When "why" meets "how" in episodic memory: Towards a computational model of Boyle and Brown's functional analysis

Boyle and Brown's (2025) functional account and the Temporal Context Model-Successor Representation (TCM-SR; Zhou et al., Psychological Review, 132(1), 18-49, 2025) approach episodic memory from different angles, yet they converge on a similar claim: episodic memory supports adaptive behaviour by flexibly using past experience. In this commentary, we highlight this convergence and build on Boyle and Brown's framework by focusing on how this function can be mechanistically specified and empirically tested. Boyle and Brown outline why episodic memory may have evolved to support learning from sparse, non-repeating experiences, whereas TCM-SR formalises how contextual reinstatement can supply predictive information about what typically follows, allowing past experience to guide evaluation. We propose that the probed recall task offers a direct way to test these shared claims, that episodic retrieval makes related experiences accessible, and this process can support learning beyond simple associative mechanisms. The contiguity effects seen in this task, in which retrieval is cued by a studied item, reflect contextual reinstatement rather than simple associations, capturing both the integrative processes emphasised by Boyle and Brown and the retrieval dynamics central to TCM-SR. By linking function, mechanism, and behavioural signature within a single paradigm, we outline a path toward a more unified understanding of episodic memory that explains how it accomplishes one of its main functional goals.