Lecture 5: Memory and the Self. Todays Lecture –Common sense ideas about the Self –Controversy...
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Transcript of Lecture 5: Memory and the Self. Todays Lecture –Common sense ideas about the Self –Controversy...
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