Episodic-semantic interactions in spontaneous thought

Abstract

The distinction between a semantic memory system, encompassing conceptual knowledge, and an episodic memory system, characterized by specific episodes, is one of the most important theoretical proposals in cognitive science. However, the distinction between systems has rarely been discussed in relation to spontaneous thought that comes to mind with reduced cognitive effort and intentionality. In this review, we propose that the growing research on spontaneous thought can contribute to current discussions on the interaction between the episodic and semantic systems. Firstly, we review research that shows that, as in deliberate retrieval, spontaneous thoughts are influenced by both episodic and semantic memory, as reflected by the mix of semantic and episodic elements in descriptions of spontaneous thoughts, as well as semantic priming effects in spontaneous thoughts. We integrate the current evidence based on the interplay between cues and semantic activation. Namely, we suggest that cues are key to access episodic memory and modulate the frequency of spontaneous thought, while semantic activation modulates the content of spontaneous thought. Secondly, we propose that spontaneous retrieval is a privileged area to explore the question of functional independence between systems, because it provides direct access to the episodic system. We review the evidence for spontaneous thought in semantic dementia, which suggests that episodic and semantic systems are functionally independent. We acknowledge the scarcity of evidence and suggest that future studies examine the contents of spontaneous thought descriptions and their neural correlates to test the functional relationship and inform the interaction between episodic and semantic systems.

Keywords: Episodic memory; Involuntary autobiographical memory; Priming; Semantic memory; Spontaneous thought.