Departmental Colloquium: Nazim Keven (Bilkent University)

Type: 
Lecture
Audience: 
CEU Community + Invited Guests
Building: 
Oktober 6 u. 7
Room: 
101
Wednesday, March 21, 2018 - 5:00pm
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Date: 
Wednesday, March 21, 2018 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm

Events, Narratives and Memory

 

Abstract: Whether non-human animals can have episodic memories remains the subject of extensive debate. A number of prominent memory researchers defend the view that animals do not have the same kind of episodic memory as humans do, whereas others argue that some animals have episodic-like memory—i.e., they can remember what, where and when an event happened. Defining what constitutes episodic memory has proven to be difficult. In this paper, I propose a dual systems account and provide evidence for a distinction between event memory and episodic memory. Event memory is a perceptual system that evolved to support adaptive short-term goal processing, whereas episodic memory is based on narratives, which bind event memories into a retrievable whole that is temporally and causally organized around subject’s goals. I argue that carefully distinguishing event memory from episodic memory can help resolve the debate.