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'''Endel Tulving''', [[Order of Canada|OC]], [[Royal Society of Canada|FRSC]], [[Royal Society|FRS]] (born May 26, 1927) is a [[Canada|Canadian]] [[neuroscientist]], born in [[Estonia]], whose researches [[memory]] with a speciality in [[episodic memory]]. He is a professor emeritus at the [[University of Toronto]] and a Visiting Professor of Psychology at [[Washington University in St. Louis]]. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the [[University of Toronto]] and his doctorate from [[Harvard University]].
'''Endel Tulving''', [[Order of Canada|OC]], [[Royal Society of Canada|FRSC]], [[Royal Society|FRS]] (born May 26, 1927, in Estonia) is a world-renowned experimental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist. His pioneering research on human [[memory]] has influenced generations of psychological scientists, neuroscientists, and clinicians. One of his most influential contribitions was to differentiate [[episodic memory]] from other kinds of learning and memory systems in the brain.


Tulving is a professor emeritus at the [[University of Toronto]] and a Visiting Professor of Psychology at [[Washington University in St. Louis]]. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the [[University of Toronto]] and his doctorate from [[Harvard University]], working under [[S. S. Stevens]]. Tulving has won many illustrious awards in his career, making Professor Donald Stuss once remark "He's won every prize but the Nobel." Professor James Nairne once publically proclaimed "He is the most influential memory researcher...ever."
One of his main contributions is his theory of "encoding specificity." The theory emphasizes the fact that memories are retrieved from long-term memory by means of ''retrieval cues''. For example, a very large number of memories stored in ones brain are not currently active, but the word "Disneyland" might instantly call to mind a trip to that amusement park. The theory of encoding specificity states that the most effective retrieval cues are those that were stored along with the memory of the experience itself. Thus, the words "amusement park" might not serve to retrieve the memory of a trip to Disneyland because, while there, the park was not specifically thought of as an "amusement park." Instead, it was thought of as Disneyland. As such, that is the cue that retrieves the appropriate memory from the vast ocean of memories that are stored in one's brain.


⚫
In 1979, he was made a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Canada]]. In 1992, he was made a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of London]]. He is also a member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kva.se/KVA_Root/eng/contact/searchcontacts/detail.asp?PersonID=1073|title=The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences: Endel Tulving|accessdate=2009-05-01}}</ref> In 2005 he won a [[Gairdner Foundation International Award]], Canada's leading prize in biology and medicine. <sup>[http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/051028-1750.asp]</sup> In 2006, he was made an Officer of the [[Order of Canada]], Canada's highest civilian honor. In 2007, he was inducted into the [[Canadian Medical Hall of Fame]].
His work about episodic memory used the amnesic patient [[KC (patient)|KC]], who had intact [[semantic memory]] but no episodic memory.


Tulving has published at least 200 research articles and chapters, and he is widely cited, with an [[h-index]] of 69 (as of April, 2010). A complete collection of Tulving's published works, research milestones, and additional autobiographical information can be found at [http://alicekim.ca/tulving/] Some key contributions are highlighted below.
⚫
In 1979, he was made a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Canada]]. In 1992, he was made a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of London]]. He is also a member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kva.se/KVA_Root/eng/contact/searchcontacts/detail.asp?PersonID=1073|title=The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences: Endel Tulving|accessdate=2009-05-01}}</ref> In 2005 he won a [[Gairdner Foundation International Award]], Canada's leading prize in biology and medicine. <sup>[http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/051028-1750.asp]</sup> In 2006, he was made an Officer of the [[Order of Canada]], Canada's highest civilian honour. <sup>[http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp?lang=e&DocID=4828]</sup> In 2007, he was inducted into the [[Canadian Medical Hall of Fame]].


==Episodic and Semantic Memory==
Professor Tulving has an [[h-index]] of 65.
Tulving first made the distinction between episodic and [[semantic memory]] in a 1972 book chapter<ref>Tulving, E. (1972). Episodic and semantic memory. In E. Tulving and W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of Memory (pp. 381-402). New York: Academic Press.</ref>. Episodic memory is the ability to consciously recollect previous experiences from memory (e.g., recalling a recent family trip to Disney World), whereas semantic memory is the ability to store more general knowledge in memory (e.g., the fact that Disney World is in Florida). This distinction was based on theoretical grounds and experimental psychology findings, and subsequently was linked to different neural systems in the brain by studies of brain damage and neuroimaging techniques. This type of theorizing represented a major departure from many contemporary theories of human learning and memory, which did not emphasize different kinds of subjective experience or brain systems.<ref>Tulving, E. & Madigan, S. A. (1970). Memory and veral learning. Annual Review of Psychology, 21, 437-484.</ref> Tulving's 1983 book "Elements of Episodic Memory" elaborated on these concepts, and has been cited over 3000 times <ref> Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of Episodic Memory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.</ref> (see also <ref>Tulving, E. (2002). Episodic memory: From mind to brain. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 1-25.</ref>).


==Encoding Specificity Principle==
He supervised [[Daniel Schacter]]'s Ph.D. dissertation.
Tulving's theory of "encoding specificity" emphasizes the importance of retrieval cues in accessing in episodic memories. <ref>Tulving, E., & Thompson, D. M. (1973). Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. Psychological Review, 80, 352-373.</ref> The theory states that effective retrieval cues must overlap with to-be-retrieved memory trace. Because the contents of the memory trace are primarily established during the initial encoding of the experience, retrieval cues will be maximally effective if they make contact with this encoded information. Tulving has dubbed the process through which a retrieval cue activates a stored memory "synergistic ecphory."

Initial evidence for the [[encoding specificity principle]] came from cued recall experiments using word lists. The principle also is supported by many related experimental phenomena (e.g., the [[recognition failure of recallable words]], [[state-dependent learning]], [[transfer-appropriate processing]]). More recently, Tulving has argued that the appropriate retrieval cues may not be sufficient to retrieve episodic memories, but one also must be in a "retrieval mode" or mental state. Empirical evidence for this theory is not as strong as that for the encoding specificity.

One implication of the encoding specificity principle is that forgetting may be caused by a failure to have the appropriate retrieval cue, as opposed to decay of a memory trace over time or interference from other memories. <ref>Tulving, E. (1974). Cue-dependent forgetting. American Scientist, 62, 74-82.</ref> Another implication is that there is more information stored in memory than can be retrieved at a given point (i.e., availability vs. accessibility). <ref>Tulving, E., & Pearlstone, Z. (1966). Availability versus accessibility of information in memory for words. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5, 381-391.</ref>

==Amnesia and Consciousness==
Tulving's research has emphasized the importance of episodic memory for our experience of consciousness and our understanding of time. For example, he conducted several studies with the amnesic patient [[KC (patient)|KC]], who had relatively normal semantic memory but severely impaired episodic memory due to brain damage from a motorcycle accident. Tulving's work with KC highlighted the central importance of episodic memory for the subjective experience of one's self in time, an ability dubbed "autonoetic consciousness." KC lacked this ability, failing to remember prior events and also failing to imagine or plan or the future. <ref>Rosenbaum et al. (2005). The case of K.C.: contributions of a memory-impaired person to memory theory. Neuropsychologia, 43, 989-1021.</ref>


Tulving also developed a cognitive task to measure different subective states in memory, called the "remember"/"know" procedure, which has been used extensively in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. <ref>Tulving, E. (1985). Memory and consciousness. Canadian Psychologist, 25, 1-12.</ref>


==Implicit Memory and Priming==
Another area where Tulving has had a significant impact is the distinction between conscious or [[explicit memory]] (such as episodic memory) and more automatic forms of [[implicit memory]] (such as [[priming]]). Along with one of his students, Professor [[Daniel Schacter]], Tulving provided some of the earliest experimental work on this subject. <ref> Tulving, E. & Schacter, D.L. (1990). Priming and human memory systems. Science, 247, 301-306.</ref>

This research area was the topic of considerable debate in the 1980's and 1990's. Tulving and colleagues proposed that these different memory phenomena reflected different brain systems. <ref> Tulving, E. (1985). How many memory systems are there? American Psychologist, 40, 385-398.</ref> Others instead argued that these different memory phenomena reflected different psychological processes. These processes would be instantiated in the brain, but rather than reflecting different memory systems, they might reflect different aspects of performance from the same memory system, as triggered by different task conditions. More recently, theorists have come to adopt components of each of these perspectives.<ref> Roediger, H. L., Buckner, R. L., & McDermott, K. B. (1999). Components of processing. In J. K. Foster & M. Jelicic (Eds.), Memory: Systems, process, or function? (pp. 31-65). Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref>

==Other Contributions==
Tulving has published influential work on a variety of other topics, such as the importance of mental organization of information in memory <ref> Tulving, E. (1962). Subjective organization in free recall of "unrelated" words. Psychological Review, 69, 344-354.</ref>, a model of brain hemisphere specialization for episodic memory <ref>Tulving, E., Kapur, S., Craik, F. I. M., Moscovitch, M, & Houle, S. (1994). Hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry in episodic memory: Positron emission tomography findings. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 91, 2016-2020.</ref>, and discovery of the Tulving-Wiseman function.<ref> Tulving, E., & Wiseman, S. (1975). Relation between recognition and recognition failure of recallable words. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 92, 257-276.</ref>


==References==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}


==External links==
==External links==

Revision as of 23:51, 24 April 2010

Endel Tulving, OC, FRSC, FRS (born May 26, 1927, in Estonia) is a world-renowned experimental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist. His pioneering research on human memory has influenced generations of psychological scientists, neuroscientists, and clinicians. One of his most influential contribitions was to differentiate episodic memory from other kinds of learning and memory systems in the brain.

Tulving is a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and a Visiting Professor of Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Toronto and his doctorate from Harvard University, working under S. S. Stevens. Tulving has won many illustrious awards in his career, making Professor Donald Stuss once remark "He's won every prize but the Nobel." Professor James Nairne once publically proclaimed "He is the most influential memory researcher...ever."

In 1979, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1992, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.[1] In 2005 he won a Gairdner Foundation International Award, Canada's leading prize in biology and medicine. [1] In 2006, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor. In 2007, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

Tulving has published at least 200 research articles and chapters, and he is widely cited, with an h-index of 69 (as of April, 2010). A complete collection of Tulving's published works, research milestones, and additional autobiographical information can be found at [2] Some key contributions are highlighted below.

Episodic and Semantic Memory

Tulving first made the distinction between episodic and semantic memory in a 1972 book chapter[2]. Episodic memory is the ability to consciously recollect previous experiences from memory (e.g., recalling a recent family trip to Disney World), whereas semantic memory is the ability to store more general knowledge in memory (e.g., the fact that Disney World is in Florida). This distinction was based on theoretical grounds and experimental psychology findings, and subsequently was linked to different neural systems in the brain by studies of brain damage and neuroimaging techniques. This type of theorizing represented a major departure from many contemporary theories of human learning and memory, which did not emphasize different kinds of subjective experience or brain systems.[3] Tulving's 1983 book "Elements of Episodic Memory" elaborated on these concepts, and has been cited over 3000 times [4] (see also [5]).

Encoding Specificity Principle

Tulving's theory of "encoding specificity" emphasizes the importance of retrieval cues in accessing in episodic memories. [6] The theory states that effective retrieval cues must overlap with to-be-retrieved memory trace. Because the contents of the memory trace are primarily established during the initial encoding of the experience, retrieval cues will be maximally effective if they make contact with this encoded information. Tulving has dubbed the process through which a retrieval cue activates a stored memory "synergistic ecphory."

Initial evidence for the encoding specificity principle came from cued recall experiments using word lists. The principle also is supported by many related experimental phenomena (e.g., the recognition failure of recallable words, state-dependent learning, transfer-appropriate processing). More recently, Tulving has argued that the appropriate retrieval cues may not be sufficient to retrieve episodic memories, but one also must be in a "retrieval mode" or mental state. Empirical evidence for this theory is not as strong as that for the encoding specificity.

One implication of the encoding specificity principle is that forgetting may be caused by a failure to have the appropriate retrieval cue, as opposed to decay of a memory trace over time or interference from other memories. [7] Another implication is that there is more information stored in memory than can be retrieved at a given point (i.e., availability vs. accessibility). [8]

Amnesia and Consciousness

Tulving's research has emphasized the importance of episodic memory for our experience of consciousness and our understanding of time. For example, he conducted several studies with the amnesic patient KC, who had relatively normal semantic memory but severely impaired episodic memory due to brain damage from a motorcycle accident. Tulving's work with KC highlighted the central importance of episodic memory for the subjective experience of one's self in time, an ability dubbed "autonoetic consciousness." KC lacked this ability, failing to remember prior events and also failing to imagine or plan or the future. [9]


Tulving also developed a cognitive task to measure different subective states in memory, called the "remember"/"know" procedure, which has been used extensively in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. [10]


Implicit Memory and Priming

Another area where Tulving has had a significant impact is the distinction between conscious or explicit memory (such as episodic memory) and more automatic forms of implicit memory (such as priming). Along with one of his students, Professor Daniel Schacter, Tulving provided some of the earliest experimental work on this subject. [11]

This research area was the topic of considerable debate in the 1980's and 1990's. Tulving and colleagues proposed that these different memory phenomena reflected different brain systems. [12] Others instead argued that these different memory phenomena reflected different psychological processes. These processes would be instantiated in the brain, but rather than reflecting different memory systems, they might reflect different aspects of performance from the same memory system, as triggered by different task conditions. More recently, theorists have come to adopt components of each of these perspectives.[13]

Other Contributions

Tulving has published influential work on a variety of other topics, such as the importance of mental organization of information in memory [14], a model of brain hemisphere specialization for episodic memory [15], and discovery of the Tulving-Wiseman function.[16]

References

  1. ^ "The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences: Endel Tulving". Retrieved 2009-05-01.
  2. ^ Tulving, E. (1972). Episodic and semantic memory. In E. Tulving and W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of Memory (pp. 381-402). New York: Academic Press.
  3. ^ Tulving, E. & Madigan, S. A. (1970). Memory and veral learning. Annual Review of Psychology, 21, 437-484.
  4. ^ Tulving, E. (1983). Elements of Episodic Memory. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  5. ^ Tulving, E. (2002). Episodic memory: From mind to brain. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 1-25.
  6. ^ Tulving, E., & Thompson, D. M. (1973). Encoding specificity and retrieval processes in episodic memory. Psychological Review, 80, 352-373.
  7. ^ Tulving, E. (1974). Cue-dependent forgetting. American Scientist, 62, 74-82.
  8. ^ Tulving, E., & Pearlstone, Z. (1966). Availability versus accessibility of information in memory for words. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 5, 381-391.
  9. ^ Rosenbaum et al. (2005). The case of K.C.: contributions of a memory-impaired person to memory theory. Neuropsychologia, 43, 989-1021.
  10. ^ Tulving, E. (1985). Memory and consciousness. Canadian Psychologist, 25, 1-12.
  11. ^ Tulving, E. & Schacter, D.L. (1990). Priming and human memory systems. Science, 247, 301-306.
  12. ^ Tulving, E. (1985). How many memory systems are there? American Psychologist, 40, 385-398.
  13. ^ Roediger, H. L., Buckner, R. L., & McDermott, K. B. (1999). Components of processing. In J. K. Foster & M. Jelicic (Eds.), Memory: Systems, process, or function? (pp. 31-65). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  14. ^ Tulving, E. (1962). Subjective organization in free recall of "unrelated" words. Psychological Review, 69, 344-354.
  15. ^ Tulving, E., Kapur, S., Craik, F. I. M., Moscovitch, M, & Houle, S. (1994). Hemispheric encoding/retrieval asymmetry in episodic memory: Positron emission tomography findings. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 91, 2016-2020.
  16. ^ Tulving, E., & Wiseman, S. (1975). Relation between recognition and recognition failure of recallable words. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 92, 257-276.
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