of your first boss or the brand of car you were given as an adult.
An excellent example of shared experiences is the feeling you get while riding a bike. You may not remember when you learned to hang and every time you rode this vehicle, but as soon as you see a bike, you immediately remember those feelings.
Very bright events are often reproduced with many emotions we produce with flashes. Sometimes it can be personal memories, such as when you discovered your family member had died. Or public, like when you first saw footage of the 9/11 attacks.
How Can Injury And Illness Affect This Type Of Memory?
Several diseases can have a very negative impact on the state of episodic memory. Among them are:
- Alzheimer’s disease;
- Dissociative disorders,
- Schizophrenia;
- Parkinson’s disease.
In some cases, the deterioration of episodic memory is one of the first symptoms of such diseases. However, many do not take this seriously enough, as this indicator is complicated to measure.
Traumatic brain injury, including concussion, can also adversely affect the state of this type of memory.
Bad habits can also affect the state of episodic memory. Many, being in a state of extreme intoxication, cannot remember in the morning the events that took place in the evening. Gradually you will be able to reproduce them as flashes, but in this case, it will be challenging to understand which are reliable and which are the result of fantasy.
How Can Episodic Memory Be Improved?
If the deterioration of episodic memory is not associated with diseases and injuries, you can quickly improve with a bit of practice.
Since this combines not only memory but also imagination, you should read more and scroll through the events that are discussed in the book in your head, like a movie.
It will also be good if you start learning the verses by heart. You have probably met people who, at the age of 85, recite poems by nature, which they learned in their school years. Maintaining such a good memory by this age is quite tricky, but if you exercise regularly, you can achieve outstanding results.
Also, the state of memory is well influenced by the solution of various logical problems. You do not need to buy a textbook on logic, do puzzles, solve crosswords and play board games. It will allow you to have fun and stimulate mental activity.
In The End
Episodic memory plays a huge role in the life of each of them. Its main goal is the formation of life experience. Thanks to this, if a child pours boiling water on himself, already in adulthood, he or she will cautiously refer to everything as hot.
