Episodic memory is the kind of memory which gives us rich and detailed recollections of past events. Whether any animals have episodic memory is a contested question in psychology, behavioural biology and philosophy: some argue that episodic memory is widely distributed in the animal kingdom, whilst others suggest that it is uniquely human. This topic raises philosophical questions of relevance to courses in Philosophy of Mind, Animal Ethics, Philosophy of Cognitive Science, Philosophy of Biology and Epistemology. One set of questions relates to natural kinds in the mind: what does it mean for humans and animals to have the same kinds of memory systems, even when those memory systems inevitably differ in some respects? Others relate to the evolution of the mind: what does episodic memory do for us, why did it evolve and how might it have evolved differently in other lineages? And some are ethical: how might different forms of memory and different ways of relating to one's past self affect animals' ethical status? All of these provide concrete case studies that can be used to introduce students to more general questions: for example, how can we identify the ‘same’ kinds of mental states across species? How can we study the evolution of the mind, and what does doing so tell us about minds today and the ways in which we use memory to gain and store knowledge? How do the kinds of mind different animals have relate to their moral status? Tulving, E. 2005. “Episodic Memory and Autonoesis: Uniquely Human?” In The Missing Link in Cognition. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161564.003.0001. Tulving coined the term ‘episodic memory’ and set the agenda for much of the psychology of memory from the 1970s onwards. This paper is his most developed discussion of whether animals can have episodic memory. He argues that they cannot, and in the process introduces several important distinctions in a provocative and stimulating way. Clayton, N. S., and A. Dickinson. 1998. “Episodic-Like Memory During Cache Recovery by Scrub Jays.” Nature 395, no. 6699: 6699–7274. https://doi.org/10.1038/26216. This paper reports one of the most influential experiments testing for episodic memory in other animals. The paper is short and well-written, and should be accessible to philosophy students who have not read experimental papers before. The experimental design does not require technical knowledge to understand and its implications are ripe for discussion in class. Davies, J. R., 379(1913):20230407. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0407. Fitzpatrick, S. 2008. “Doing Away With Morgan's Canon.” Mind & Language 23, no. 2: 224–246. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0017.2007.00338.x. Week 5: The Ethical Significance of Episodic Memory Does it matter ethically whether animals have episodic memory? If so, how? Mahr, J. B., and B. Fischer. 2023. “Internally Triggered Experiences of Hedonic Valence in Nonhuman Animals: Cognitive and Welfare Considerations.” Perspectives on Psychological Science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science 18, no. 3: 688–701. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916221120425. Mendl, M., and E. S. Paul. 2008. “Do Animals Live in the Present?: Current Evidence and Implications for Welfare.” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 113, no. 4: 357–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2008.01.013. Why does it matter whether animals have episodic memory? Which lines of evidence for or against episodic memory in animals are most compelling, and why? What does this tell us about the study of other minds in general? What does it take for an animal to ‘count’ as having episodic memory? What kinds of considerations might help us to answer a question like this? What factors might have driven the evolution of episodic memory? What is the relevance of thinking about evolution to our understanding of the mind today? What can thinking about episodic memory in animals teach us about the evolution of the mind—and how we can (or cannot) study it—more generally? Step 1: Individual reflection (2 min): Call to mind the most memorable meal you ever ate—it might be memorable because of the food, or because of what happened! What would you lose if you could no longer access memories like this? Step 2: discussion in pairs/small groups: share your memory and thoughts about it with your group. How do their answers compare to yours? Did their answers reflect differences in the memory they happened to focus on, and if so what can we learn from this? Step 3: An opportunity to share with the larger group any insights arising from Step 2. Step 4: discussion in pairs/small groups: What—if anything—do your ideas about the personal importance of episodic memory suggest about (a) the evolution of episodic memory or (b) how to detect episodic memory in animals? This work was supported by the UK Research and Innovation (MR/W00741X/1) (A.B.) and HORIZON EUROPE European Research Council (851145) (S.A.B.B.).
Boyle et al. (Thu,) studied this question.