Malcolm X’s personal memory and Russell’s vicarious memory share several important features. The stories are vivid,
with descriptions of people, places, sights, sounds, and feelings, and they informed future attitudes and behaviors.
Despite these similarities, current theoretical models place personal and vicarious memories into distinctly different categories
of mental representation. Malcolm’s recollection clearly qualifies as an episodic autobiographical memory. In contrast,
because Russell did not directly experience his grandfather’s racially motivated encounter, only a personal memory of his
hearing the story from his father—the reception event—would meet the definition of episodic AM; ‘‘impersonal’’ knowledge
of his grandfather’s heroic activities would be classified as semantic memory.