Glenberg A M
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison 53706, USA.
Behav Brain Sci. 1997 Mar;20(1):1-19; discussion 19-55. doi: 10.1017/s0140525x97000010.
Let's start from scratch in thinking about what memory is for, and consequently, how it works. Suppose that memory and conceptualization work in the service of perception and action. In this case, conceptualization is the encoding of patterns of possible physical interaction with a three-dimensional world. These patterns are constrained by the structure of the environment, the structure of our bodies, and memory. Thus, how we perceive and conceive of the environment is determined by the types of bodies we have. Such a memory would not have associations. Instead, how concepts become related (and what it means to be related) is determined by how separate patterns of actions can be combined given the constraints of our bodies. I call this combination "mesh." To avoid hallucination, conceptualization would normally be driven by the environment, and patterns of action from memory would play a supporting, but automatic, role. A significant human skill is learning to suppress the overriding contribution of the environment to conceptualization, thereby allowing memory to guide conceptualization. The effort used in suppressing input from the environment pays off by allowing prediction, recollective memory, and language comprehension. I review theoretical work in cognitive science and empirical work in memory and language comprehension that suggest that it may be possible to investigate connections between topics as disparate as infantile amnesia and mental-model theory.
让我们从零开始思考记忆的作用，进而思考它是如何运作的。假设记忆和概念化服务于感知和行动。在这种情况下，概念化是对与三维世界可能的物理交互模式的编码。这些模式受到环境结构、我们身体的结构以及记忆的限制。因此，我们对环境的感知和概念化方式取决于我们拥有的身体类型。这样的记忆不会有联想。相反，概念如何相互关联（以及关联意味着什么）是由在我们身体的限制下不同的行动模式如何组合决定的。我将这种组合称为“mesh”。为了避免幻觉，概念化通常由环境驱动，而记忆中的行动模式将起到辅助但自动的作用。一项重要的人类技能是学会抑制环境对概念化的主导作用，从而让记忆引导概念化。通过允许预测、回忆性记忆和语言理解，用于抑制来自环境的输入所付出的努力得到了回报。我回顾了认知科学中的理论工作以及记忆和语言理解方面的实证工作，这些工作表明，有可能研究像婴儿期遗忘症和心理模型理论这样截然不同的主题之间的联系。
