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Cited by 561Memory and Neural MechanismsMemory Processes and InfluencesCognitive Functions and Memory

Associations across time: The hippocampus as a temporary memory store

Rawlins, J. N. P.·1985·Behavioral and Brain Sciences
DOI 10.1017/s0140525x00001291
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Abstract

All recent memory theories of hippocampal function have incorporated the idea that the hippocampus is required to process items only of some qualitatively specifiahle kind, and is not required to process items of some complementary set. In contrast, it is now proposed that the hippocampus is needed to process stimuli of all kinds, but only when there is a need to associate those stimuli with other events that are temporally discontiguous. In order to form or use temporally discontiguous associations, it is essential to maintain some memory of the first component until the second component has occurred. When the temporal gap to he spanned is small, and the number of items to be temporarily retained is low, a limited-capacity, short-term store is sufficient to allow associations to be formed. Such a store is presumed to operate in parallel with the hippocampus in normal animals. Hippocampal damage disrupts a much higher-capacity store that has a slower decay rate, and so leaves animals with only a very limited ability to form temporally discontiguous associations. Hippocampal damage, however, is not held to affect the long-term storage of associations of any kind, if they can be formed. Analyses of both new and existing data are presented to show that by classifying tasks in terms of the need to use a temporary memory store to retain temporally discontiguous information one can cut right across existing classifications as well as achieve a better fit to the data. The hippocampus thus seems best described as a high-capacity, intermediate-term memory store.

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  • The mammalian hippocampus is essential to encode the time and order of events, to associate temporally separate stimuli, and to register non-spatial contextual information.

    “Thus, the mammalian hippocampus seems to be also essential to encode the time and order of events, to associate temporally separate stimuli, and to register non-spatial contextual information [216,217,218,219].”

    From Spatial Cognition in Teleost Fish: Strategies and Mechanisms (2021) · cites this paper as [219]

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Authors
Rawlins, J. N. P.
Affiliations
University of Oxford (GB)
Corresponding author
Rawlins, J. N. P.
Venue
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Published
1985-09
Volume
8
Issue
3
Pages
479-497
ISSN
  • 0140-525X (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-1825
DOI
10.1017/s0140525x00001291
OpenAlex
W1973789361
Cited by
561
References
291
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 6
FWCI
16.74
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 8922 d)
Locations
Behavioral and Brain Sciences (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
Keywords
hippocampus, temporal association, short-term memory, intermediate-term memory, hippocampal lesions, memory decay, long-term memory, memory theory, task classification

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