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. 2023 Apr:69:100995.
doi: 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2022.100995. Epub 2022 Nov 19.

Opening a conceptual space for metamemory experience

Joseph Neisser  1 , George Abreu  1 , Daniel L Drane  2   3 , Nigel P Pedersen  4   5 , Thomas D Parsons  6 , Anne M Cleary  7
Affiliations

Opening a conceptual space for metamemory experience

Joseph Neisser et al. New Ideas Psychol. 2023 Apr.

Abstract

The experiences associated with remembering, including metamemory feelings about the act of remembering and attempts at remembering, are not often integrated into general accounts of memory. For example, David Rubin (2022) proposes a unified, three-dimensional conceptual space for mapping memory states, a map that does not systematically specify metamemory feelings. Drawing on Rubin's model, we define a distinct role for metamemory in relation to first-order memory content. We propose a fourth dimension for the model and support the proposal with conceptual, neurocognitive, and clinical lines of reasoning. We use the modified model to illustrate several cases, and show how it helps to conceptualize a new category of memory state: autonoetic knowing, exemplified by déjà vu. We also caution not to assume that memory experience is directly correlated with or caused by memory content, an assumption Tulving (1989) labeled the doctrine of concordance.

Keywords: Concordance; Consciousness; Déjà vu; Memory; Metamemory; Phenomenology.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
AB (Rubin, 2022).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
A typical episodic memory state, plotted in four dimensions.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
A state of déjà vu, plotted in four dimensions.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Jamais vu as evoked in a semantic satiation task, plotted in fours dimensions.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.
The three variants of Mental Time Travel, plotted together in four dimensions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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