Brown, Simon Alexander Burns and Boyle, Alexandria (2024) Episodic Memory in Animals. [Preprint]

	Text Boyle & Brown - Archive Feb 2025 version Episodic Memory in Animals.docx Download (68kB)
	Text Episodic Memory in Animals Phil Sci Archive Version 9-8-2024.pdf Download (240kB)

Abstract

Do animals have episodic memory — the kind of memory which gives us rich details about particular past events — or is this uniquely human? This might look like an empirical question, but is attracting increasing philosophical attention. We review relevant behavioural evidence, as well as drawing attention to neuroscientific and computational evidence which has been less discussed in philosophy. Next, we distinguish and evaluate reasons for scepticism about episodic memory in animals. In the process, we articulate three pressing philosophical issues underlying these sceptical arguments, which should be the focus of future work. The Problem of Interspecific Variation asks which differences between humans and animal memory mean that an animal has a variant of episodic memory, and which mean that it has a different kind of memory altogether. The Problem of Functional Variation asks how we should conceptualise the functions of episodic memory and other capacities across species and across evolutionary time. Finally, the Problem of Alternatives asks what, besides episodic memory, might explain the evidence — and how we should evaluate competing explanations.

---

Export/Citation:

EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL

Social Networking:

Share |

---

Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Brown, Simon Alexander Burns simonabbrown@gmail.com 0000-0002-5606-6979 Boyle, Alexandria A.Boyle2@lse.ac.uk 0000-0001-8827-5479
Keywords:	episodic memory; animal cognition; mental time travel; cognitive kinds; evolutionary function; associative learning; semantic memory
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science Specific Sciences > Psychology > Comparative Psychology and Ethology Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Learning and Memory General Issues > Natural Kinds Specific Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User:	Dr. Simon Alexander Burns Brown
Date Deposited:	11 Feb 2025 14:24
Last Modified:	11 Feb 2025 14:24
Item ID:	24727
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science Specific Sciences > Psychology > Comparative Psychology and Ethology Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Learning and Memory General Issues > Natural Kinds Specific Sciences > Psychology
Date:	9 August 2024
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24727

Available Versions of this Item

• Episodic Memory in Animals. (deposited 09 Aug 2024 13:06)
  • Episodic Memory in Animals. (deposited 11 Feb 2025 14:24) [Currently Displayed]

Monthly Views for the past 3 years

Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years

Plum Analytics

Actions (login required)

View Item