Episodic memory
Autobiographical memory is a type of Episodic memory process which is involved in the recall of one's life experiences and personal events of ones past. Bilinguals have the ability to recall some life experiences in one language, and other events using another. When recalling language information it is important that the language is recalled in the same context as it was encoded. This is referred to as Context-dependent memory Ex. If one who is bilingual were to learn a Spanish song in a Spanish speaking country, and then come back to their native land, they would have difficulty remembering the song. However once they were immersed in a Spanish context again, recall would come with much more ease. Research has shown that autobiographical memories have increased availability in the language they were created in. That is to say, memories are richer and more elaborate when recalled in the language that the event has taken place, rather than the other language available to them. This can also be referred to as the Encoding specificity principle, where memories appear to be encoded in a language-specific manner. Earlier memory events that occur during youth and are encoded in the first and dominant language, are more emotionally charged, have a higher quality of detail and are greater in number than those memories recalled in the second language. It can also be argued that the language that is spoken and recalled more frequently, will have more associations to multiple circumstances and is therefore more likely to be remembered. Problems can arise if a language that comes to mind 'internally' is not the language that is being spoken externally. For example, if someone recalled an event in Spanish, but then reported it in English. This changeover in languages is most likely to do with the content of the memory itself. Evidence has been shown that language-specific recall of information when probed or cued in the matching language, is recalled vividly, and with much more elaboration and detail. It has also been shown that each language that a bilingual possesses, may represent experiences in somewhat different fashions.