scholarly journals Construction, Preservation, and the Presence of Self in Observer Memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Jude McCarroll

Observer memories involve a representation of the self in the memory image, which is presented from a detached or external point of view. That such an image is an obvious departure from how one initially experienced the event seems relatively straightforward. However, in my book on this type of imagery, I suggested that such memories can in fact, at least in some cases, accurately represent one’s past experience of an event. During these past events there is a sense in which we adopt an external perspective on ourselves. In the present paper, I respond to a critical notice of my book by Marina Trakas. Trakas argues that my account of observer memory unfolded against the background of a problematic preservationist account of episodic memory, and that I failed to adequately account for the presence of self in observer memory. I respond these worries here, and I try to clarify key points that were underdeveloped in the book.

Author(s):  
Yu.V. Kupriyanova ◽  
I.M. Vasilyanova

The article summarizes the key points in the development of the metadialogue phenomenon from a linguistic point of view. Some stages of the development of this concept and the difficulties associated with its structuring are covered. The main research findings of modern foreign and domestic experts on its study are considered. Some characteristics of the subject of the research from the standpoint of various pragmatic installations are given. On the basis of the dynamic structure of the metadialogue development, certain principles of semantic relations connected with the dialectical nature of human cognition are presented. Excursion into the history and evolution of the concept is presented. Several types of formulation of the subject matter are given. In accordance with the goal of speech exposure, internal problems of the development of metadialogue are highlighted and the critical points related to solving these problems are described. The rules of metadialogue flow are explained at the level of steps, the success/failure of which directly affects the final result of communication. The prospects of development of the concept research in accordance with various types of discourse are indicated.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1107-1117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Lalanne ◽  
Johanna Rozenberg ◽  
Pauline Grolleau ◽  
Pascale Piolino

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bas van Woerkum

AbstractA persisting question in the philosophy of animal minds is which nonhuman animals share our capacity for episodic memory (EM). Many authors address this question by primarily defining EM, trying to capture its seemingly unconstrained flexibility and independence from environmental and bodily constraints. EM is therefore often opposed to clearly context-bound capacities like tracking environmental regularities and forming associations. The problem is that conceptualizing EM in humans first, and then reconstructing how humans evolved this capacity, provides little constraints for understanding the evolution of memory abilities in other species: it defines “genuine” EM as independent from animals’ evolved sensorimotor setup and learning abilities. In this paper, I define memory in terms of perceptual learning: remembering means “knowing (better) what to do in later situations because of past experience in similar earlier situations”. After that, I explain how episodic memory can likewise be explained in terms of perceptual learning. For this, we should consider that the information in animals’ ecological niches is much richer than has hitherto been presumed. Accordingly, instead of asking “given that environmental stimuli provide insufficient information about the cache, what kind of representation does the jay need?” we ask “given that the animal performs in this way, what kind of information is available in the environment?” My aim is not to give a complete alternative explanation of EM; rather, it is to provide conceptual and methodological tools for more zoocentric comparative EM-research.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110097
Author(s):  
Jianqin Wang ◽  
Henry Otgaar ◽  
Mark L Howe ◽  
Sen Cheng

Memory is considered to be a flexible and reconstructive system. However, there is little experimental evidence demonstrating how associations are falsely constructed in memory, and even less is known about the role of the self in memory construction. We investigated whether false associations involving non-presented stimuli can be constructed in episodic memory and whether the self plays a role in such memory construction. In two experiments, we paired participants’ own names (i.e., self-reference) or the name “Adele” (i.e., other-reference) with words and pictures from Deese/Roediger–McDermott (DRM) lists. We found that (1) participants not only falsely remembered the non-presented lure words and pictures as having been presented, but also misremembered that they were paired with their own name or “Adele,” depending on the referenced person of related DRM lists; and (2) there were more critical lure–self associations constructed in the self-reference condition than critical lure–other associations in the other-reference condition for word but not for picture stimuli. These results suggest a self-enhanced constructive effect that might be driven by both relational and item-specific processing. Our results support the spreading-activation account for constructive episodic memory.


1927 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 713-726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Flexner

The purpose of this paper is to explain the state of our knowledge of the etiology of epidemic encephalitis, and especially to draw a line of demarcation between the established virus of simple herpes and the hypothetical virus of epidemic encephalitis. It had already been shown that the experimental observations on rabbits do no suffice to prove the identity of the herpes with the encephalitis virus. The discussion of the subject in this paper shows that identity cannot be postulated on the basis of the performed guinea pig experiments. Attention has been drawn to the significant fact that there is lack of harmony in the positive results of those investigators who believe that the incitants of epidemic encephalitis have been discovered. An attempt has been made to attribute some of the discrepancies reported by these investigators either to accidental and contaminating microbic agents, or to the uncovering of virulent agents preexisting in a latent state in the animals employed for inoculation, the existence of which was not previously known or suspected. Since past experience leads us to believe in a single incitant for widespread epidemic diseases, it is probable that, when certainly discovered, the microbe of epidemic encephalitis will prove to be simple and not multiple. The direct corollary to this point of view is that up to the present, the etiology of epidemic encephalitis has not been determined.


Author(s):  
Filomena Antunes Sobral ◽  
Daniela Morgado Oliveira

In the development of the relationship between the artist and his artistic creation, the deconstruction of concepts and ideas within the scope of artistic praxis leads to the reflection of the crucial role that the artist has in the conception and meaning of the work. His creative production, in turn, appropriates not only the expressive force of the author to assert itself as an artistic creation, but can also assume to be the reflection of the self, its identity and materializes in the form of self-portrait. The self-portrait expands the artist’s interiority, externalizing concerns and questions, and conveys a subjective point of view about himself and his view of art. But how does self-portrait contribute to self-awareness? And how does the artist reveal himself and communicate beyond his appearance?Based on these questions, the objective of this paper is to provide a reflection on self-portrait presenting the results of an artistic installation project that involved photographic language in the form of self-portrait and experimental video to represent feelings of disquiet. Influences such as Cindy Sherman, Lais Pontes or Francesca Woodman, whose creations approach the self-portrait in a not only original, but critical style, stand out.It is a project of academic and artistic nature supported by theoretical foundations. The results allow us to conclude that the artistic installation, which began by presenting a self-portraying self-seeking identity, frees itself from its creator to enhance multiple variable interpretations depending on the observer’s attention.


2001 ◽  
Vol 356 (1413) ◽  
pp. 1483-1491 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. S. Clayton ◽  
D. P. Griffiths ◽  
N. J. Emery ◽  
A. Dickinson

A number of psychologists have suggested that episodic memory is a uniquely human phenomenon and, until recently, there was little evidence that animals could recall a unique past experience and respond appropriately. Experiments on food–caching memory in scrub jays question this assumption. On the basis of a single caching episode, scrub jays can remember when and where they cached a variety of foods that differ in the rate at which they degrade, in a way that is inexplicable by relative familiarity. They can update their memory of the contents of a cache depending on whether or not they have emptied the cache site, and can also remember where another bird has hidden caches, suggesting that they encode rich representations of the caching event. They make temporal generalizations about when perishable items should degrade and also remember the relative time since caching when the same food is cached in distinct sites at different times. These results show that jays form integrated memories for the location, content and time of caching. This memory capability fulfils Tulving's behavioural criteria for episodic memory and is thus termed ‘episodic–like’. We suggest that several features of episodic memory may not be unique to humans.


Author(s):  
Mahnaz Soqandi ◽  
Fatemeh Sadat Basirizadeh

The aim of the present research is to investigate Lorca’s poem from cultural materialist point of view. To do so, the researcher investigates how culture and social mechanism function in the context in which the poems have been written. Cultural materialism attempts to investigate different aspects of society, art, economy, language, and politics from an external point of view and analyze them to find out how identity and self are shaped accordingly. Cultural materialism is demonstrated in different categories including gender, ethnic studies, postmodernism, postcolonialism, and other fields. Cultural materialism highlights the relation between a work of art and the ideological system in which it has been created. In other words, cultural, social, religious and several other factors must be accounted for while interpreting a work of art. Consequently, how cultural dogma functions within fine arts in order to produce the internal textures is uncovered through cultural materialism. In Lorca’s poems, the contents have symbolic and metaphoric mechanisms which can be interpreted through material analysis.


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