Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T14:11:48.990Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What psychology and cognitive neuroscience know about the communicative function of memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2018

David C. Rubin
David C. Rubin*
Affiliation:
Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708. [email protected]://psychandneuro.duke.edu/people/david-c-rubin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mahr & Csibra (M&C) include interesting ideas about the nature of memory from outside of the field of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience. However, the target article's inaccurate claims about those fields limit its usefulness. I briefly review the most serious omissions and distortions of the literature by the target article, including its misrepresentation of event memory, and offer suggestions for forwarding the goal of understanding the communicative function of memory.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e30
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

Anderson, J. R. & Ross, B. H. (1980) Evidence against a semantic-episodic distinction. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory 6:441–66.Google Scholar
Barsalou, L. W. (1988) The content and organization of autobiographical memories. In: Remembering reconsidered: Ecological and traditional approaches to the study of memory, ed. Neisser, U., pp. 193–243. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartlett, F. C. (1932) Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bluck, S. Alea, N., Habermas, T. & Rubin, D. C. (2005) A TALE of three functions: The self-reported uses of autobiographical memory. Social Cognition 23(1):91–117.Google Scholar
Boals, A. & Klein, K. (2005) Word use in emotional narratives about failed romantic relationships and subsequent mental health. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 24:252–68.Google Scholar
Brewer, W. F. (1986) What is autobiographical memory? In: Autobiographical memory, ed. Rubin, D. C., pp. 25–49. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cabeza, R., Prince, S. E., Daselaar, S. M., Greenberg, D. L., Budde, M., Dolcos, F., LaBar, K. S. & Rubin, D. C. (2004) Brain activity during episodic retrieval of autobiographical and laboratory events: An fMRI study using a novel photo paradigm. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 16:1583–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cabeza, R. & St. Jacques, P. (2007) Functional neuroimaging of autobiographical memory. Trends in Cognitive Science 11:219–27.Google Scholar
Epstein, R. & Kanwisher, N. (1998) A cortical representation of the local visual environment. Nature 392:598–601.Google Scholar
Greenberg, D. L., Eacott, M. J., Brechin, D. & Rubin, D. C. (2005) Visual memory loss and autobiographical amnesia: A case study. Neuropsychologia 43:1493–502.Google Scholar
Harris, C. B., Rasmussen, A. S. & Berntsen, D. (2014) The functions of autobiographical memory: An integrative approach. Memory 22(5):559–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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
Johnson, M. K., Kuhl, B. A., Mitchell, K. J., Ankudowich, E. & Durbin, K. A. (2015) Age-related differences in the neural basis of the subjective vividness of memories: Evidence from multivoxel pattern classification. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience 15:644–61.Google Scholar
Lane, R., Ryan, L., Nadel, L. & Greenberg, L. (2015) Memory reconsolidation, emotional arousal, and the process of change in psychotherapy: New insights from brain science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 38:1–64.Google Scholar
Maguire, E. A. & Mullally, S. L. (2013) The hippocampus: A manifesto for change. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 142(4):1180–89. Available at: http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2013-25332-001.Google Scholar
McAdams, D. P. (2006) The redemptive self: Stories Americans live by. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdams, D. P. (2013) The psychological self as actor, agent, and author. Perspectives on Psychological Science 8:272–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McDermott, K. B., Szpunar, K. K. & Christ, S. E. (2009) Laboratory based and autobiographical retrieval tasks differ substantially in their neural substrates. Neuropsychologia 47:2290–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McKoon, G. & Ratcliff, R. (1979) Priming in episodic and semantic memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 18:463–80.Google Scholar
Mullally, S. L. & Maguire, E. A. (2013) Exploring the role of space defining objects in constructing and maintaining imagine scenes. Brain and Cognition 82:100–107.Google Scholar
Neisser, U. (1967) Cognitive psychology. Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Neisser, U. (1976) Cognition and reality: Principles and implications of cognitive psychology. W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Neisser, U. & Fivush, R. (1994) The remembering self: Construction and accuracy in the self-narrative. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, A. S. & Berntsen, D. (2009) Emotional valence and the functions of autobiographical memories: Positive and negative memories serve different functions. Memory & Cognition 37:477–92.Google Scholar
Rubin, D. C. (2006) The basic-systems model of episodic memory. Perspectives on Psychological Science 1:277–311.Google Scholar
Rubin, D. C. (2014) Schema driven construction of future autobiographical traumatic events: The future is much more troubling than the past. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143:612–30.Google Scholar
Rubin, D. C. & Greenberg, D. L. (1998) Visual memory-deficit amnesia: A distinct amnesic presentation and etiology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 95:5413–16.Google Scholar
Rubin, D. C. & Umanath, S. (2015) Event memory: A theory of memory for laboratory, autobiographical and fictional events. Psychological Review 122(1):1–23. Available at: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/rev/122/1/1/.Google Scholar
St. Jacques, P. (2012) Functional neuroimaging of autobiographical memory. In: Understanding autobiographical memory: Theories and approaches, ed. Berntsen, D. & Rubin, D. C., pp. 114–38. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (1999) The cultural origins of human cognition. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T. & Moll, H. (2005) Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28(5):675–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tulving, E. (1984) Précis of elements of episodic memory. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7:223–68.Google Scholar
Tulving, E. (1985) Memory and consciousness. Canadian Psychology 26:1–12. Available at: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/cap/26/1/1/.Google Scholar