Bergson's "Matter and Memory" and modern selectionist theories of memory
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Updated: Nov 4, 2026

Brain Imaging Investigation of the Neural Correlates of Emotional Autobiographical Recollection
Published on: August 26, 2011
1Vision House, Tewksbury, Massachusetts, 01876, USA.
Abstract:
Bergson's reflections (in Matter and Memory, 1896) on memory anticipated development of modern selectionist theories of memory. Selectionist models offer new and potentially useful approaches to a theory of remembering. On the model of natural selection, these selectionist theories require at least two processing components: a device which generates a range of memory representations and a selection process which preserves a subset of those representations. Bergson shows how the subjective experience of remembering might be understood within a selectionist framework.
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