一个记忆虚构的因果理论

A Causal Theory of Mnemonic Confabulation

相对于真记忆,是什么定义了记忆虚构?当前的两个对记忆虚构的解释是“假记忆”和不良基础的记忆,基于无法解释真实虚构、不良基础的记忆以及在良好基础上的虚构之可能性,因而显示出它们是有问题的。记忆虚构要被定义的特征是,它缺乏恰当的因果历史。在虚构的案例中,似乎记得的状态与其对应的过去表征之间,并没有适当的反事实依赖关系。

This paper attempts to answer the question of what defines mnemonic confabulation vis-à-vis genuine memory.The two extant accounts of mnemonic confabulation as“false memory”and as ill-grounded memory are shown to be problematic,for they cannot account for the possibility of veridical confabulation,ill-grounded memory,and well-grounded confabulation.This paper argues that the defining characteristic of mnemonic confabulation is that it lacks the appropriate causal history.In the confabulation case,there is no proper counterfactual dependence of the state of seeming to remember on the corresponding past representation.