German contributions to research on episodic memory

The paper deals with the study of remembering episodes and particularly wit h German contributions to the field. It is characteristic for remembering e pisodes that we experience them only once and not repeatedly as in multitri al learning. The paper focuses on three distinctions which are made in stud ying episodic memory. These distinctions refer to modality-specific and amo dal (conceptual) information, item-specific and relational information, and automatic and controlled processes. Among them, the distinction between mo dality-specific and amodal conceptual information is the most important. It is argued that the assumption of storing modality-specific besides concept ual information is indispensable and that it modifies the assumptions conce rning the two other distinctions. Relational information refers to conceptu al knowledge and is independent of modality-specific information processing , whereas encoding and retrieval of item-specific information is dependent on modality-specific processes. The distinction between automatic and contr olled processes is obviously relevant. However, it turns out that this dist inction is difficult to define conceptually and operationally. Interestingl y, this distinction has attracted more attention in the context of retrieva l than of encoding processes. The most important progress has been made in applying it to the processes underlying recognition memory.