Episodic Memory: Uniquely Human?
Why do humans remember past events? Do other animals do this, or are they mentally ‘stuck’ in the here and now? This project uses AI to investigate.
Mapwork of the Project
Funder: UKRI
- Project Leader: Dr Ali Boyle
- Project Timeline: September 2022 - August 2026
- Aim: We remember many events from our past, from the momentous to the mundane. Most of us find we can ‘mentally replay’ these past events in our mind’s eye. This kind of memory is called episodic memory. This project addresses two puzzles about episodic memory:
- First, what is episodic memory’s function? What precisely does it do, and why is it useful for us to have episodic memory, in addition to memory for facts and skills?
- Second, how is episodic memory distributed throughout the animal kingdom? Do other animals remember past events, or is this a uniquely human cognitive ability?
- Relevance: Episodic memory is central to human life; its loss, as in Alzheimer’s, can be devastating. But the role episodic memory plays in human cognition is not well understood. Developing a better account of this crucial element of cognition is an important step toward understanding the human mind and could be critical to understanding and treating disorders of memory and learning. Which nonhuman animals have episodic memory is also a subject of intense debate. Answering this question would have significant implications for the use of animals in memory science, theories of memory’s evolution, and for the ethical treatment of animals.
- Methodology: This project leverages recent developments in AI to explore the function and distribution of episodic memory. Artificial implementations of episodic memory have been involved in a number of recent advancements in AI. By investigating the parallels between artificial and biological memory, the project aims to develop new theories about episodic memory’s role in intelligence and new methods for investigating episodic memory in animals.