Chapitre 1. Rôle essentiel de la mémoire dans la formation de toute représentation

Abstract

The relationships between memory and representation raise a number of problems today. The rather classical model postulates that the various structures of the medial temporal lobe play different roles in declarative memory, a form of memory accessible to conscience. The representational-hierarchical view of amnesia, on the other hand, rejects a strong relationship between declarative memory and medial temporal lobe structures. As a consequence of such an approach these structures would not be involved in declarative memory only but in any task, cognitive, even perceptive, requiring complex representations. However, there are other brain structures that play an important role in memory, such as the basal ganglia, which control cognitive activities such as procedural memories, motivational components of learning, and the execution of motor actions. In addition to that, even if the subdivision between procedural and declarative memories has its own rationality it must not be considered in absolute terms: many declarative memories, repeated and recurrent over time, can be proceduralised, that is to say, transferred to another register belonging to the basal ganglia. These structures, aside from their classic role in motor function, also mediate a variety of learning and memory processes. A final point concerns the subtle transformations of procedural into declarative memories in the child, a fact emphasizing the importance of motor skills within mental representative processes.