{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"What is memory for?","description":"Everyone loves a good evolutionary puzzle. Why do we have appendices? Why do we dream? Why do we blush? At first glance, memory would not seem to be in this category. It's clearly useful to remember stuff, after all\u2014to know where to find food, to remember your mistakes so you don't repeat them, to recall who\u2019s friendly and who\u2019s fierce. In fact, though, certain aspects of memory\u2014when you hold them up to the light\u2014turn out to be quite puzzling indeed. My guests today are Dr. Ali Boyle and Dr. Johannes Mahr. Ali is a philosopher at the London School of Economics (LSE); Johannes is a philosopher at York University, in Toronto. Both have written extensively about the functions of memory, and, in particular, about the functions of episodic memory\u2014that capacity for calling up specific events and experiences from our own lives.  Here, Ali, Johannes and I lay out the textbook taxonomy of memory, and discuss how episodic memory has drawn the lion's share of philosophical interest. We pick apart the relationship between episodic memory and another major type of long-term memory, semantic memory. We sketch a range of different accounts of the evolved functions of episodic memory, including Johannes's proposal that episodic memory serves communication and Ali's proposal that it fuels semantic memory. And, finally, we consider what this all means for our understanding of memory in children and in animals. Along the way, we touch on Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, infantile amnesia, evidential systems in language, imagination, \u201csimulationist\u201d theories of episodic memory, what it feels like to remember, collective memory, the hippocampus, cryptomnesia, and the cow's digestive system as a metaphor for memory.  If you're enjoying Many Minds, you might consider leaving us a rating or review on your platform of choice, or maybe giving us a shout-out on social media. Thanks so much in advance for supporting us, friends!   Notes 4:30 \u2013 For a broad orientation to memory research in the cognitive sciences, see here. For a broad orientation to the philosophy of memory, see here.  13:00 \u2013 See here for Dr. Boyle\u2019s paper on the \u201cimpure phenomenology\u201d of episodic memory. 16:30 \u2013 For more on the idea of \u201cWEIRD\u201d-ness and the \u201cWEIRD problem\u201d in psychology, see our previous audio essay and our recent episode on childhood across cultures. 20:00 \u2013 For more on metaphors for memory in the cognitive sciences, see here (in which an apparently different \u201ccow stomach\u201d metaphor for memory is discussed). Note that cows do not, in fact, have four stomachs, but rather a single stomach with four distinct chambers. 24:00 \u2013 For an overview of the cognitive neuroscience of episodic memory, see here. 31:30 \u2013 For a discussion of the commonsense \u201cmnemonic view\u201d of episodic memory, see Dr. Boyle\u2019s recent article.  37:00 \u2013 For one influential articulation of a \u201csimulationist\u201d account of episodic memory, see here.  40:00 \u2013 For the proposal by Dr. Mahr and his colleague that episodic memory is for communication, see here and here. 45:00 \u2013 For more on evidential systems in language, see here and here.  48:00 \u2013 For the study by Dr. Mahr and colleagues on source memory in children, see here. 51:30 \u00ad\u2013 For Dr. Boyle\u2019s proposal that episodic memory is for semantic memory, see here. For another of Dr. Boyle\u2019s discussions of the functions of episodic memory, see here. 1:02:00 \u2013 For more of Dr. Mahr\u2019s ideas about the cultural evolution of the \u201cepistemic tag\u201d that distinguishes episodic memory, see here. 1:03:00 \u2013 Partially digested stomach contents are sometimes known as \u201cchyme.\u201d 1:07:00 \u2013 A news story about recent findings on infantile amnesia.  1:08:00 \u2013 A recent review article about Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory. 1:12:00 \u2013 An empirical study on the phenomenology of \u201ccryptomnesia.\u201d 1:15:00 \u2013 For a recent discussion of episodic memory in animals, see this paper by Dr. Boyle and a colleague. Examples of Dr. Boyle\u2019s other work on memory in animals are here and here.   Recommendations The Memory Palace (blog) The Invention of Tomorrow, by Thomas Suddendorf, Jonathan Redshaw, & Adam Bulley (see also our episode featuring this book) Searching for Memory, by Daniel Schacter The Enigma of Reason, by Hugo Mercier & Dan Sperber   Many Minds is a project of the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute, which is made possible by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation to Indiana University. The show is hosted and produced by Kensy Cooperrider, with help from Assistant Producer Urte Laukaityte and with creative support from DISI Directors Erica Cartmill and Jacob Foster. Our artwork is by Ben Oldroyd. Subscribe to Many Minds on Apple, Stitcher, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also now subscribe to the Many Minds newsletter here! We welcome your comments, questions, and suggestions. Feel free to email us at: manymindspodcast@gmail.com. For updates about the show, visit our website or follow us on Bluesky (@manymindspod.bsky.social). ","author_name":"Many Minds","author_url":"https:\/\/disi.org\/manyminds\/","html":"