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May 30, 2012

Comments

Tim Fawns

Thank you - this is an interesting perspective on the field / observer phenomenon. Galgut's device of switching between the two sounds excellent because it mirrors our own experience but in a way that makes us think about our own memory as potentially separate from ourselves.

Your use of the term "genuine memory" (6th para) reveals our tendency (reinforced by decades of lab experiments) to privilege accuracy over other memory qualities such as usefulness, salience, emotional valence, etc. To me, a genuine memory is something that is accompanied by the feeling that you are remembering your own, subjective experience, regardless of the extent to which the remembered details have departed from those you originally experienced.

I hope that makes sense. Anyway, thanks again for a thought-provoking article.

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