Motivation and emotion/Book/2021/Episodic memory and planning

Overview
This chapter examines the term episodic memory and how it affects future planning. We will be going into the details of why it exists, the science behind it and what role memory plays in planning for the future.

Included in the article is a quiz, some imagery and addition links in order to dive into the topic further.

What is episodic memory?
Episodic memory is the ability to remember personally experienced events and situations. These memories include details of the context of the event, emotions associated with it and specific details of the event (Tulving, 1993).

Examples of episodic memory (Perera, 2021):
 * Buying your first car
 * Graduating university
 * Your first kiss
 * What you ate for dinner
 * Your friend's birthday party
 * First day at school



Episodic memory and future planning
As episodic memory allows for the recall of specific events, this cognitive function contributes to future planning. With the ability to remember events, past feelings and emotions associated with past experiences, you are able to use this information for future planning purposes (How Episodic Memory Helps You Remember Events, 2020). For example, if you got food poisoning from a Mexican restaurant, you would be very hesitant to go there again as you would remember how you felt previously. This recall of information would lead you to choosing a different restaurant for food next time as you would want to avoid feeling like that again.

Why does Episodic Memory exist?
The oxford handbook of comparative evolutionary psychology has looked into the theory and reasoning for episodic memory (Vonk & Shackelford, 2012). They have listed 3 main reasons for this theory.


 * to use past information to solve problems in the present and for future issues
 * to provide knowledge about oneself in the past and as predicted in the future
 * to allow humans to understand and empathize while providing information and memories for conversation

The role of Episodic memory in planning
According to the Constructive Episodic Simulation Hypothesis developed in 2007, the ability to remember past events and imagine future events is due to episodic memory (Schacter & Addis, 2007).

When imagining future events, the aspect of the brain that lights up, also becomes active when we remember our past and or past events. The similarity of brain activity indicates that when we draw on memories or imagine future plans, we draw on the same areas of the brain that is required.

A case study from 2019 looked into what is the role of episodic foresight in planning for future needs. Their results indicated that where there were strong feelings or memories against an event which determined future planning, this was confirmed to be influenced by episodic memory (Cheke & Clayton, 2019).

In addition, an article written in 2001 has looked into the concept of ‘episodic future thinking’: a projection of the self into the future to pre-experience an event. This research used the theory of episodic memory combined with future planning to predict one feelings, emotions and thoughts for future events or scenarios (Atance & O’Neill, 2001).

While these articles are looking at different aspects, all three of these case studies provide an explanation as to the connection of memory and planning. These articles also pose the question of, if we alter someone's memory, can that alter their future? These are the lead on questions that would be fascinating to look into.

How memory affects the planning of adults with Depression or Alzheimer
Recent research has uncovered that people who are depressed have impaired memory that makes it difficult to not only remember previous memories and events but makes it difficult to imagine future events as well. Due to the loss of connection, this can make their situation more difficult (L, 2015).

In addition, another study has looked into the connection of episodic memory and future planning amongst older adults with alzheimer's and amnesia. The results revealed that when episodic memory is compromised there is a corresponding loss of details in future events that they imagined (Madore et al., 2014).

Both of these pieces of research indicate that if there are aspects of the brain that aren't healthy, this can lead to difficulty either viewing the future or creating current memories.

Comment: Adults with depression might struggle to integrate and organize information effectively. This can hinder their ability to generate and execute well-structured plans. Reduced Motivation: Depression can lead to decreased motivation and interest in activities, making it challenging to engage in complex planning tasks. The lack of motivation might result in poor execution of plans.

Quiz
Take a quick quiz to see if you understand the concept!

{Episodic memory and future planning activate the same components in the brain: + True - False
 * type=""}

{Episodic memory is based off how you were raised: - True + False
 * type=""}

Conclusion
Episodic memory is the ability to remember personally experienced events, situations and emotions attached (Gillund, 2012).This type of memory allows you to recall your first kiss, first car or even your graduation. While this type of memory allows for the recall of emotions or feelings, it also can affect how someone plans for the future. Since episodic memory and future planning utilize the same area of the brain, studies have found that they not only work together and influence each other, but if one aspect isn't working correctly, the other element is negatively influenced. This type of research has informed us that episodic memory and future planning play a large role in working together to create new memory with the ability to plan ahead for more.

The future recommendation will be to look at the relationship between fake memories and future planning and future planning based on someone else recollection. This type of future research may assist brain injury victims and those without the ability to create memories.

External sources

 * Differences and diagrams of episodic and semantic memory - (The Human Memory)
 * Episodic Memory (sciencedirect.com)
 * Episodic and Semantic Memory - (human-memory.net)
 * Memory is often a large part of a person's identity - (memory.ucsf.edu)
 * Episodic Memory: From Mind to Brain - (annualreviews.org)