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Abstract:
Neurobiology has studied associative memory largely as a
local event taking place at the level of the synapse. Many authors
assume that synaptic plasticity has direct relevance to human
memory -- association between two concepts takes place when neurons
that participate in these concepts are simultaneously active.
Recent work in human episodic memory retrieval indicates that this
model of associative memory has little relevance for much of
episodic memory. Stimuli that are separated in time by tenths of
seconds show the same associative grouping tendencies in free
recall as do stimuli that are separated by tens of seconds or even
minutes. This scale-invariance of associative memory requires a new
theory of association. The authors present a temporal context model
that describes, and in fact predicted, the observed data and
discuss its relevance for theories of medial temporal
function.
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