Shane,
I'm not a neuroscientist either, but I do know there is definitely
plenty of evidence about localization of specific types of memory in
the brain:
For instance,
* Episodic memory tends to be stored in the neocortex, particularly
Right Frontal & Temporal Lobes
* Semantic memory tends to be stored in the neocortex, particularly
Temporal Lobes
* Procedural memory tends to be stored in the Basal Ganglia, Motor
Cortex, Cerebellum [and there are various papers discussing cognitive
roles for the basal ganglia, going beyond motor procedure learning --
I know a neuroscientist at the NIH whose focus is exactly this]
* Priming (of non-declaratively-represented skills) occurs
preferentially in the Bilateral Occipital/Temporal Cortex for
perceptual tasks, and the Left Frontal Cortex for conceptual tasks
Etc.
Of course, these different brain regions have plenty of internal
differences between each other. There are various differences in the
neurotransmitters used in these different brain regions, and the
neural connectivity patterns.
We don't know exactly how the brain stores *any* of these kinds of
knowledge, so we can't really say what the cognitive relevances of
these neurological differences are....
But it seems fair to say there is plenty of evidence that the brain
handles different kinds of knowledge differently -- probably both on
the level of knowledge-reprsenatation-details and of
memory-access-algorithmics-details.... At least, this is the
conclusion one would naturally come to if one looked at the brain
without theoretical preconceptions that urge the idea of a single
representation/access mechanism...
-- Ben
On 5/30/06, Shane Legg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I note that the human brain seems to store declarative and procedural
> knowledge separately and in somewhat different ways --- probably for
> reasons related to those underlying our choice in Novamente.
I'm not aware of evidence that the brain stores declarative and procedural
knowledge separately (I'm not a neuroscience expert). I have however
seen good evidence that formation of declarative and procedural memories
involve different mechanisms. You can show this in mice by knocking out
parts of the hippocampus and observing how a mouse's learning is affected.
The neuroscientists doing this research believe that a number of learning
mechanisms are at work. They also show that when you knock one of them
out, the others can compensate, but the learning rate is much much slower.
Shane
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