Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T04:02:28.108Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Traces of Things Past

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

John Heil
John Heil*
Affiliation:
Brown University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper consists of two parts. In Part I, an attempt to get around certain well-known criticisms of the trace theory of memory is discussed. Part II consists of an account of the so-called “logical” notion of a memory trace.

Trace theories are sometimes thought to be empirical hypotheses about the functioning of memory. That this is not the case, that trace theories are in fact philosophical theories, is shown, I believe, in the arguments which follow. If this is so, one may well wonder about psychologists' insistence that any empirical theory of memory must involve the postulation of traces (or trace-like entities: engrams, schemata, etc.).

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , March 1978 , pp. 60 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1978

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

[1] Cofer, C. (ed.). The Structure of Memory. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1975.Google Scholar
[2] Fodor, J. Psychological Explanation. New York: Random House, 1962.Google Scholar
[3] Gerard, R. “What is Memory?” Scientific American 188 (1953): 118–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[4] Klatzky, R. Human Memory. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1975.Google Scholar
[5] Köhler, W. Gestalt Psychology. New York: Liveright, 1947.Google Scholar
[6] Malcolm, N. “Memory and Representation.” Nous 4 (1970): 59–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[7] Martin, C. and Deutscher, M. “Remembering.” Philosophical Review 75 (1966): 161–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8] McLendon, H. “The Uses of Similarity of Structure in Contemporary Philosophy.” Mind 64 (1953): 79–95.Google Scholar
[9] Neisser, U. Cognitive Psychology. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1967.Google Scholar
[10] Penfield, W. “The Permanent Record of the Stream of Consciousness.” Acta Psychologica 11 (1955): 47–69.10.1016/S0001-6918(55)80063-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[11] Posner, M. Cognition: An Introduction. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, 1973.Google Scholar
[12] Pribram, K. “The Neurophysiology of Remembering.” Scientific American 220 (1969): 73–86.10.1038/scientificamerican0169-73CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
[13] Rosen, D. “An Argument for the Logical Notion of a Memory Trace.” Philosophy of Science 42 (1975): 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[14] Russell, B. The Analysis of Mind. London: Allen and Unwin, 1921.Google Scholar
[15] Seligman, M. and Hager, J. (eds.). Biological Boundaries of Learning. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1973.Google Scholar
[16] Whorf, B. Language, Thought and Reality. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1956.Google Scholar
[17] Wittgenstein, L. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1958.Google Scholar