Extended mind and artifactual autobiographical memory
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In this paper, I describe how artifacts and autobiographical memory are integrated into new systemic wholes, allowing us to remember our personal past in a more reliable and detailed manner. After discussing some empirical work on lifelogging technology, I elaborate on the dimension of autobiographical dependency, which is the degree to which we depend on an object to be able to remember a personal experience. When this dependency is strong, we integrate information in the embodied brain and in an object to reconstruct an autobiographical memory. In such cases, autobiographical memory is extended or distributed.
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Sterelny, K. (2010) · Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1007/s11097-010-9174-y · Cited by 619 · cited 1× · see citing works
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Understanding Autobiographical Memory in the Digital Age: The AMEDIA-Model
Hutmacher, F., Appel, M., & Schwan, S. (2024) · Psychological Inquiry · doi:10.1080/1047840x.2024.2384125 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
- Authors
- Heersmink, R.
- Affiliations
- La Trobe University (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Heersmink, Richard
- ORCID
- Heersmink, Richard
- Venue
- Mind & Language
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2020-12-28
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 659-673
- ISSN
- 0268-1064 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-0017
- OpenAlex
- W3115735375
- Cited by
- 39
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 3
- FWCI
- 1.75
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- philarchive.org
- Locations
- Mind & Language (publishedVersion)
- PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Cybernetics and Technology in Society
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Keywords
- extended mind, autobiographical memory, artifacts, lifelogging, distributed cognition, embodied cognition, personal experience, memory reliability
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