Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T02:25:48.411Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

27 - On the Interaction Between Episodic and Semantic Representations – Constructing a Unified Account of Imagination

from Part IV - Novel Combinatorial Forms of the Imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2020

By
Muireann Irish
Edited by
Anna Abraham
Anna Abraham
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Get access

Summary

Few topics in cognitive neuroscience can be said to have spurred intense research interest and vigorous debate as much as the neurocognitive architecture of imagination. Despite the tendency to view imagination as a unitary mental faculty, its multifaceted nature implicates a diverse range of underlying processes. Episodic memory has been ascribed a foundational role in furnishing the contents of mental constructions. By contrast, semantic memory has long been overlooked in the discourse, despite converging evidence of its centrality for all forms of inner mentation. Here, I expand upon the idea that the undifferentiated and flexible nature of semantic memory renders it particularly well suited to support imagination in its many guises. The imagined scenario thus reflects the output of a dynamic process that shifts back and forth along an episodic-semantic continuum, the weighting of which hinges largely upon task demands and integrity of the underlying memory system. Accordingly, the aim of this chapter is to move the focus away from the traditional episodic/semantic dichotomy in favour of a unified account in which episodic and semantic processes coalesce in the service of constructive endeavors.

Keywords

Mental constructionepisodic memorysemantic memoryfuture thinkinghippocampusanterior temporal lobedementiascene construction
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination , pp. 447 - 465
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abraham, A., and Bubić, A. (2015). Semantic Memory as the Root of Imagination. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 325.Google Scholar
Abraham, A., Schubotz, R. I., and von Cramon, D. Y. (2008). Thinking About the Future versus the Past in Personal and Non-Personal Contexts. Brain Research, 1233, 106–119.Google Scholar
Addis, D. R. (2018). Are Episodic Memories Special? On the Sameness of Remembered and Imagined Event Simulation. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 48(2–3), 1–25.Google Scholar
Addis, D. R., Sacchetti, D. C., Ally, B. A., Budson, A. E., and Schacter, D. L. (2009). Episodic Simulation of Future Events Is Impaired in Mild Alzheimer’s Disease. Neuropsychologia, 47(12), 2660–2671.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Addis, D. R., and Schacter, D. L. (2008). Constructive Episodic Simulation: Temporal Distance and Detail of Past and Future Events Modulate Hippocampal Engagement. Hippocampus, 18(2), 227–237.Google Scholar
Addis, D. R., Wong, A. T., and Schacter, D. L. (2008). Age-Related Changes in the Episodic Simulation of Future Events. Psychological Science, 19(1), 33–41.Google Scholar
Arnold, K. M., McDermott, K. B., and Szpunar, K. K. (2011). Imagining the Near and Far Future: The Role of Location Familiarity. Memory and Cognition, 39(6), 954–967.Google Scholar
Atance, C. M., and O’Neill, D. K. (2001). Episodic Future Thinking. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5(12), 533–539.Google Scholar
Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Binder, J. R., and Desai, R. H. (2011). The Neurobiology of Semantic Memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(11), 527–536.Google Scholar
Binder, J. R., Desai, R. H., Graves, W. W., and Conant, L. L. (2009). Where Is the Semantic System? A Critical Review and Meta-Analysis of 120 Functional Neuroimaging Studies. Cerebral Cortex, 19(12), 2767–2796.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bozeat, S., Lambon Ralph, M. A., Patterson, K., Garrard, P., and Hodges, J. R. (2000). Non-Verbal Semantic Impairment in Semantic Dementia. Neuropsychologia, 38(9), 1207–1215.Google Scholar
Craver, C. F., Kwan, D., Steindam, C., and Rosenbaum, R. S. (2014). Individuals with Episodic Amnesia Are Not Stuck in Time. Neuropsychologia, 57, 191–195.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
D’Argembeau, A., and Mathy, A. (2011). Tracking the Construction of Episodic Future Thoughts. Journal of Experimental Psychology-General, 140(2), 258–271.Google Scholar
D’Argembeau, A., Ortoleva, C., Jumentier, S., and van der Linden, M. (2010). Component Processes Underlying Future Thinking. Memory and Cognition, 38(6), 809–819.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Devitt, A. L., and Addis, D. R. (2016). Bidirectional Interactions between Memory and Imagination. In Michaelian, K, Klein, S. B., and Szpunar, K (eds.), Seeing the Future: Theoretical Perspectives on Future-Oriented Mental Time Travel. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 93–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duval, C., Desgranges, B., de La Sayette, V., et al. (2012). What Happens to Personal Identity when Semantic Knowledge Degrades? A Study of the Self and Autobiographical Memory in Semantic Dementia. Neuropsychologia, 50(2), 254–265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gilboa, A., and Marlatte, H. (2017). Neurobiology of Schemas and Schema-Mediated Memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21(8), 628–631.Google Scholar
Greenberg, D. L., and Verfaellie, M. (2010). Interdependence of Episodic and Semantic Memory: Evidence from Neuropsychology. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 16(5), 748–753.Google Scholar
Grilli, M. D., and Verfaellie, M. (2014). Personal Semantic Memory: Insights from Neuropsychological Research on Amnesia. Neuropsychologia, 61, 56–64.Google Scholar
Hassabis, D., Kumaran, D., Vann, S. D., and Maguire, E. A. (2007). Patients with Hippocampal Amnesia Cannot Imagine New Experiences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A, 104(5), 1726–1731.Google Scholar
Hayes, B. K., Ramanan, S., and Irish, M. (2018). “Truth Be Told” – Semantic Memory as the Scaffold for Veridical Communication. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41, 27–28.Google Scholar
Hegdé, J. (2007). Mental Time Travel Sickness and a Bayesian Remedy. Brain and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 323–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsiao, J. J., Kaiser, N., Fong, S. S., and Mendez, M. F. (2013). Suicidal Behavior and Loss of the Future Self in Semantic Dementia. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 26(2), 85–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ingvar, D. H. (1985). “Memory of the Future”: An Essay on the Temporal Organization of Conscious Awareness. Human Neurobiology, 4(3), 127–136.Google Scholar
Irish, M. (2016). Semantic Memory as the Essential Scaffold for Future Oriented Mental Time Travel. In Michaelian, K, Klein, S. B., and Szpunar, K (eds.), Seeing the Future: Theoretical Perspectives on Future-Oriented Mental Time Travel. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 388–408.Google Scholar
Irish, M., Addis, D. R., Hodges, J. R., and Piguet, O. (2012a). Considering the Role of Semantic Memory in Episodic Future Thinking: Evidence from Semantic Dementia. Brain, 135(Pt 7), 2178–2191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Irish, M., Addis, D. R., Hodges, J. R., and Piguet, O. (2012b). Exploring the Content and Quality of Episodic Future Simulations in Semantic Dementia. Neuropsychologia, 50(14), 3488–3495.Google Scholar
Irish, M., Bunk, S., Tu, S., et al. (2016a). Preservation of Episodic Memory in Semantic Dementia: The Importance of Regions beyond the Medial Temporal Lobes. Neuropsychologia, 81, 50–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Irish, M., Eyre, N., Dermody, N., et al. (2016b). Neural Substrates of Semantic Prospection – Evidence from the Dementias. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 10, 96.Google Scholar
Irish, M., Halena, S., Kamminga, J., et al. (2015). Scene Construction Impairments in Alzheimer’s Disease – A Unique Role for the Posterior Cingulate Cortex. Cortex, 73, 10–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Irish, M., Hodges, J. R., and Piguet, O. (2013). Episodic Future Thinking Is Impaired in the Behavioural Variant of Frontotemporal Dementia. Cortex, 49(9), 2377–2388.Google Scholar
Irish, M., Hornberger, M., El Wahsh, S., et al. (2014). Grey and White Matter Correlates of Recent and Remote Autobiographical Memory Retrieval – Insights from the Dementias. PLoS One, 9(11), e113081.Google Scholar
Irish, M., Hornberger, M., Lah, S., et al. (2011a). Profiles of Recent Autobiographical Memory Retrieval in Semantic Dementia, Behavioural-Variant Frontotemporal Dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease. Neuropsychologia, 49(9), 2694–2702.Google Scholar
Irish, M., Lawlor, B. A., O’Mara, S. M., and Coen, R. F. (2011b). Impaired Capacity for Autonoetic Reliving during Autobiographical Event Recall in Mild Alzheimer’s Disease. Cortex, 47(2), 236–249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Irish, M., Mothakunnel, A., Dermody, N., et al. (2017). Damage to Right Medial Temporal Structures Disrupts the Capacity for Scene Construction – A Case Study. Hippocampus, 27(6), 635–641.Google Scholar
Irish, M., and Piguet, O. (2013). The Pivotal Role of Semantic Memory in Remembering the Past and Imagining the Future. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 27.Google Scholar
Irish, M., Piguet, O., and Hodges, J. R. (2012). Self-Projection and the Default Network in Frontotemporal Dementia. Nature Reviews Neurology, 8(3), 152–161.Google Scholar
Irish, M., and Piolino, P. (2016). Impaired Capacity for Prospection in the Dementias – Theoretical and Clinical Implications. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 55(1), 49–68.Google Scholar
Kamminga, J., O’Callaghan, C., Hodges, J. R., and Irish, M. (2014). Differential Prospective Memory Profiles in Frontotemporal Dementia Syndromes. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 38(3), 669–679.Google Scholar
Klein, S. B. (2013). The Complex Act of Projecting Oneself into the Future. WIREs Cognitive Science, 4, 63–79.Google Scholar
Klein, S. B. (2016). Autonoetic Consciousness: Reconsidering the Role of Episodic Memory in Future-Oriented Self-Projection. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (Hove), 69(2), 381–401.Google Scholar
Klein, S. B., Loftus, J., and Kihlstrom, J. F. (2002). Memory and Temporal Experience: The Effects of Episodic Memory Loss on an Amnesic Patient’s Ability to Remember the Past and Imagine the Future. Social Cognition, 20(5), 353–379.Google Scholar
Lambon Ralph, M. A. (2014). Neurocognitive Insights on Conceptual Knowledge and Its Breakdown. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 369(1634), 20120392.Google Scholar
Lane, R. D., Ryan, L., Nadel, L., and Greenberg, L. (2015). Memory Reconsolidation, Emotional Arousal, and the Process of Change in Psychotherapy: New Insights from Brain Science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 38, e1.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maguire, E. A. (2001). Neuroimaging Studies of Autobiographical Event Memory. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 356(1413), 1441–1451.Google Scholar
Maguire, E. A., Kumaran, D., Hassabis, D., and Kopelman, M. D. (2010). Autobiographical Memory in Semantic Dementia: A Longitudinal fMRI Study. Neuropsychologia, 48(1), 123–136.Google Scholar
Mahr, J., and Csibra, G. (2018). Why Do We Remember? The Communicative Function of Episodic Memory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 41, 1–93.Google Scholar
McKinnon, M., Black, S., Miller, B., Moscovitch, M., and Levine, B. (2006). Autobiographical Memory in Semantic Dementia: Implications for Theories of Limbic-Neocortical Interaction in Remote Memory. Neuropsychologia, 44(12), 2421–2429.Google Scholar
Mullally, S. L., Vargha-Khadem, F., and Maguire, E. A. (2014). Scene Construction in Developmental Amnesia: An fMRI Study. Neuropsychologia, 52, 1–10.Google Scholar
Patterson, K., Nestor, P., and Rogers, T. (2007). Where Do You Know What You Know? The Representation of Semantic Knowledge in the Human Brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 8(12), 976–987.Google Scholar
Race, E., Keane, M. M., and Verfaellie, M. (2013). Losing Sight of the Future: Impaired Semantic Prospection Following Medial Temporal Lobe Lesions. Hippocampus, 23(4), 268–277.Google Scholar
Ramanan, S., Alaeddin, S., Goldberg, Z. L., et al. (2018). Exploring the Contribution of Visual Imagery to Scene Construction – Evidence from Posterior Cortical Atrophy. Cortex, 106, 261–274.Google Scholar
Renoult, L., Davidson, P. S., Palombo, D. J., Moscovitch, M., and Levine, B. (2012). Personal Semantics: At the Crossroads of Semantic and Episodic Memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(11), 550–558.Google Scholar
Renoult, R., Irish, M., Moscovitch, M., & Rugg, M.D. (2019). From Knowing to Remembering: The Semantic-Episodic Distinction. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 23(12), 1041–1057.Google Scholar
Robin, J., and Moscovitch, M. (2017). Details, Gist and Schema: Hippocampal–Neocortical Interactions Underlying Recent and Remote Episodic and Spatial Memory. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 17, 114–123.Google Scholar
Rutter, B., Kroger, S., Stark, R., et al. (2012). Can Clouds Dance? Neural Correlates of Passive Conceptual Expansion Using a Metaphor Processing Task: Implications for Creative Cognition. Brain and Cognition, 78(2), 114–122.Google Scholar
Schacter, D. L., and Addis, D. R. (2007). On the Constructive Episodic Simulation of Past and Future Events. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30(3), 331–332.Google Scholar
Schacter, D. L., Addis, D. R., Hassabis, D., et al. (2012). The Future of Memory: Remembering, Imagining, and the Brain. Neuron, 76(4), 677–694.Google Scholar
Schacter, D. L., Norman, K. A., and Koutstaal, W. (1998). The Cognitive Neuroscience of Constructive Memory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 289–318.Google Scholar
Sheldon, S., and Levine, B. (2016). The Role of the Hippocampus in Memory and Mental Construction. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1369(1), 76–92.Google Scholar
Sheldon, S., Vandermorris, S., Al-Haj, M., et al. (2015). Ill-Defined Problem Solving in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment: Linking Episodic Memory to Effective Solution Generation. Neuropsychologia, 68, 168–175.Google Scholar
Spreng, R. N., Gerlach, K. D., Turner, G. R., and Schacter, D. L. (2015). Autobiographical Planning and the Brain: Activation and Its Modulation by Qualitative Features. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 27(11), 2147–2157.Google Scholar
St-Laurent, M., Moscovitch, M., Levine, B., and McAndrews, M. P. (2009). Determinants of Autobiographical Memory in Patients with Unilateral Temporal Lobe Epilepsy or Excisions. Neuropsychologia, 47(11), 2211–2221.Google Scholar
Stocker, K. (2012). The Time Machine in our Mind. Cognitive Science, 36(3), 385–420.Google Scholar
Strikwerda-Brown, C., Grilli, M.D., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., & Irish, M. (2019). All Is Not Lost: Rethinking the Nature of Memory and The Self in Dementia. Ageing Research Reviews, 54, 100932.Google Scholar
Strikwerda-Brown, C., Mothakunnel, A., Hodges, J. R., Piguet, O., and Irish, M. (2018). External Details Revisited – A New Taxonomy for Coding “Non-Episodic” Content during Autobiographical Memory Retrieval. Journal of Neuropsychology, 13(3), 371–397.Google Scholar
Suddendorf, T., and Corballis, M. C. (2007). The Evolution of Foresight: What Is Mental Time Travel, and Is It Unique to Humans? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30(03), 299–313.Google Scholar
Suddendorf, T., and Redshaw, J. (2013). The Development of Mental Scenario Building and Episodic Foresight. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1296(1), 135–153.Google Scholar
Tulving, E. (1972). Episodic and Semantic Memory. In Tulving, E and Donaldson, W (eds.), Organization of Memory. New York, NY: Academic Press, 381–403.Google Scholar
Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of Episodic Memory. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tulving, E. (1985). Memory and Consciousness. Canadian Psychology, 26, 1–12.Google Scholar
Tulving, E. (2002). Episodic Memory: From Mind to Brain. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 1–25.Google Scholar
Viard, A., Piolino, P., Belliard, S., et al. (2014). Episodic Future Thinking in Semantic Dementia: A Cognitive and FMRI Study. PLoS One, 9(10), e111046.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×