Explicit memory is also known as conscious memory. There are two types of memory associated with the conscious memory and they are episodic and semantic memory. Episodic memory relates to our personal experiences while semantic memory relates to facts and knowledge.

Episodic memory is a type of long term memory that involves specific events and experiences such as time and places. These memories can also be associated with emotions. My episodic memory has been associated with a traumatic event when my daughter was involved in a horrific accident that caused my daughter to lose her dominant hand. I can recall the day it happened. I can simply remember the date, time, and where I was when I got the call to say that my daughter was in an accident that involved a school bus and a tractor trailer. My emotions were running high because I did not know if my daughter was seriously hurt and because I was thinking about the possible outcomes of what the accident might be. My daughter had been on a camp trip to the Baltimore Harbor Aquarium on July 5, 2006. I got a phone call at about 5pm stating that my daughter was in an accident and that she was trapped underneath the school bus.

Semantic memory is also a type of long term memory that is associated with common knowledge such as the names of colors, sounds of letters and other basic facts that can be acquired over a lifetime. These ideas and concepts are not drawn from personal experiences. I also used semantic memory when I was thinking about the accident. I related the school bus to being yellow in color and the fact that Baltimore is located in Maryland. Also when I think about John Hopkins Hospital which is where my daughter was airlifted to I think about Baltimore Maryland because this hospital was founded there in 1889 and is known to be a teaching hospital. All of these things came to mind when I was told that my daughter was in an accident in Baltimore.

Both episodic memory and semantic memory require a similar encoding process. Semantic memory is activated in the frontal and temporal cortexes, whereas the episodic memory is activated in the hippocampus. Semantic and episodic memory work to give people impressions of reality. Episodic encoding catches the attention of a person, and then they are likely to consider the facts and details of the message.

In conclusion when people remember personal experiences they tend to relate them to the facts that they know about places or information that they have acquired through learning over a life span.