Mahr Johannes, Csibra Gergely
Department of Cognitive Science,Cognitive Development Center,Central European University,Budapest,Hungary.
Behav Brain Sci. 2017 Jan 19;41:1-93. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X17000012.
Episodic memory has been analyzed in a number of different ways in both philosophy and psychology, and most controversy has centered on its self-referential, 'autonoetic' character. Here, we offer a comprehensive characterization of episodic memory in representational terms, and propose a novel functional account on this basis. We argue that episodic memory should be understood as a distinctive epistemic attitude taken towards an event simulation. On this view, episodic memory has a metarepresentational format and should not be equated with beliefs about the past. Instead, empirical findings suggest that the contents of human episodic memory are often constructed in the service of the explicit justification of such beliefs. Existing accounts of episodic memory function that have focused on explaining its constructive character through its role in 'future-oriented mental time travel' neither do justice to its capacity to ground veridical beliefs about the past nor to its representational format. We provide an account of the metarepresentational structure of episodic memory in terms of its role in communicative interaction. The generative nature of recollection allows us to represent and communicate the reasons for why we hold certain beliefs about the past. In this process, autonoesis corresponds to the capacity to determine when and how to assert epistemic authority in making claims about the past. A domain where such claims are indispensable are human social engagements. Such engagements commonly require the justification of entitlements and obligations, which is often possible only by explicit reference to specific past events.
在哲学和心理学领域，人们以多种不同方式对情景记忆进行了分析，而大多数争议都集中在其自我指涉的“自知”特征上。在此，我们从表征角度对情景记忆进行全面描述，并在此基础上提出一种新颖的功能解释。我们认为，情景记忆应被理解为对事件模拟所采取的一种独特认知态度。按照这种观点，情景记忆具有元表征形式，不应等同于关于过去的信念。相反，实证研究结果表明，人类情景记忆的内容往往是为了对这类信念进行明确辩护而构建的。现有的情景记忆功能解释侧重于通过其在“面向未来的心理时间旅行”中的作用来解释其建构性特征，但既没有充分认识到它为关于过去的真实信念提供依据的能力，也没有认识到其表征形式。我们根据情景记忆在交流互动中的作用，对其元表征结构进行了解释。回忆的生成性使我们能够表征和交流我们持有某些关于过去信念的原因。在此过程中，自知对应于确定何时以及如何在对过去进行断言时主张认知权威的能力。一个此类断言不可或缺的领域是人类社会交往。此类交往通常需要对权利和义务进行辩护，而这往往只有通过明确提及特定的过去事件才有可能。
