Final answer:
The student's question about recalling a favorite teacher from elementary school requires the use of episodic memory, which is a declarative or explicit memory connected to personal experiences. Recall, recognition, and relearning are the three ways to retrieve information from long-term memory, with recall being relevant in this instance.
Step-by-step explanation:
Answering the question about who was your favorite teacher in elementary school requires episodic memory, which is a part of explicit or declarative memory. Episodic memories are those that connect to specific events, or episodes, in your life, such as the memories of teachers you had in school. This form of memory retrieval involves recalling past experiences that are personal, often with details about the timing and context in which they occurred. This is different from semantic memory, which relates to facts and knowledge that do not include the autobiographical details.
There are three ways to retrieve information from long-term memory: recall, recognition, and relearning. In this case, recalling your favorite elementary school teacher does not rely on cues or prompts, and hence, you are using recall. It's important to note that as time passes, some explicit memories, especially episodic ones, can fade, which is known as transience, a type of forgetting error. Without frequent retrieval or relevance, even significant memories from our past can become less accessible over time.