Episodic memory

Episodic memory is the memory of everyday events. It is part of long-term memory. Memory includes things such as times, location geography, associated emotions, and other contextual information that can be explicitly stated or conjured. It is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at particular times and places; for example, the party on one's 7th birthday.^[1] Along with semantic memory, it comprises the category of explicit memory, one of the two major divisions of long-term memory (the other is implicit memory).^[2]

Nine properties

There are essentially nine properties of episodic memory that collectively distinguish it from other types of memory. Other types of memory may have a few of these properties, but only episodic memory has all nine:^[3]

1. Contain summary records of sensory-perceptual-conceptual-affective processing.
2. Retain patterns of activation/inhibition over long periods.
3. Often represented in the form of (visual) images.
4. They always have a perspective (field or observer).
5. Represent short time slices of experience.
6. They are represented on a temporal dimension roughly in order of occurrence.
7. They are subject to rapid forgetting.
8. They make autobiographical remembering specific.
9. They are recollectively experienced when accessed.