Episodic memory and common sense: how far apart?

Research has revealed facts about human memory in general and episodic memo ry in particular that deviate from both common sense and previously accepte d ideas. This paper discusses some of these. deviations in light of the pro ceedings of The Royal Society's Discussion Meeting on episodic memory. Retr ieval processes play a more critical role in memory than commonly assumed; people can remember events that never happened; and conscious thoughts abou t one's personal past can take two distinct forms-'autonoetic' remembering and 'noetic' knowing. The serial-dependent-independent (SPI) model of the r elations among episodic, semantic and perceptual memory systems accounts fo r a number of puzzling phenomena, such as some amnesic patients' preserved recognition memory and their ability to learn new semantic facts, and holds that episodic remembering of perceptual information can occur only by virt ue of its mediation through semantic memory. Although common sense endows m any animals with the ability to remember their past experiences, as yet the re is no evidence that humanlike episodic memory-defined in terms of subjec tive time, self, and autonoetic awareness-is present in any other species.