What confabulation in aging tells us about the episodic/semantic memory divide

The project investigates the distinction between two main forms of human memory, namely episodic (the experiential contextualized memory for personal past episodes) and semantic (the abstract de-contextualised memory for facts) memory. In line with recent proposals in philosophy, it calls this widely accepted distinction into question and explores a one-system conception of memory. The original angle taken on the issue appeals to the phenomena of semanticization and confabulation in aging, namely the tendency of episodic memories to become more semantic (semanticization), and the tendency of older adults to report more past personal episodes they never experienced (confabulation). On our overall proposal, semanticization and confabulation each cast doubt on the episodic-semantic distinction in their own way.
Three more specific outcomes are expected. 1) Coming to a better understanding of semanticization in light of confabulation and thereby deciding if it favors the one-system view. 2) Exploring the possibility that confabulation, a phenomenon that is most often episodic in format at first sight, is grounded on semantic memory. 3) Developing the view that confabulation is the inverse of semanticization, that is episodicization of semantic memory.

Faculty Supervisor:

Sara Aronowitz

Student:

Partner:

Université Grenoble Alpes

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Toronto

Program: