lecture 5: memory and the self. todays lecture –common sense ideas about the self –controversy...
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Lecture 5: Memory and the Self
Today’s Lecture
– Common sense ideas about the Self
– Controversy within Cognitive Psychology over the self• Its just an illusion?
• A distinct cognitive system?
– Some Men that Time Forgot• Amnesic patients Jimmie G, P.S., C.W. and M.L.
– “I know that I exist, the question is, What is this ‘I’ that I know?”
Some Common Sense about the Self
• 1. Continuous over time, past, present and in the future
• 2. Singular
• 3. Responsible for controlling the mind and the body (‘will power’)
• 4. Determines your individuality
Who is behind the wheel?
ConsolidationMechanisms
AttentionalControl
Encoding Storage Retrieval
AttentionalControl
SemanticRecords
PerceptualRecords
Binding
ContextSemanticRecords
PerceptualRecords
Binding
Context
‘Self’
Cognitive Psychology is Soulless!
• Reason 1 concerns the brain– a. There may not be a single,
controlling ‘centre’ of the brain– b. Circuits can work independently
of one another
• Reason 2 concerns function– No Homunculi allowed!
Our Mental Library?
• New experiences and knowledge are filed away systematically
• Search and retrieval operations can take advantage of the library organisation to speed things up
• But how is all this managed? By a librarian?
How To Include the Self in a Cognitive Model
• The self is a biological / physical process, carried out by the brain
• Functions that support memory, attention, etc, should be independent (‘segregated’) from those involved in the self
• The neural basis for self-related functions may lie in the prefrontal cortex
Some Common Sense about the Self
• 1. Continuous over time, past, present and in the future
• 2. Singular
• 3. Responsible for controlling the mind and the body (‘will power’)
• 4. Determines your individuality
Men that Time Forgot
• Amnesic Patients– Jimmie G.– P.S.– C.W.
Amnesia
Past Future
RetrogradeAnterograde
Oliver Sach’s Patient Jimmie G.
• Korsakoff’s amnesic– A chronic alcoholic– Severe retrograde amnesia and dense anterograde
amnesia!– 49 years old, but considered himself to be 19 and living
in the late 1940s.
McCarthy and Hodge’s Patient P.S.
• 67 year old stroke victim– Severe retrograde amnesia and dense anterograde amnesia!
• ‘A delusion more compelling than rational thought’– P.S. lived as if he was in the early 1940s.– His delusion was resistant to contrary evidence and
argument.
Memory’s Influence on Continuity
• Continuity depends on access to the full range of memories for past experiences
• Our ‘self-identity’ now may be constructed out of our most recent memories
Patient C.W.
• A middle aged victim of Herpes Simplex Encephalitis virus
– Severe retrograde amnesia and dense anterograde amnesia!
– Quote from C.W.’s wife: “He perceives the world as you or I do, but as soon as he’s perceived it and looked away, its gone for him. A moment to moment consciousness”
Some Common Sense about the Self
• 1. Continuous over time, past, present and in the future
• 2. Singular
• 3. Responsible for controlling the mind and the body (‘will power’)
• 4. Determines your individuality
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