more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Selectivity and abstraction are required for the development of memory, because reminders and promptings are rarely replicas of what is being remembered.
Gist of Idea
Memory requires abstraction, as reminders of what cannot be fully remembered
Source
C.B. Martin (The Mind in Nature [2008], 10.3)
Book Ref
Martin,C.B.: 'The Mind in Nature' [OUP 2008], p.134
A Reaction
I take the key idea of mental life to be that of a 'label'. This need not be verbal, so 'conceptual label'. It could be an image, as on a road sign. Labelling is the most indispensable aspect of thought. We label objects, parts, properties and groups.