Episodic memory and creativity in drawing

This study addresses the importance of one specific memory system in the creative process: the episodic memory system. Episodic memories are long-term memories of events or life experiences that make up the central core of human belief systems. What makes them unique from other types of memories is they are stored with a high number of associative and affective access cues. This means that episodic memories are stored so that they can easily be recalled in connection with an emotion or by a connection with another memory. These access cues interconnect episodic memories with other episodic or semantic memories (i.e., knowledge of facts). Accessing one episodic memory has the potential of accessing a large number of other memories, and each of those memories has an equal potential of accessing another group of connected memories, each with its own access potential.