@rmounir, thank you for taking the time to give such careful consideration to the memory phenomenon I was trying to raise. Not only did I learn more about the deep thinking going on in the TBP work, but it made me want to sharpen my examples. Investigating certain narrow cases of episodic memory feels like I’m trying to firmly grasp a piece of aerogel so I can describe its physical characteristics.
To that end, I think my examples may have fallen short. It sounds as if Monty is (or will be) handling them quite elegantly. So, let me try a different example of the sort of cross-domain memory that seems to pop up under certain conditions. I’m going to draw upon an example I recall from neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett citing (in “How Emotions Are Made”) psychologist Lawrence Barsalou’s work on goal-oriented dynamic concepts.
A car, a flyswatter, and a house seem to have nothing in common until you're being chased by some bees. Suddenly, each belongs to the concept of "Things to keep you safe from bees."
That’s more like what I think a reminding is than statistical priors. It is the assemblage of concepts, each belonging to their own separate categories, that come together to form a new category of “Things to keep you safe from bees.” It feels like more than a priming effect going on in such cases. What makes the reminding unique may be this merging of other concepts to form a new one addressing a situational goal. How this forms a kind of episodic memory may require a bridge be built between episodic memories and dynamic concepts. I’m trying to bring out the structural gists of past episodes that seem to form certain remindings more so than semantic similarities. These structures cut across subject areas bearing no surface resemblance to each other.
I’ll keep pondering this. Thanks again for shedding fresh light on my examples. It has helped me sharpen my view of how to approach this elusive episodic aerogel.
– Bryce