From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utcsri!rutgers!att!linac!mp.cs.niu.edu!rickert Wed Aug 12 16:52:04 EDT 1992
Article 6541 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!utcsri!rutgers!att!linac!mp.cs.niu.edu!rickert
>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Memory and store/retrieve.
Message-ID: <1992Aug1.132812.12457@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 1 Aug 92 13:28:12 GMT
References: <1992Jul30.152320.2247@puma.ATL.GE.COM> <1992Jul31.160209.26718@mp.cs.niu.edu> <BILL.92Jul31195028@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 30

In article <BILL.92Jul31195028@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu> bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs) writes:
>It seems natural to speak of "storage/retrieval" for a memory whose
>contents are discrete items, less natural if the memory works by
>making incremental changes in a set of continuous parameters.

 and

>One theory that is increasing in popularity (a little bit of
>cheerleading here!) holds that when episodic memories (i.e. memories
>for specific events) are first acquired, they are placed in a
>discrete-item memory, because as far as we know that's the only kind
>of network that can learn from a single brief presentation; then over
>the course of time, they are "consolidated" into a more efficient,
>higher-capacity, incremental-learning network.

 The problem with episodic memory is that it is so difficult to measure.
It is, for example, very difficult to tackle that most basic question:
"if we did not have language, what would episodic memory be like?"

 The relation between episodic memory and language may be very important.
It is likely that the aspects of an event most clearly remembered are
those which the participant thought about during the event.  Since this
thought is usually language based, that part of the event became
linguistically encoded.  The appearance of discrete items in the memory
is then mostly a reflection about how language works, rather than about
how memory works.  The later consolidation into an "incremental-learning
network" probably occurs as the participant recreates the events in his
thoughts.  As such, this means that the later consolidation is not a
memory of the original event at all, but a memory of the repetition of
that event through thought.


