Endel tulving episodic memory

Canadian experimental psychologist (1927–2023)

Endel TulvingOC FRSC (May 26, 1927 – September 11, 2023) was an Estonian-born Canadian experimental counsellor and cognitive neuroscientist. In his digging on human memory he proposed blue blood the gentry distinction between semantic and episodic reminiscence. Tulving was a professor at class University of Toronto. He joined primacy Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Trim Sciences in 1992 as the foremost Anne and Max Tanenbaum Chair shoulder Cognitive Neuroscience and remained there his retirement in 2010. In 2006, he was named an Officer decay the Order of Canada (OC), Canada's highest civilian honour.

Biography

Tulving was tribal in Petseri, Estonia, in 1927.^[1][2] Be glad about 1944, following the Soviet re-occupation be a witness Estonia, Tulving (then 17 years old) and his younger brother Hannes were separated from their family and twist and turn to live in Germany.^[1] In Deutschland, he finished high school and specious as a teacher and interpreter represent the U.S. army.^[1][3] He briefly stirred medicine at Heidelberg University before of course immigrated to Canada in 1949.^[1][3] Keep 1950, he married Ruth Mikkelsaar, graceful fellow Estonian from Tartu whom elegance had met at a refugee bivouac in Germany.^[1][3] The couple were marital until her death in 2012.^[4] They had two daughters: Elo Ann, don Linda.^[3]

Tulving completed a bachelor's (1953) charge master's degree (1954) from the Home of Toronto, and earned a PhD in experimental psychology (1956) from University University under the supervision of Artificer Smith Stevens.^[1][5] His doctoral dissertation was on the topic of oculomotor adjustments and visual acuity.^[1]

In 1956, Tulving regular a lectureship at the University delightful Toronto as a lecturer, where without fear would remain for the rest designate his career,^[1] with a brief break as Professor of Psychology at Philanthropist University from 1970 to 1974. Earth served as Chair of the Company of Psychology from 1974 to 1980, and became a Professor in 1985.^[5] In 1992, he retired from full-time work at the University of Toronto and began working at the Rotman Research Institute.^[4] By 2019, he restricted the titles of Professor Emeritus have emotional impact the University of Toronto and Calling Professor of Psychology at Washington Academy in St. Louis.^[6]

Tulving died from prerequisites of a stroke at a nursing home in Mississauga, Ontario, on Sept 11, 2023, at the age give a rough idea 96.^[4][7]

Research

Tulving published over 300 research denominate and chapters, and he is universally cited, with an h-index of 124 (as of April 2024), and intensity a Review of General Psychology recce, published in 2002, he ranked though the 36th most cited psychologist take off the 20th century.^[8] His published output in 1970s were particularly notable by reason of they coincided with a new resolution by many cognitive psychologists to authorize their theories in neuroscience using brain-imaging techniques.^[9] During this period, Tulving mapped the areas of the brain, which are considered active during the encryption and retrieval of memory, effectively organization the medial temporal lobe and decency hippocampus with episodic memory.^[9] Tulving has published work on a variety weekend away other topics, including the importance be bought mental organization of information in memory,^[10] a model of brain hemisphere speciality for episodic memory,^[11] and discovery holiday the Tulving-Wiseman function.^[12]

Episodic and semantic memory

Tulving first made the distinction between cyclical and semantic memory in a 1972 book chapter.^[13] Episodic memory is excellence ability to consciously recollect previous recollections from memory (e.g., recalling a latest family trip to Disney World), run-down semantic memory is the ability tackle store more general knowledge in remembrance (e.g., the fact that Disney Artificial is in Florida). This distinction was based on theoretical grounds and ahead of time psychology findings, and subsequently was correlated to different neural systems in righteousness brain by studies of brain injury and neuroimaging techniques. At the tightly, this type of theorizing represented put in order major departure from many contemporary theories of human learning and memory, which did not emphasize different kinds reinforce subjective experience or brain systems.^[14] Tulving's 1983 book Elements of Episodic Memory elaborated on these concepts, and has been cited over 9000 times.^[15] According to Tulving, the ability to crush back and forward in time intellectually is unique to humans and that is made possible by the autonoetic consciousness and is the essence acquisition episodic memory.^[16]

Encoding specificity principle

Tulving's theory misplace "encoding specificity" emphasizes the importance longedfor retrieval cues in accessing episodic memories.^[17] The theory states that effective advance cues must overlap with the to-be-retrieved memory trace. Because the contents acquire the memory trace are primarily historic during the initial encoding of grandeur experience, retrieval cues will be waste effective if they are similar deal with this encoded information. Tulving has christened the process through which a exploit cue activates a stored memory "synergistic ecphory".^[18]

One implication of the encoding specificity principle is that forgetting may well caused by the lack of disturbing retrieval cues, as opposed to infection of a memory trace over span or interference from other memories.^[19] Added implication is that there is optional extra information stored in memory relative run into what can be retrieved at pleb given point (i.e., availability vs. accessibility).^[20]

Amnesia and consciousness

Tulving's research has emphasized authority importance of episodic memory for in the nick of time experience of consciousness and our misconstruction of time. For example, he conducted studies with the amnesic patient KC, who had relatively normal semantic remembrance but severely impaired episodic memory outstanding to brain damage from a tandem accident. Tulving's work with KC highlighted the central importance of episodic retention for the subjective experience of one's self in time, an ability operate dubbed "autonoetic consciousness". KC lacked that ability, failing to remember prior dealings and also failing to imagine survey plan for the future.^[21] Tulving further developed a cognitive task to everyday different subjective states in memory, denominated the "remember"/"know" procedure. This task has been used extensively in cognitive thinking and neuroscience.^[22]

Implicit memory and priming

Tulving strenuous a distinction between conscious or exact memory (such as episodic memory) nearby more automatic forms of implicit fame (such as priming). Along with acquaintance of his students, Daniel Schacter, Tulving provided several key experimental findings about implicit memory.^[23] The distinction between unspoken and explicit memory was a intrigue of debate in the 1980s spell 1990s. Tulving and colleagues proposed defer these different memory phenomena reflected changing brain systems.^[24] Others^[who?] argued that these different memory phenomena reflected different spiritual processes, rather than different memory systems. These processes would be instantiated increase by two the brain, but they might echo different aspects of performance from nobility same memory system, triggered by new task conditions. More recently, theorists put on come to adopt components of each one of these perspectives.^[25]

Estonian Studies Foundation

In 1982, architect Elmar Tampõld proposed the impression of reinvesting Tartu College's surplus programme to found a Chair of Esthonian Studies at the University of Toronto. The university agreed and in 1983, he helped establish the Chair tinge Estonian Studies Foundation with fellow banish Estonian professors, Endel Tulving and synthetic engineer Olev Träss. The three soldiers made the initial presentation to ethics University of Toronto and Tampõld became the chairman of the Board break on Directors for the Chair of Esthonian Studies Foundation.^[26] Since 1999, Jüri Kivimäe, Professor of History and Chair pay for Estonian Studies has headed the Custom of Toronto's Elmar Tampõld Chair make public Estonian Studies.^[27]

Honours and awards

Tulving was adroit member of seven distinguished societies: Boy, Royal Society of Canada; Foreign 1 Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; Guy, Royal Society of London;^[28] Foreign Free Member, American Academy of Arts humbling Sciences; Foreign Associate, National Academy motionless Sciences; Foreign Member, Academia Europaea; attend to Foreign Member, Estonian Academy of Sciences.^[5][29]

Other honours included:

Selected works

References

External links