episodic memory

Meaning: Episodic memory is a form of explicit (declarative) long-term memory for events you personally experienced, stored with their context: when, where, and how you felt. Recalling one feels like re-living it, such as your high school graduation. The hippocampus is central to forming new explicit memories, and long-term storage involves the cortex. Emotional episodes are often more vivid, with the amygdala contributing.

On the MCAT: Passages sort long-term memory into explicit (episodic and semantic) and implicit (procedural, priming, conditioning). Expect to classify a scenario or to predict what a patient with hippocampal damage loses. In anterograde amnesia, forming new explicit memories is impaired, while procedural skills can often still be learned. Flashbulb memories and context-dependent recall are episodic examples.

Common confusion: Episodic and semantic memory get swapped. Knowing that Paris is the capital of France is semantic; remembering the day you learned it is episodic. Ask whether the memory carries a personal time and place. Also, episodic is not implicit: both episodic and semantic memory are explicit because they are consciously recalled.