Associative memory

Abstract

Memory is the mother of all wisdom Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound (525–456 BC) Introduction The formation of a memory involves the creation of new and enduring representations of our experiences. These representations contain detailed contextual information, markers of the time and place in which an event was experienced. Potentially, all elements of our experience are stored: our affective and physiological state at the time, a record of the cognitive processes occurring at that moment and, crucially, the extent to which this new experience reconciles with existing similar memories. During the encoding process, existing memories and their network of relational information may be updated and mo..