Memory and feeling of pastness
Keywords:
feeling of pastness, fluency, attribution process, active inference
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to provide an answer to the following question: How is it that content that is produced in the present can be attributed to the past? According to behavioral data and the active inference framework, we have developed the idea that the feeling of pastness is rooted in both an attribution process and an inference that originates from the phenomenological feeling accompanying any cognitive processing. More precisely, we propose that the feeling of pastness arises from an inference made to resolve the perception of a change in the phenomenological experience or fluency associated with the ongoing process, even when this process is not directly related to the stimulus being judged.
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References
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Brouillet, D., & Friston, K. (2023). Relative fluency (unfelt vs felt) in active inference. Consciousness and Cognition, 115, 103579.
Brouillet, D., Milhau, A., Brouillet, T., &Servajean, P. (2017). Effect of an unrelated fluent action on word recognition: A case of motor discrepancy. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 24(3), 894-900. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1160-0
Brouillet, D., Servajean, P., Gimenez, C., Turo, S. &Michalland, A.H. (2023). The subjective feeling of a gap between conceptual and perceptual fluency is interpreted as a metacognitive signal of pastness. Cognitive Processing, 24, 83-94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-022-01114-0
Brouillet, D., Rousset, S. & Perrin, D. (2022). Experience of memory: transfer of the motor feeling of fluency linked to our interaction with the environment. Psychological Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-022-01759-8
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Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory?.Nature reviews neuroscience, 11(2), 127-138. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2787
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Jacoby, L. L., & Dallas, M. (1981). On the relationship between autobiographical memory and perceptual learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 110(3), 306. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.110.3.306
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Metzinger, T. (2003). Phenomenal transparency and cognitive self-reference. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2, 353-393.
Mikulasch, F. A., Rudelt, L., Wibral, M., &Priesemann, V. (2023). Where is the error? Hierarchical predictive coding through dendritic error computation. Trends in Neurosciences, 46(1), 45-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2022.09.007
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Parr, T., Pezzulo, G. & Friston, K.J. (2022). Active Inference: The Free Energy Principle in Mind, Brain, and Behavior. MIT Press, Cambridge.
Reber, R., & Schwarz, N. (2001). The hot fringes of consciousness: Perceptual fluency and affect. Consciousness & emotion, 2(2), 223-231. https://doi.org/10.1075/ce.2.2.03reb
Reber, R., Schwarz, N., &Winkielman, P. (2004). Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the perceiver's processing experience?.Personality and social psychology review, 8(4), 364-382. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0804
Reber, R., Winkielman, P., and Schwarz, N. (1998). Effects of perceptual fluency on
affective judgments. Psychological. Science. 9, 45–48. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40063245
Tribus, M. (1961). Thermodynamics and Thermostatics: An Introduction to Energy, Information and States of Matter, with Engineering Applications. D. Van Nostrand Company Inc, New York, USA.
Turo, S., Collin, F., &Brouillet, D. (2022). When the sense of fluency triggers an attentional bias. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 76, 2, 350-360. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218221086185
von Helmholtz, H. L. F. (1867). Optique physiologique. Trad. E. Javal et N.TH. Klein, Masson, Paris.
Whittlesea, B. W. (1997). Production, evaluation, and preservation of experiences: Constructive processing in remembering and performance tasks. In D. L. Medin (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory, Vol. 37, pp. 211-264). Academic Press.
Whittlesea, B. W., &Leboe, J. P. (2000). The heuristic basis of remembering and classification: Fluency, generation, and resemblance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129(1), 84. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.129.1.84
Whittlesea, B. W., &Leboe, J. P. (2003). Two fluency heuristics (and how to tell them apart). Journal of Memory and Language, 49(1), 62-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-596X(03)00009-3
Whittlesea, B. W., & Williams, L. D. (1998). Why do strangers feel familiar, but friends don't? A discrepancy-attribution account of feelings of familiarity. Acta psychologica, 98(2-3), 141-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0001-6918(97)00040-1
Whittlesea, B. W., & Williams, L. D. (2000). The source of feelings of familiarity: the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26(3), 547. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.26.3.547
Whittlesea, B. W., & Williams, L. D. (2001a). The discrepancy-attribution hypothesis: I. The heuristic basis of feelings and familiarity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 27(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.27.1.3
Whittlesea, B. W., & Williams, L. D. (2001b). The discrepancy-attribution hypothesis: II. Expectation, uncertainty, surprise, and feelings of familiarity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 27(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.27.1.14
Alter, A. L., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2009). Uniting the tribes of fluency to form a metacognitive nation. Personality and social psychology review, 13(3), 219-235. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309341564
Brouillet, D. (2020). Enactive memory. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 114.
Brouillet, D., & Friston, K. (2023). Relative fluency (unfelt vs felt) in active inference. Consciousness and Cognition, 115, 103579.
Brouillet, D., Milhau, A., Brouillet, T., &Servajean, P. (2017). Effect of an unrelated fluent action on word recognition: A case of motor discrepancy. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 24(3), 894-900. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-016-1160-0
Brouillet, D., Servajean, P., Gimenez, C., Turo, S. &Michalland, A.H. (2023). The subjective feeling of a gap between conceptual and perceptual fluency is interpreted as a metacognitive signal of pastness. Cognitive Processing, 24, 83-94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-022-01114-0
Brouillet, D., Rousset, S. & Perrin, D. (2022). Experience of memory: transfer of the motor feeling of fluency linked to our interaction with the environment. Psychological Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-022-01759-8
Caravà, M. (2023). Enactive memory. In, L. Bietti& P. Martin (eds.), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Memory Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1-8.
Friston, K. (2010). The free-energy principle: a unified brain theory?.Nature reviews neuroscience, 11(2), 127-138. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2787
Friston, K. J., & Stephan, K. E. (2007). Free-energy and the brain. Synthese, 159(3), 417-458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-007-9237-y
Friston, K., Thornton, C., & Clark, A. (2012). Free-energy minimization and the dark-room problem. Frontiers in psychology, 130. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00130
Hutto, D. D., &Peeters, A. (2018). The roots of remembering: Radically enactive recollecting. In K. Michaelian, D. Debus and D. Perrin (Eds) New directions in the philosophy of memory (pp. 97-118). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315159591
Jacoby, L. L., & Dallas, M. (1981). On the relationship between autobiographical memory and perceptual learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 110(3), 306. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.110.3.306
Kelley, C. M., & Jacoby, L. L. (1990). The Construction of Subjective Experience: Memory Attributions. Mind & Language, 5, 1, 49-68. Doi/ 10.1111/j.1468-0017.1990.tb00152.x
Lanska, M., Olds, J. M., & Westerman, D. L. (2014). Fluency effects in recognition memory: Are perceptual fluency and conceptual fluency interchangeable?.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034309
Levy, R. (2008). Expectation-based syntactic comprehension. Cognition, 106, 1126-1177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2007.05.006
Metzinger, T. (2003). Phenomenal transparency and cognitive self-reference. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2, 353-393.
Mikulasch, F. A., Rudelt, L., Wibral, M., &Priesemann, V. (2023). Where is the error? Hierarchical predictive coding through dendritic error computation. Trends in Neurosciences, 46(1), 45-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2022.09.007
Neisser, U. (1996). Remembering as doing. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19(2), 203-204.
Parr, T., Pezzulo, G. & Friston, K.J. (2022). Active Inference: The Free Energy Principle in Mind, Brain, and Behavior. MIT Press, Cambridge.
Reber, R., & Schwarz, N. (2001). The hot fringes of consciousness: Perceptual fluency and affect. Consciousness & emotion, 2(2), 223-231. https://doi.org/10.1075/ce.2.2.03reb
Reber, R., Schwarz, N., &Winkielman, P. (2004). Processing fluency and aesthetic pleasure: Is beauty in the perceiver's processing experience?.Personality and social psychology review, 8(4), 364-382. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0804
Reber, R., Winkielman, P., and Schwarz, N. (1998). Effects of perceptual fluency on
affective judgments. Psychological. Science. 9, 45–48. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40063245
Tribus, M. (1961). Thermodynamics and Thermostatics: An Introduction to Energy, Information and States of Matter, with Engineering Applications. D. Van Nostrand Company Inc, New York, USA.
Turo, S., Collin, F., &Brouillet, D. (2022). When the sense of fluency triggers an attentional bias. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 76, 2, 350-360. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218221086185
von Helmholtz, H. L. F. (1867). Optique physiologique. Trad. E. Javal et N.TH. Klein, Masson, Paris.
Whittlesea, B. W. (1997). Production, evaluation, and preservation of experiences: Constructive processing in remembering and performance tasks. In D. L. Medin (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory, Vol. 37, pp. 211-264). Academic Press.
Whittlesea, B. W., &Leboe, J. P. (2000). The heuristic basis of remembering and classification: Fluency, generation, and resemblance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 129(1), 84. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-3445.129.1.84
Whittlesea, B. W., &Leboe, J. P. (2003). Two fluency heuristics (and how to tell them apart). Journal of Memory and Language, 49(1), 62-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-596X(03)00009-3
Whittlesea, B. W., & Williams, L. D. (1998). Why do strangers feel familiar, but friends don't? A discrepancy-attribution account of feelings of familiarity. Acta psychologica, 98(2-3), 141-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0001-6918(97)00040-1
Whittlesea, B. W., & Williams, L. D. (2000). The source of feelings of familiarity: the discrepancy-attribution hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26(3), 547. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.26.3.547
Whittlesea, B. W., & Williams, L. D. (2001a). The discrepancy-attribution hypothesis: I. The heuristic basis of feelings and familiarity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 27(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.27.1.3
Whittlesea, B. W., & Williams, L. D. (2001b). The discrepancy-attribution hypothesis: II. Expectation, uncertainty, surprise, and feelings of familiarity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 27(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.27.1.14
Published
2023-10-31
How to Cite
Brouillet, D., Turo, S., & Collin, F. (2023). Memory and feeling of pastness. GPH-International Journal of Biological & Medicine Science, 6(09), 01-09. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10057000
Section
Articles
Copyright (c) 2023 Denis Brouillet, Sibylle Turo, Frédéric Collin
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