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Semantic and episodic memory retrieval as internal attention

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 5:00 – 7:00 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Matthew Bair¹ (), Nicole Long¹; ¹University of Virginia

Imagine that you are a contestant on Jeopardy! You must use clues on the board to retrieve a semantic memory, or some piece of factual information. During the break in the first round, you must use the host's question to retrieve an episodic memory and tell a story from your personal life to entertain the audience. Although the content of what you retrieve is different in these instances, both rely on turning your mind's eye inward. The retrieval state was initially proposed to specifically support episodic — as opposed to semantic — retrieval. However, recent evidence suggests that the retrieval state may reflect a domain-general internal attention process, in which case, both episodic and semantic retrieval should recruit the retrieval state. To test these alternatives, we conducted a human scalp electroencephalography (EEG) study in which participants performed three tasks requiring either episodic, semantic, or perceptual processing of word stimuli. We trained a multivariate pattern classifier to detect the 'retrieval state' -- a brain state distinct from encoding recruited when participants attempt to access a stored experience — on an independent dataset. We tested this classifier on the three tasks. We find robust engagement of the retrieval state on both the episodic and semantic tasks, with no differences between the tasks. The perceptual task, in contrast, recruited the encoding state. These findings support the hypothesis that the retrieval state reflects a domain-general internal attention process.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic