Re: memory and improvisation

[Richard Zvonar <zvonar@zvonar.com>]

At 5:39 PM -0500 9/26/01, jim palmer wrote:

>i heard of a theory of memory where it acts like a pack of ten dogs.
>you send the dogs out looking for the ball and they run out into
>the woods, here and there, until one happily comes running back with it.

At 6:57 PM -0300 9/27/01, Matthias Grob wrote:

>I keep reading this and dont get the point... is it about the other 9 
>dogs?

At 5:58 PM -0700 9/27/01, Allan Hoeltje wrote:

>It may be a joke - at least I thought it was funny.  After the age of 50 
>you
>start running short of dogs.

I hope someone can identify the source. It sounds like Marvin Minsky 
to me, but I can't find such a reference in his "Society of Mind."

My understanding of this metaphor is that the retrieval of memories 
is a distributed task. A number of semiautonomous mechanisms (dogs) 
are activated at once, but not all of them succeed in retrieving the 
desired information. This certainly seems like what my brain might be 
doing when I'm groping for stored information. I frequently put my 
brain on "dredge" when I can't think of something (such as someone's 
name) immediately. Most of the time it pops to the surface later on, 
after I've stopped consciously trying.
-- 

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