Memory is one of the most complex and important cognitive processes for human beings. It allows us to store data about the world around us, remember the birthdays of our loved ones or when and where a friend’s wedding took place.
It is a key function for our survival. Could you imagine living without memory? We would not remember absolutely anything we have learned and we would have to constantly relearn.
All people, in a more or less profound way, are familiar with the concept of memory, but could you explain what episodic memory and semantic memory are? Keep reading this Psychology-Online article in which we tell you The meaning and difference between episodic and semantic memory.
What is episodic memory
Memory constitutes the ability of animals to acquire, store and recover different types of knowledge (Ruiz-Vargas, 2010, pg22). Both episodic and semantic memory are classified within memory, which is a relatively permanent information storage system that allows a person to store, retrieve and use skills and knowledge long after acquiring them. Long-term memory according to Squire’s (2004) classification is divided, in turn, into two types: declarative or explicit memory and non-declarative or implicit memory. Within the first group, knowledge can be declared, we find 2 types of memory: episodic memory and semantic memory.
The is the one in which the knowledge related to facts from a person’s life. It is limited to time and space. It is the type of memory that intervenes when remembering how, when and where our first date was or where we were and what we were doing when the state of alarm was declared due to the covid pandemic. It is the memory of anecdotes, of experiences.
What is semantic memory
Semantic memory is the other type of declarative memory, within the classification of long-term memory. Semantic memory is that in which knowledge about the world is found. It is the memory that stores the information related to the concepts. It also participates in complex cognitive processes such as object recognition and/or the use of language. This type of memory stores knowledge such as what a table is, what it is used for, where the United States is and what its capital is, or what type of animals exist in the world.
4 differences between episodic and semantic memory
What is the difference between episodic memory and semantic memory? Although both types of memory are part of declarative long-term memory, you will have seen in the previous sections that there are differences between them. Below we present the main differences following González Rodríguez, B. and Muñoz-Marrón, E. (2008):
1. Spatiotemporal parameters
Although we have already commented on it in the description of each type of memory, episodic memory would be linked to a spatiotemporal context and semantic memory would be independent of this aspect. For example, when you remember the birth of your daughter, this memory is linked to a specific date and a specific place. However, the meaning of “house” is not linked to any of these parameters.
2. Vulnerability to forgetting
The Episodic memory would be more vulnerable to forgetting than semantic memory. That is, it is easier to forget what we were doing the day Spain won the 2010 World Cup in South Africa than to forget how many legs a dog has.
3. The organization of content
The organization of content in semantic memory follows a conceptual pattern while the organization in episodic memory is spatiotemporal. That is, the information semantic memory is organized by concepts (what is a cow, cow belongs to the animals category, what is a hammer, what is it used for, etc.) while the information of Episodic memory is organized according to events in a place and time (what I did the day my cousin got married, what plans I had last weekend when I went to my town, etc.).
4. Information learned or not explicitly learned
In the case of episodic memory, the facts have been encoded in memory explicitly; however, in semantic memory there may be information that, although it has not been learned explicitly, can be found implicit in the content. This is, in episodic memory we have had to live the events or they have had to tell us; in semantic memory, you have acquired the concept of “goldfinch”, you know that it is a type of bird, but you did not need to know that it flies because it is already an inherent characteristic of the concept.
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References
- Ruiz-Vargas, J.M. (2010). Introduction: What is memory? In Ruiz-Vargas, JM (2010). Manual of memory psychology (pp19-40) Madrid: Síntesis.
- Squire, R.L. (2004). Memory systems of the brain: A brief history and current perspective. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 82, 171-177.
- González Rodríguez, B. and Muñoz-Marrón, E. (2008). Memory stimulation in older people. Madrid: Synthesis