Memory

• There are a lot of different types of memory both psychologically and neurally.
• Psychologically there is semantic memory, episodic memory, short term memory, long term memory, and modality specific memory.
• Neurally there is short term potentiation and depression, long term potentiation and depression, synaptic growth and death, neural growth and death, and neural firing.
• Scientists don't really understand how this all works together.
• However, we do have circuits that work for several problems.
• For example, scientists understand a lot about ways to implement associative memory.
• Scientists are also looking at models with millions of neurons to handle these types of memories (e.g. Neil Burgess and spatial memory).
• Note that simple computer memory (storing a variable in a program) is really easy on a VonNeumann machine, and can be confused with biological and psychological memory.