An essay on memory, with particular reference to the role of imagery

Abstract

I commence this essay with the question -'How is it that memory is in fact reliable?' - because, as we all know, memory is, in general, reliable, My first question is therefore, 'Why should any problem arise at all?', and the answer to this question - 'Because sometimes memory does let us down; our deceptive memories seem, on the face of things, to be in no way distinguishable from our correct ones, All memories have ,at least an initial authority. In Chapter I I list and consider the ways in which specific memories can fail us, and show that all these specific failures simply underline the general problem - no memory can ever be self­ guaranteed; no single 'kind' of memory is wholly immune from error. I therefore put forward the suggestion - at this stage very tentatively -that error may arise, when it does, from the interpretation of our memories rather than from our 'actual remembering'… Show more