episodic

Meaning: Episodic memory is a type of explicit (declarative) long-term memory, so it can be consciously recalled and described. It stores personally experienced events with their context: when and where they happened and how they felt, such as your first day of college. Semantic memory is the companion type and holds general facts without that personal context. Both differ from implicit (nondeclarative) memory, such as procedural memory, priming and classical conditioning. The hippocampus is central to forming new explicit memories.

On the MCAT: Passages usually describe a person or task and ask you to classify the memory. Recalling your graduation is episodic, knowing that Paris is the capital of France is semantic, and riding a bike is procedural. A common vignette is hippocampal damage causing anterograde amnesia: the person struggles to form new explicit memories, episodic included, while procedural learning is often preserved. Flashbulb memories are vivid episodic memories of emotional events, though vividness and confidence do not guarantee accuracy.

Common confusion: Students sometimes place episodic memory under implicit memory, or think only semantic memory is explicit. Both are explicit. The test is whether the memory is tied to a personal experience at a particular time and place. Remembering the lecture where you learned a fact is episodic; the fact itself is semantic.