Episodic Memory And Encoding Specificity

Encoding Specificity is very important in understanding how memory is retrieved and stored. Memory is easier to be recalled when this information is encoded. The encoding specificity is best understood by looking at the associations between contextual cues that were formed during the encoding and the information that needed to be encoded in the memory. Most encoding specificity is associated with cue-recall of specific episodic memory (Wardell & Read, 2013). Encoding specificity has cues that help associate it with the target that is being presented. This helps because they can retrieve information that was stored in their memory. By encoding specificity, the cue helps them search their memory to remember what the target was. Encoding specificity is very important in understanding how information is recalled (Higham, 2002).

Encoding specificity was proposed by Tulving and Thomson in 1973. They wanted to show how retrieval cues help with episodic memory. In order for this to be effective, the retrieval cue has to follow the information of the cue at the target point of the encoding (Hannon& Craik, 2001). Encoding specificity explains why a person can recall information from their memory. It is easier for people to choose a cue that is unrelated to the target because studies show that closely related cues and targets are hard to recall. The information is more likely to get mixed up with other information (Higham, 2002).

A study by Wardell and Read examined how encoding specificity of cue-related activations of positive and negative alcohol expectancies. In this study, they showed how the cue-recall applied to implicit and automatic memory processing. Research showed that implicit measures could demonstrate that ...

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