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An Argument For The Logical Notion of A Memory Trace

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Deborah A. Rosen
Deborah A. Rosen*
Affiliation:
The University of New Orleans
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Abstract

During the past decade there has been a very effective campaign against any explanation of remembering whose basic concept is that of a causally mediating trace. This paper attempts to provide such an explanation by presenting an explicit deductive argument for the existence of the memory trace. The conclusion is shown to follow from reasonable, empirical assumptions of which the most interesting is a spatio-temporal contiguity thesis. Set-theoretic techniques are used to provide a framework of analysis and probabilistic definitions of some causal notions, as that of a causal chain, are presented.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , March 1975 , pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

†

I am indebted to Patrick Suppes whose criticisms and helpful suggestions contributed much to the development of this essay. I should also like to thank Norton Nelkin for criticisms of an earlier draft.

References

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