Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:06:46.787Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Episodic memory and the witness trump card

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2018

Jeremy Henry  and
Carl Craver
Jeremy Henry
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130. [email protected]@wustl.eduhttps://pages.wustl.edu/cfcraver
Carl Craver
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130. [email protected]@wustl.eduhttps://pages.wustl.edu/cfcraver
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We accept Mahr & Csibra's (M&C's) causal claim that episodic memory provides humans with the means for evaluating the veracity of reports about non-occurrent events. We reject their evolutionary argument that this is the proper function of episodic memory. We explore three intriguing implications of the causal claim, for cognitive neuropsychology, comparative psychology, and philosophy.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e16
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Clayton, N. S. & Dickinson, A. (1998) Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature 395(6699):272–74. Available at: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v395/n6699/abs/395272a0.html.Google Scholar
De Brigard, F. (2014a) Is memory for remembering? Recollection as a form of episodic hypothetical thinking. Synthese 191(2):155–85. Available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11229-013-0247-7.Google Scholar
Hassabis, D., Kumaran, D. & Maguire, E. A. (2007a) Using imagination to understand the neural basis of episodic memory. The Journal of Neuroscience 27(52):14365–74. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4549-07.2007.Google Scholar
Hassabis, D., Kumaran, D., Vann, S. D. & Maguire, E. A. (2007b) Patients with hippocampal amnesia cannot imagine new experiences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104(5):1726–31. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0610561104.Google Scholar
Hurley, N. C., Maguire, E. A. & Vargha-Khadem, F. (2011) Patient HC with developmental amnesia can construct future scenarios. Neuropsychologia 49(13):3620–28.Google Scholar
Keven, N. (2016a) A story to remember: Narrativity, memory and the self. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Washington University, St. Louis, MO.Google Scholar
Mullally, S. L., Hassabis, D. & Maguire, E. A. (2012) Scene construction in amnesia: An fMRI study. Journal of Neuroscience 32(16):5646–53.Google Scholar
Schacter, D. L. (2001) The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Google Scholar
Schacter, D. L., Addis, D. R. & Buckner, R. L. (2007) Remembering the past to imagine the future: The prospective brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 8(9):657–61. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2213.Google Scholar