Chapter 10 - Three forms of consciousness in retrieving memories

Summary

This chapter describes two empirical movements that have shaped the recent study of consciousness in relation to memory. The first breakthrough can be traced to the reports of implicit memory in severely amnesic individuals. The second impetus came from the distinction Endel Tulving introduced between remembering and knowing. The chapter adopts Tulving's tripartite distinction among three states of consciousness to provide coherence to the review of the literature. Tulving distinguished among autonoetic (remembering), noetic (knowing), and anoetic forms of consciousness, which refer, respectively, to self-knowing, knowing, and non-knowing states of consciousness. One of the most compelling findings from recent studies is that subjects sometimes report vivid conscious experiences (Remember responses) for events that never occurred. This phenomenon has been termed false remembering, illusory recollection, or phantom recollection. Research on remembering, knowing, and priming reveals the systematic responsiveness of these measures to the influence of specific independent and subject variables.