Tulving, Endel (May 26, 1927–present) is a leading researcher into human memory research, best known for proposing the now-accepted distinction between episodic and semantic memory (Bower 2000). His other contributions include demonstrating the separate roles of the right and left frontal lobes in memory encoding and retrieval.
Endel Tulving was born in Tartu, Estonia, in 1927, the son of a judge in a small town (Tulving et al. 1989). Endel attended a private school, where he was a good student, always first in his class (GCS Research Society 2009). Unfortunately, Endel found his classes uninteresting, having decided that everything interesting in the sciences had already been discovered (GCS Research Society 2009). He took more interest in track and field athletics (APF Gold Medal Award: Endel Tulving 1994). His energy went into beating his personal bests, constantly aiming to improve his performance (GCS Research Society 2009).
Life changed after Estonia was absorbed into the USSR in...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
APF Gold Medal Award: Endel Tulving (1994). American Psychologist, 49(7), 551–553.
Bower, G. H. (2000). A brief history of memory research. In E. Tulving & F. I. M. Craik (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
GCS Research Society (2009). Endel Tulving. http://science.ca. Accessed 1 Mar 2011.
Memon, A., & Bull, R. (1991). The cognitive interview: Its origins, empirical support, evaluation and practical implications. Journal of Community and Applied Psychology, 1, 1–18.
Tensuda, K. (2000). Ruth Tulving 80. Estonian Life, January 7, 2011.
Tulving, E. (1972). Episodic and semantic memory. In E. Tulving & W. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization of memory (pp. 381–403). New York: Academic.
Tulving, E., Roediger, H. L., & Craik, F. I. M. (Eds.). (1989). Endel Tulving: A Biographical Sketch. Varieties of memory and Consciousness: essays in honour of Endel Tulving (pp. xvii–xx) (adapted from “Endel Tulving” (1984), in American Psychologist, Vol. 39 (3), pp. 265–269) Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Tulving, E. (1995). Organization of memory: Quo vadis? In M. S. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The Cognitive Neurosciences (pp. 753–847). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
University of Alberta (2008). Biography: Endul (sic) Tulving. http://www.psych.ualberta.ca. Accessed 1 Mar 2011.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this entry
Cite this entry
McGarva, D.J. (2012). Tulving, Endel. In: Rieber, R.W. (eds) Encyclopedia of the History of Psychological Theories. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0463-8_377
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0463-8_377
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0425-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0463-8
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science