Semantic and episodic relations are experimentally dissociable and stochastically independent

Subjects who studied DOG-BEER and WINE-SWEATER were more likely to recall BEER cued by DOG if they used interactive imagery rather than separate imagery, but the two groups showed no difference in recall of BEER cued by WINE. Recall of BEER cued by WINE was enhanced if BEER and "alcoholic beverages" had been presented before the list was studied, but recall of BEER cued by DOG was unaffected. We conclude that there are two independent types of relation: An episodic relation records the joint occurrence of previously unrelated words; a semantic relation reflects events in one's prior life. The value of a semantic relation is enhanced if the target item is primed in its family; the value of an episodic cue is enhanced by processes that directly encode the occurrence of the two items as a unique event in the life of the subject.