Science of Memory

Abstract

Scientists currently study memory from many different perspectives: neurobiological, ethological, animal conditioning, cognitive, behavioral neuroscience, social, and cultural. This book aims to help initiate a new science of memory by bringing these perspectives together to create a unified understanding of the topic. The book began with a conference where leading practitioners from all these major approaches met to analyze and discuss sixteen concepts crucial to our understanding of memory. Each of these sixteen concepts is addressed in a different part of the book, and in the sixty-six chapters that fill these parts, a leading researcher addresses the chapter's concept by clearly stating his or her position on it, elucidating how it is used, and discussing how it should be used in future research. For some concepts, there is general agreement among practitioners from different fields and levels of analysis, but for others there is general disagreement and much controversy. A final chapter in each part, also written by a leading researcher, integrates the various viewpoints offered on the part's concept, then draws conclusions about the concept.