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Interlevel Experiments and Multilevel Mechanisms in the Neuroscience of Memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Carl F. Craver
Carl F. Craver*
Affiliation:
Washington University
*
Send requests for reprints to Carl F. Craver, Department of Philosophy, Busch Hall, One Brookings Drive, Washington University, St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130; carl@twinearth.wustl.edu.
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Abstract

The dominant neuroscientific theory of spatial memory is, like many theories in neuroscience, a multilevel description of a mechanism. The theory links the activities of molecules, cells, brain regions, and whole organisms into an integrated sketch of an explanation for the ability of organisms to navigate novel environments. Here I develop a taxonomy of interlevel experimental strategies for integrating the levels in such multilevel mechanisms. These experimental strategies include activation strategies, interference strategies, and additive strategies. These strategies are mutually reinforcing, providing a kind of interlevel and intratheoretic robustness that has not previously been recognized.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 69 , Issue S3 , September 2002 , pp. S83 - S97
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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