PSYCHOLINGUISTIC

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EPISODIC MEMORY

TO EFL LEARNERS

By

A Hamzah Fansury

POST GRADUATE PROGRAM

STATE UNIVERSITY OF MAKASSAR

2016
 THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EPISODIC MEMORY
TO EFL LEARNERS
A Hamzah Fansury

INTRODUCTION

One of the most prominent human abilities is language, a complex

system involving many components, including sensory motor functions and
memory systems. Although the neural basis of language is not fully
understood, scientists have learned a great deal about this function of the
brain from studies of patients who have lost speech and language abilities
owing to stroke, and from brain imaging studies of normal people.
It has long been known that damage to different regions within the
left hemisphere produce different kinds of language disorders, or aphasias.
Damage to the left frontal lobe can produce non-fluent aphasias, such as
Broca’s aphasia, a syndrome in which speech production abilities are
impaired. Speech output is slow and halting, requires effort, and often lacks
complexity in word or sentence structure. By comparison, comprehension
of heard speech is spared, although structurally complex sentences may be
poorly understood.
A remarkable feat of human memory is the ability to vividly
remember details from many past experiences – ranging from meaningful,
distant memories, such as a family member’s wedding over a decade ago, to
mundane, recent memories, like dinner last night. These kinds of
experiences, and memories for them known as episodic long-term
memories1, are often imbued with language.
Today we think of episodic memory as one of the major
neurocognitive memory systems (Schacter & Tulving 1994) that are defined
in terms of their special functions (what the system does or produces) and

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properties (how they do it). It shares many features with semantic memory,
out of which it grew (Tulving 1984), but it also possesses features that
semantic memory does not (Tulving & Markowitsch 1998). Episodic
memory is a recently evolved, late-developing, and early-deteriorating past-
oriented memory system, more vulnerable than other memory systems to
neuronal dysfunction, and probably unique to humans. It makes possible
mental time travel through subjective time, from the present to the past,
thus allowing one to re-experience, through autonoetic awareness, one’s
own previous experiences. Its operations require, but go beyond, the
semantic memory system. Retrieving information from episodic memory
(remembering or conscious recollection) is contingent on the establishment
of a special mental set, dubbed episodic “retrieval mode.”
According to Philip, at. al (2008: 119) episodic memory is the ability
to remember specific events from the past, and to use this information to
guide present and future behavior, enhances one's level of functioning and
obviously confers an adaptive advantage. And also, Gaffan in Easton (1994:
189) said that episodic memory could be considered to be a “snapshot” of
the event being remembered. The other researcher Ciaramelli (2008: 519)
also conclude that episodic memory retrieval captures attention
automatically, and influences the deployment of spatial attention.
According to Belleville and Friends (2006:497) that person with
mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can improve their performance on
episodic memory when provided with cognitive training. The intervention
focused on teaching episodic memory strategies (list recall, face-name
association, text memory).
Based on the explanation above, the writer is interested in carrying
out a paper entitled “The Implementation of Episodic Memory to EFL
Learners”.

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DISCUSSION
One of the most interesting areas for such research concerns the role
of memory strategy instruction, an area which has been the focus of both
theoretical and practical activity. Memory strategies involving deep
semantic processing of target word have shown to be more effective than
memorization techniques involving shallow processing such as oral rote
repetition (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990; Oxford, 1990).
Memory strategy instruction has become a growing area of research
within language learning strategies over the last twenty five years. The
collected studies result that providing language learners with some memory
strategies on vocabulary learning which involve in deep processing will
consequently lead to better retention.
It should be noticed that memory strategies could build up learners'
learning autonomy, facilitate their vocabulary and develop a long–term
retention of English vocabulary. Nation (2002) also indicated the
effectiveness of mnemonic devices in vocabulary teaching. Many studies in
Iran have investigated vocabulary learning strategies at different
educational levels, but few have surveyed vocabulary learning strategies at
intermediate university level. Based on the advantages of strategy–based
instruction, it would be worth exploring the effect of an explicit strategy
instruction on Intermediate students’ vocabulary learning. Strategy which is
the main concern of this research falls into one category: "imagery
strategy". The researchers have made an attempt to find out the effect of
using this strategy for storing and retaining vocabulary items for longer
period of time which is the aim of learning.
Hsiao and Oxford (2002) maintains that "Memory strategies are
particular Mnemonic devices that aid learners in moving information to
long–term memory for storage purposes and retrieving it from long–term
when needed for use" (p.371). Most memory strategies (traditionally known

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as mnemonic) involve relating the word to be retained. with some
previously learned knowledge, using some form of imagery, or grouping.
The category of memory strategy, in this study involves (imagery).
Based on Oxford's (1990) explanation, memory strategies served as
"a highly specific function: helping students store and retrieve new
information"(p.37). She found out that "language learners have a serious
problem remembering the large amounts of vocabulary necessary to achieve
fluency" (p.39). To deal with the learning problem, memory strategies were
of great help. Thus, memory strategies become a key group in Oxford's
strategy classification system. Back to 1981, Memorization is part of direct
strategies under Rubin's classification. However, there was no subgroup for
memorization under O'Mally, Chamot, Stewner-Manzanares, Russo and
Kupper's (1985) and O'Mally and Chamot's (1990) frameworks. Take
subgroups of memory strategies in Oxford's (1990) study for example,
memory strategies fell into ten sub-strategies, including grouping,
associating/elaborating, placing new words into a context, using imagery,
semantic mapping, using keywords, representing sounds in memory,
structured reviewing, using physical response or sensation, and using
mechanical techniques.
Memory on the whole means keeping knowledge somewhere and
then retrieving it when it is needed. Long-term memory is the storehouse of
information which is relatively permanent. This memory is called the
unconscious memory because the information stored in it is largely out of
awareness and can be called into working memory to be used when needed.
The specialists believe that long-term memory information will be stored in
two ways either explicitly or implicitly. The wealth of the findings on
implicit and explicit memory is based on the pioneering work of Kolers
(1975). Implicit memory, also called “nondeclarative or procedural”
(Squire, 1992, p. 233) memory, is nonconscious and requires no conscious

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awareness. It does not appear to depend on actively recalling earlier
learning. On the other hand, explicit memories, sometimes referred to as
declarative memory, defined as conscious recollection of episodes, events,
items, and information that can easily be verbalized. In order to recall
explicit memories which are consciously stored, such as the memory of a
past experience, not only should one recall that experience, but he should
also recall the condition, date, and place in which that experience has
happened in their presence. Two kinds of learning or memory storage
(semantic and episodic) have been suggested in explicit memory.
Episodic memory is subserved by a widely distributed network of
cortical and subcortical brain regions that overlaps with but also extends
beyond the networks sub-serving other memory systems. The essence of
episodic memory lies in the conjunction of three concepts—self, autonoetic
awareness, and subjectively sensed time.
Episodic memory is oriented to the past in a way in which no other
kind of memory, or memory system, is. It is the only memory system that
allows people to consciously re-experience past experiences. Its special, and
unique, relationship to time, surprisingly, is not widely known. Nor is it, I
think, adequately appreciated.
Most people naturally associate all memory with the past and are
astonished to learn that this is not so. The theory holds that episodic
memory evolved out of semantic memory: Semantic memory appeared long
before episodic memory. Many nonhuman animals, especially mammals
and birds, possess well-developed knowledge-of-the-world (declarative, or
semantic, memory) systems and are capable of acquiring vast amounts of
flexibly expressible information. Early humans were like these animals, but
at some point in human evolution, possibly rather recently, episodic
memory emerged as an “embellishment” of the semantic memory system.
The details of this emergence are unknown, and one can only speculate

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about them (Tulving 2001b). It is not even certain that the evolution of
episodic memory was a part of (neo)Darwinian evolution. Episodic memory
may represent an instance of the so-called Baldwin effect (Baldwin 1902,
Richards 1987). Episodic memory was built on top of the earlier systems,
including semantic memory, is in agreement with other ideas and facts
about memory.
The concept of episodic memory according to Endel Tulving (1972)
that episodic memory has to do with one's autonoetic awareness of one's
experiences in the continuity of subjectively apprehended time that extends
both backwards into the past in the form of remembering and forward into
the future, in the form of thinking about or imagining or planning for the
future. Episodic memory is autobiographical, in that the remembered event
has been personally experienced.
Our memory of personal experiences called episodic memory is a
mental movie of things we have seen or heard (Slavin, 1997:7). When you
remember what you had for breakfast this morning or what happened at
your 12th birthday party, you are recalling information stored in your long-
term episodic memory. Episodic memory is the memory subsystem that
stores information about the episodes or events in our lives. It refers to our
ability to recall personal experiences from our past.
Tulving (1972) has seminally defined three key properties of
episodic memory recollection. These are a subjective sense of time (or
mental time travel), connection to the self, and autonoetic consciousness.
Auto noetic consciousness refers to a special kind of consciousness that
accompanies the act of remembering which enables an individual to be
aware of the self in a subjective time. Aside from Tulving, others named the
important aspects of recollection which include visual imagery, narrative
structure, retrieval of semantic information and the feelings of familiarity.

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 By the definition of episodic memory, the model must address the
encoding and retrieval of the place and time of the episode. In addition, the
model must address the encoding and retrieval of a viewpoint and the
direction of action during specific events in the episodic memory. In the
model presented here, the components of time, space, and action are bound
together in the manner of physics.

Fig. 1. Anatomical model. The traditional limbic system Note the importance of portions of the medial
temporal lobes and prefrontal cortices to emotional and episodic processes (Adapted with permission from
Allen et al., 2005)

According to Aggleton and Brown (1999), the characteristics of

episodic memory are: (1) Episodic memory is the memory for what
occurred together with the spatial and temporal context in which it
occurred. (2) Episodic memory involves memory for a specific experience
and therefore involves rapid (one-trial) learning, and a representation of the
event that is distinct from that for other events. (3) Episodic memory

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involves mental time travel and must, therefore require recollection of a
specific previous event rather than a simply familiarity judgment of prior
occurrence.
According to Jensen (1998:106) said that “Our episodic memory
process has unlimited capacity, forms quickly, is easily updated, requires no
practice, is effortless, and is used naturally by everyone” (advantages of
episodic memory). Episodic processing does have a major drawback:
contamination. That occurs when you have too many events or material
embedded in the same location”. It is like virus renaming all the files in
your computer with the same filename-the information is there, but it is
nearly useless. This often happens to students who really do know their
material but lack the specific “hooks” or mental “file names” to retrieve all
their learning (disadvantages of episodic memory).
Strategy in using episodic memory according to Jensen (1998) are
(1) Embed emotions in the learning. Add a small daily celebration to
heighten emotions. Because the first and last few minutes of a class will
make the strongest impressions, invest more time on affecting emotions in
the middle of class. (2) We remember material best when it is structured
and meaningful. Teachers might want to put the most important material
first and last, so it is recalled better. Open and close the class with the three
most important words or concepts for the day. Use music, props, or
costumes to introduce them. Or, use openings for personal or controversial
discussions that engage students emotionally. At the close, ask students to
share what they have learned with their classmates. (3) Attitude is
important. Tell students, “Yes, you can.” Start with a new attitude about
memory and recall. Avoid saying, “Oops, I have to go back. I forgot
something.” A more accurate statement is, “Hey, I just remembered
something; I’ve got to go back.” In other words, you never forget anything;
you just remembered it later than you wanted to! (4) Learners remember

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much more when the learning is connected to a field trip, music, a disaster,
a guest speaker, or a novel learning location. Follow up with a discussion,
journal writing, a project, or peer teaching. Use location (context) changes.
To enhance recall and better codify or “mark” the learning, learn concepts
in different places so each location is a key clue to the content. Take the
class outside for an introduction to something new.
Procedures in teaching by using episodic memory strategy are: (1)
Explained about episodic memory. To make the students easy to understand
explain it based on our experiences. Example we remember something by
we connected to another thing that close to us such as place, a thing, and
when it happened. (2) Embed emotions in the learning. (3) Explained about
the important of attitude in memory and recall. It can help the students to
enhance their motivation to do writing activity by using episodic memory.

CONCLUSION
Episodic memory is the memory subsystem that stores information
about the episodes or events in our lives. It refers to our ability to recall
personal experiences from our past. Strategy in using episodic memory
according to Jensen (1998) are (1) Embed emotions in the learning. (2) We
remember material best when it is structured and meaningful. (3) Attitude is
important. (4) Learners remember much more when the learning is
connected to a field trip, music, a disaster, a guest speaker, or a novel
learning location.

REFERENCE

Firoozalizadeh, Mehri. 2014. Effective vocabulary recall based on episodic

and semantic memory types across genders. International Journal of
Research Studies in Psychology 2014 October, Volume 3 Number 4,
49-57

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Herlitz, A., & Rehnman, J. (2008). Sex differences in episodic memory.
Association for Psychological Science, 17(1), 52-56

Mardiana. 2016. Episodic Memory in EFL Classroom at Bosowa

University.
ELT Worldwide Vol. 3, No. 1 2016

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memory: An introduction. International Journal of Bilingualism,
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Squire, L. R. (1992). Declarative and non-declarative memory: Multiple

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Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of episodic memory. New York: Oxford

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psychology, 53(1), 1-25.

Tulving, E., & Donalson, W. (1972). Organization of memory. New York

and London: Academic Press.

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