paired performance at this point.
This is truly extraordinary memory—but really, even ordinary
memory is amazing. The etymological origins of the word memory are
related to the roots of the word mind: Latin memor = mindful, remem-
ber, and mens = mind, understanding. These relations highlight the
centrality of memory to the very notion of mental experience. Does it
even make sense to have mind without memory? Think about it.
Most everything we do depends upon memory. We remember to eat
when we feel hungry—recalling what is safe and perhaps even tasty to
eat and how to go about eating it. We remember to drink when we feel
thirsty—including what to drink and how to drink it. All animals do
these things. We also remember how to walk, run, and sit. We humans
remember how to do such things as dress ourselves with clothes, turn
lights on and off, ride bicycles, and drive automobiles. We remember
how to speak and how to listen—how to articulate our ideas and
wishes with language, and how to understand the ideas and wishes of
another.
Imagine how weird life would be without any sort of memory—
nothing would have meaning, because what something means to us
is derived from the remembered history of our interaction with that
something. Awareness or consciousness may or may not have been
part of this remembered history, but something has been recorded,
somewhere.
Memory is certainly among the most impressive of our capabilities.
It is operative practically everywhere. For example, the chapters on
sensory perception have also been indirectly discussing memory. Our
ability to perceive things would not have meaning if we were unable
to link perceptual information with stored knowledge about prior
perceptual experiences and thus comprehend that a particular per-