Cognitive Neuroscience Review and the Study of Memory
Neuron, Vol. 20, 445±468, March, 1998, Copyright 1998 by Cell Press Cognitive Neuroscience Review and the Study of Memory Brenda Milner,* Larry R. Squire,² that eventually led to the independent discipline of ex- and Eric R. Kandel³§ perimental psychology. In its early years, experimental *Montreal Neurologic Institute psychology was concerned primarily with the study of Montreal, Quebec H3A 2B4 sensation, but by the turn of the century the interests Canada of psychologists turned to behavior itselfÐlearning, ² Veterans Affairs Medical Center memory, attention, perception, and voluntary action. San Diego, California 92161 The development of simple experimental methods for and University of California studying learning and memoryÐfirst in humans by Her- San Diego, California 92093 mann Ebbinghaus in 1885 and a few years later in experi- ³ Center for Neurobiology and Behavior mental animals by Ivan Pavlov and Edgar ThorndikeÐ College of Physicians and Surgeons led to a rigorous empirical school of psychology called Columbia University behaviorism. Behaviorists, notably James B. Watson Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Burrhus F. Skinner, argued that behavior could be New York, New York 10032 studied with the precision achieved in the physical sci- ences, but only if students of behavior abandoned spec- ulation about what goes on in the mind (the brain) and The neurosciences have grown rapidly over the last half focused instead on observable aspects of behavior. For century. This growth has been stimulated by two impor- behaviorists, unobservable mental processes, espe- tant developments. First, molecular biology has trans- cially abstractions like perception, selective attention, formed cellular neurobiology and has led to a new con- and memory, were deemed inaccessible to scientific ceptual framework for signaling, a molecular framework study.
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