Endel Tulving: Remembering Facts vs. Remembering Life

November 10, 2026 · Knowledge Management Made Simple

Imagine remembering every fact about your wedding.

The date. The place. The number of guests.

Wonderful!

But what about the moment you first saw your partner?

Psychologist Endel Tulving studied this difference between knowing facts and remembering personal experiences.

Let’s explore three funny examples.

1. The Train That Escaped

Pavel knows that his train leaves at 9 AM.

That’s a fact.

But he also remembers the morning he missed it because he stopped to buy a croissant.

“Was the croissant worth it?” asks Oxana.

“Absolutely. The train was less enthusiastic.”

What did we learn?

Semantic memory stores general knowledge and facts.

Episodic memory allows us to remember particular experiences from our lives.

2. Oxana’s Famous Pancakes

Pavel knows that pancakes need flour, eggs and milk.

But he remembers one Sunday when his pancake landed on the ceiling.

“An impressive achievement!” says Oxana.

“Thank you. I’m considering a career in aviation.”

What did we learn?

Knowing a recipe is different from remembering a particular cooking adventure.

3. The Mysterious Family Photograph

Pavel discovers an old photograph.

“Who are these people?”

Oxana recognises the place and remembers taking the picture during a family picnic.

“And why is everyone laughing?”

“Because you fell into the lake!”

“Ah. A historical tragedy.”

What did we learn?

Photographs, dates and descriptions can help us recall experiences and preserve information about them.

The Big Idea

Tulving distinguished between:

• Semantic memory: Knowing facts, meanings and concepts.
• Episodic memory: Remembering personally experienced events.

These forms of memory are different but interact closely.

Why This Matters for Knowledge Management

A family archive should preserve both factual information and the context of important events.

Knowing when a photograph was taken is useful. Knowing its story makes it more meaningful.

What About Artificial Intelligence?

AI can organise dates, descriptions and relationships between records.

But a digital description of an experience is not the same as personally remembering it.

“I also suggest that episodic memory is a true, even if as yet generally unappreciated, marvel of nature.”

Endel Tulving, Episodic Memory: From Mind to Brain, Annual Review of Psychology, 2002, Vol. 53, pp. 1–25.

The takeaway: Preserve not only what happened, but also the stories that give events meaning.

Especially when a pancake achieves its first successful flight.