Lecture 5: Memory and the Self

Today’s Lecture

– Common sense ideas about the Self

– Controversy within Cognitive Psychology over the self• Is it just an illusion? Does it exist as such? If so, what the hell

is it?– A distinct cognitive apparatus.

– Some Men that Time Forgot• Amnesic patients Jimmie G, P.S., and C.W.

– “I know that I exist, the question is, What is this ‘I’ that I know?”

The ‘I’ Reflex“I decide, I do, I

know, I like, I dislike, I will, I wont, Its my decision, I exist…”

Two extremely personal questions…1) What are you really?

(a) A soul (inhabiting a body, and controlling a mind).

(b) A product of the human brain as it reflects on its own activity.

LEFT hand: (a) point left or (b) point right…

2) Is God?

(a) Real.(b) A product of activity in the human brain.RIGHT hand: (a) point left or (b) point right…

A thoroughly modern brainwashed cognitive psychologist

A godless soul

Possibly going to heaven

You are…

Confused by yourself

Experience of and Belief in the Paranormal

EXPERIEN

22.5

20.0

17.5

15.0

12.5

10.0

7.5

5.0

2.5

0.0

Fre

qu

en

cy

200

100

0

Std. Dev = 4.07

Mean = 5.6

N = 569.00

BELIEF

12.010.08.06.04.02.00.0F

req

ue

ncy

200

100

0

Std. Dev = 2.72

Mean = 5.1

N = 562.00

Sample of 569, 17-45year olds

You are not alone…

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

So what is the pointof ‘having a self’?

• According to common sense, you need a ‘self’ in order to explain -

• Continuity

• Singularity

• Will power

• Individuality

Is anyone 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– There may not be a single,

controlling ‘centre’ of the brain

– Circuits can work independently of one another

Reason 2 concerns function– No Homunculi allowed!

• they generate an infinite regress…

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.– M.L.

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”

Next week, lecture 6

• Martin Conway’s autobiographical memory model incorporating the ‘working self’

• Revision / Summary of key points from each lecture