Chapter 9 Introduction

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Repeatedly, while working on this book, I (Peter Gray) have lamented my seeming lack of memory. I can’t remember who did that experiment. I forgot to bring home the articles I need for this section. Now, where did I put my laptop?

Like digestion, memory is one of those abilities that we tend to take for granted except when it fails us. We are usually more aware of forgetting than of remembering. But if we stop to think about it, we realize that our remembering is far more impressive than our forgetting. Every waking moment is full of memories. Every thought, every learned response, every act of recognition is based on memory. We use memory not just to think about the past but also to make sense of the present and plan for the future. It can reasonably be argued that memory is the mind. Memory plays center stage in our lives, and recollections of our past serve as the basis of our personal identity.

Memory, clearly, is intimately tied to learning. Memory is often thought of as the change within an individual, brought on by learning, that can influence the individual’s future behavior: Learning → memory → effect on future behavior. In Chapter 4 we examined basic learning processes, focusing on the relationship between observable aspects of the learning experience (the training conditions) and subsequent behavior, with little concern for the inner change—memory—that mediates that relationship. The present chapter, in contrast, is primarily about that inner change, and it deals with types of learning and memory, some of which may be unique to human beings. Our main focus here is on the conscious, self-aware human mind.

Although memory is the “star” of this chapter, it cannot be studied in isolation from other basic cognitive abilities. Equally important is the phenomenon of attention. Long ago William James (1890/1950) stated, “Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession of the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what may seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought…. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.” Modern definitions of attention are not much different, even though attention and related abilities, such as executive function, are viewed through the lens of more contemporary theories, as well as with the benefit of nearly 100 years of behavioral, and more recently neuropsychological, research.

The chapter begins with a general model of information processing that psychologists have long used as a framework for talking and thinking about the human mind. It then discusses issues of attention, working memory, executive functions—cognitive processes involved in the regulation of thought and behavior—memory as the representation of knowledge, and the formation and recall of long-term memories. Throughout the chapter we also examine the neural basis of these processes.