Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- 1 Introduction to Dynamic Memory
- 2 Reminding and Memory
- 3 Failure-driven Memory
- 4 Cross-contextual Reminding
- 5 Story-based Reminding
- 6 The Kinds of Structures in Memory
- 7 Memory Organization Packets
- 8 Thematic Organization Packets
- 9 Generalization and Memory
- 10 Learning by Doing
- 11 Nonconscious Knowledge
- 12 Case-based Reasoning and the Metric of Problem Solving
- 13 Nonconscious Thinking
- 14 Goal-based Scenarios
- 15 Enhancing Intelligence
- References
- Index
9 - Generalization and Memory
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- 1 Introduction to Dynamic Memory
- 2 Reminding and Memory
- 3 Failure-driven Memory
- 4 Cross-contextual Reminding
- 5 Story-based Reminding
- 6 The Kinds of Structures in Memory
- 7 Memory Organization Packets
- 8 Thematic Organization Packets
- 9 Generalization and Memory
- 10 Learning by Doing
- 11 Nonconscious Knowledge
- 12 Case-based Reasoning and the Metric of Problem Solving
- 13 Nonconscious Thinking
- 14 Goal-based Scenarios
- 15 Enhancing Intelligence
- References
- Index
Summary
Developing Structures
People have widely differing experiences and must deal with a variety situations in the world. To keep track of these things, each person must create and maintain his own memory and processing structures. No one single set or configuration of structures can be used to explain the diversity of understanding and skills that we see in the world. It seems quite unlikely, then, that any particular structures are innate, though the ability to form and manipulate such structures may very well be.
No two people are likely to have identical structures except when those structures reflect the physical nature of the world or when those two people must function in identical societal arrangements. Even then, our individual experiences alter our view of the world to such an extent that we can still expect major differences. Each person's mental structures will contain distinct personal experiences and different expectations. Thus, we can expect people to have rather idiosyncratic TOPs, MOPs, scenes, and scriptlets. How do these structures get built in the first place? How do existing structures get altered once they have been built? How do new structures get created out of a reorganization of old structures?
To build our own memory structures, we must be able to recognize that a current experience is in some way similar to one that has occurred previously and we must be able to focus on the important aspects of both episodes and eliminate from consideration those aspects of the current situation that are irrelevant to the retrieved memory.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Dynamic Memory Revisited , pp. 155 - 171Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999