Thank you very much for thinking seriously and intelligently about these issues. =)
Clearly, your episodic memory is not (usually) a tape recorder. It is deeply intertwined with your perceptual and cognitive processes. (fuck this mail client is annoying, it's pausing every several seconds for while I continue to type...) It doesn't actually record episodes, it records your perceptions of episodes filtered through, and in the language of the abstractions that you use as the building blocks of your cognitive processes. Extensive research on memory shows that memories are vulnerable to changes in those abstractions, if you experience something long ago, and then your understanding of the world in general evolves, your memory of that past event will be affected. This is not always bad but it can lead to inaccuracies in your memory. Also, the mechanisms of recall can be clouded by carefully pre-loading abstractions that might change the meaning of the memory. Scummbag lawyers (as if there's any other kind) use this trick in court all the time. Your question seems to be what the mechanism for starting and stopping recording and what is recorded. The pathway for episodic memory is, famously the hypocampus, specifically the temporal horn of the hypocampus. The hypocampus is present under all parts of the brain and only idiots think it doesn't perform a similarly important role in other types of memory and learning. The mechanism for memory formation appears to be active at all times but it's level of activity is modulated by the emotional centers. There are several plausible explanations for what it remembers, it might just bind arbitrary sets of high-level abstractions that are active at a given time. It might also try to distinguish between concepts and "trains of thought" and file them separately. I haven't really studied it to the point where I can say anything more than these dis-organized ramblings. =\ Piaget Modeler wrote: > > Assume we are continuously feeding sensory input into a cognitive system, > and the cognitive system is continuously performing actions (and > non-actions). > > Can anyone succinctly describe what an episode is? > > When does one episode start and end, and when does another begin? > > Do they overlap? > > I have a working theory but I'd like to get feedback. -- E T F N H E D E D Powers are not rights. ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-c97d2393 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-2484a968 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
