Perspectives on Episodic-like and Episodic Memory

Learning and memory are indispensable capacities for people and animals, since they permit adaptive conduct and promote the survival of the individual and the species. For example, they allow animals to revisit places where food or mating assets could be found and to avoid places where odor trails of predators have been current. Generally, they allow flexible and adaptive habits in response to slow or sudden adjustments in the environment. The significance of learning and memory for the everyday life in humans becomes evident when one considers the decomposed character structure in people who have lost entry to information about emotionally relevant life events, reminiscent of within the case of demented patients. Clinical research with mind-injured patients and lesion research in animals have revealed multiple memory programs within the mind with distinct neuroanatomical substrates and which are specialized for the training of particular materials similar to methods to play piano or the contents of a textbook (Squire, 2004). Accordingly, lengthy-time period recollections can be divided into declarative and non-declarative recollections.