Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2018
In response to the commentaries, we clarify and defend our characterization of both the nature and function of episodic memory. Regarding the nature of episodic memory, we extend the distinction between event and episodic memory and discuss the relational role of episodic memory. We also address arguments against our characterization of autonoesis and argue that, while self-referential, it needs to be distinguished from an agentive notion of self. Regarding the function of episodic memory, we review arguments about the relation between future mental time travel and memory veridicality; clarify the relation between autonoesis, veridicality, and confidence; and finally discuss the role of episodic memory in diachronic commitments.
Target article
Why do we remember? The communicative function of episodic memory
Related commentaries (33)
An adaptive function of mental time travel: Motivating farsighted decisions
Autonoesis and dissociative identity disorder
Autonoesis and reconstruction in episodic memory: Is remembering systematically misleading?
Beyond communication: Episodic memory is key to the self in time
Carving event and episodic memory at their joints
Confabulation and epistemic authority
Constructive episodic simulation, flexible recombination, and memory errors
Developmental roots of episodic memory
Doing without metarepresentation: Scenario construction explains the epistemic generativity and privileged status of episodic memory
Emotional memories and how your life may depend upon them
Encoding third-person epistemic states contributes to episodic reconstruction of memories
Enhanced action control as a prior function of episodic memory
Episodic memory and consciousness in antisocial personality disorder and conduct disorder
Episodic memory and the witness trump card
Episodic memory is as much about communicating as it is about relating to others
Episodic memory isn't essentially autonoetic
Episodic memory must be grounded in reality in order to be useful in communication
Episodic memory solves both social and nonsocial problems, and evolved to fulfill many different functions
Epistemic authority, episodic memory, and the sense of self
False memories, nonbelieved memories, and the unresolved primacy of communication
Misconceptions about adaptive function
More to episodic memory than epistemic assertion: The role of social bonds and interpersonal connection
Morgan's canon is not evidence
Remembered events are unexpected
Retrieval is central to the distinctive function of episodic memory
Sleep to be social: The critical role of sleep and memory for social interaction
The communicative function of destination memory
The dynamics of episodic memory functions
The sociocultural functions of episodic memory
Using episodic memory to gauge implicit and/or indeterminate social commitments
What psychology and cognitive neuroscience know about the communicative function of memory
Why episodic memory may not be for communication
“Truth be told” – Semantic memory as the scaffold for veridical communication
Author response
What is it to remember?