Running Head: MEMORY AS A FIFTH WAY OF KNOWING

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF STAVANGER

INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE DIPLOMA

Theory of Knowledge (TOK) Essay

Memory: A Fifth Way of Knowing

An exploration into the Knowledge Issues that it may
raise in the Human Sciences and the Arts

HUONG SON HANH NGUYEN

CANDIDATE NUMBER: 000862-041
SUPERVISOR: MS JANE RUSSELL
DATE SUBMITTED: 25 FEBRUARY 2013
WORD COUNT: 1597

MEMORY AS A FIFTH WAY OF KNOWING

4. The traditional TOK diagram indicates four ways of knowing. Propose the inclusion
of a fifth way of knowing selected from intuition, memory or imagination, and explore the
knowledge issues it may raise in two areas of knowledge.
Memory is a concept that combines several of the four existing ways of knowing indicated in
the traditional Theory of Knowledge diagram: sense perception, emotion, language and reason.
While perception provides knowledge of the world and reasoning extends knowledge beyond
what is already known, memory preserves such knowledge. Margalit (2002) wrote: To
remember now is to know what you knew in the past, without learning in-between what you
know now. And to know is to believe something to be true. Memory, then, is knowing from the
past. As said, memory allows existing skills and past experiences to serve as a source of
knowledge and thus qualifies as a way of knowing.
In the Human Sciences, especially Psychology, memory is a cognitive process in which
information is encoded, stored and retrieved. It is a power that human beings and other living
species have which enables them to remember certain aspects of life. Basic memory in daily life
includes recalling the skills to perform a task or the directions to different locations. By
remembering these things, it can be argued that memory is knowledge, given that Robert Audi
(2003) once said, If you remember that we met, you know that we did. Similarly, if you
remember me, you know me. If this statement were to be held as the absolute truth, then
memory can be relied on as a way of knowing and to make knowledge claims.
Cognitive research has found that memories may be influenced by factors other than what was
stored in the first place, due to the reconstructive nature of memory. Since the brain actively
processes information to make sense of the world, it fills in a default value or invents something
that seems to fit in when there is a gap in the stored information in our mind, which can result in

MEMORY AS A FIFTH WAY OF KNOWING

possible distortions. In his book Remembering (1932), Frederic Barlett argues that human
memories are individual recollections, which are shaped and constructed according to personal
stereotypes, beliefs and expectations. This was supported by his famous study, War of the
Ghosts, where participants rationalised the story they had been told to fit in to their cultural
norms (Crane & Hannibal, 2009). The findings of this study make up the essence of what is
referred to as the schema theory, which suggests that what people remember is influenced by the
knowledge and experience that have already been stored in their memory. Based on this theory,
it is reasonable to expect that people will remember information that is consistent with their
schemas and forget or distort the information that is not. This interpretive and reconstructive
nature of human memory becomes a great concern in court trials, where the accuracy and
reliability of eyewitness testimony is extremely important, and also a prominent issue in the
recording of history to what extent can memory be relied on as a way of knowing?
The concept of reconstructive memory has been developed and extended by Elizabeth Loftus
and her associates through a series of study on memory distortion. Loftus and Zannis (1975)
experiment concluded that suggestive language can lead people to recall information they had
not witnessed (Loftus & Loftus, 1976). Similarly, a study carried out by Loftus and Palmer
(1974) showed that it is possible to form false memories using post-event information, for
instance, the language used in leading questions (Crane & Hannibal, 2009). The reconstructive
nature of memory might suggest that memory is not dependable as a way of knowing, however,
none of the four existing ways of knowing are perfect themselves human senses are limited and
can sometimes be misguiding, emotions deal with very private experiences that are quite
vulnerable to personal misconceptions and relatively inaccessible to outside critical evaluation,
language is influenced by culture and can easily be manipulated, and finally, beliefs affect the

MEMORY AS A FIFTH WAY OF KNOWING

capacity to reason logically and recognize valid arguments. Due to their limitations, these ways
of knowing do not act on their own but interact with each other to provide a source for
knowledge acquisition. The inclusion of memory as a fifth way of knowing will strengthen all of
the ways of knowing in general.
Then again, human memory has been proved to be extremely reliable in many cases. Yuille
and Cutshall (1986) found that people who had witnessed a real robbery had very accurate
memories of the incident, despite being asked misleading questions (Crane & Hannibal, 2009),
contrasting what Elizabeth Loftus had investigated earlier. In addition, flashbulb memory is a
unique type of memory, which refers to incredibly vivid and detailed memories of highly
emotional experiences that appear as though they have been recorded in the brain with the help
of a camera's flash. Brown and Kulik (1977) suggested that vivid and accurate flashbulb
memories are produced during extremely arousing and often emotional times. Individuals are
often able to recall exactly where they were, what they did, and what they felt when they first
learned about an important public occurrence, such as the deaths of Elvis Presley, Princess Diana
and Michael Jackson, the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and John Lennon, as well as the
disaster involving the Challenger Space Shuttle (Crane & Hannibal, 2009). This further
emphasizes that memory can in fact be depended on as a way of knowing.
Memory is the essential foundation for language, reason, emotion and sense perception to act
as ways of knowing. It is a central component of human nature and it is embedded in everything
that surrounds us. If the knowledge gained from the world is not stored, then it cannot be
retrieved and used later on. Sense perception can only be used if the sound or sight that is being
perceived through our senses is recorded and connected to our existing knowledge, otherwise the
information obtained cannot be processed and become useless. For example, without memory,

MEMORY AS A FIFTH WAY OF KNOWING

the eyes would not be able to see anything, since the brain does not remember what was seen.
Likewise, emotions are based on past experiences, such as affection or hatred towards someone
due to past events, thus are dependent on memory to recognise the feelings attached to certain
people or objects. Memory is also the key to the symbol system that is language. Without it, the
capacity to communicate personal experiences and thoughts through language would be lost.
Similarly, memory plays an important role in reason, especially inductive reasoning. The failure
to recall past events, which is crucial in the process of inductive reasoning, would lead to the
inability to draw similarities between issues, objects and thoughts. Logics would subsequently be
non-existent because the principles of validity are unknown. It is apparent that without memory,
we as human beings cannot move from one moment to the next and thus become lost and
bewildered in a meaningless present. Memory allows connections to be made between existing
knowledge with new information and eventually new knowledge is gained.
Memory not only acts as a way of knowing in the Human Sciences, such as Psychology, but
also in the Arts, particularly the visual and performing arts. Clive Wearing is a renowned British
musician and musicologist, who suffers from both anterograde and retrograde amnesia due to a
brain infection. Despite his memory span of only seconds, Wearing can still play the piano and
conduct music. His emotional memory also remained intact, as verified by his affection for his
wife (Crane & Hannibal, 2009). Wearing is an example of how memory can still serve as a
sufficient way of knowing notwithstanding the inability to learn new information and retrieve
existing knowledge, seeing as his implicit memory preserved the skills he had acquired
previously and enables him to continue performing these specific tasks. This demonstrates that
when sense perception, emotion, language and reason fail to be used as ways of knowing,
memory can be relied on for someone like Clive Wearing.

MEMORY AS A FIFTH WAY OF KNOWING

In the visual arts, observational studies is an exceptionally important component. Yet there are
often times when it is impossible to work from life. In such instances, memory is used as a way
of knowing. Case in point, I am constantly relying on my memory of structure and proportion of
the human body and how certain types of fabric look like in three-dimensional form in order to
sketch a realistic fashion illustration. This knowledge was gained through previous observational
experiences and my memory maintains it so that I can work without having to examine the exact
same composition in real life. The same is applied when I am using different brushes to paint,
since I know the kinds of strokes each one will make on my canvas. Then again, it is difficult
to define the extent to which such memory can be trusted as a way of knowing, given that it can
easily be distorted by various external factors. My memory of a human figure may not be precise
to the nearest unit of measurement and my skills may limit my ability to translate such memory
onto paper. Though it obviously cannot be perfect, memory can be justified by the interaction of
sense perception, emotion, language and reason using my perception to compare the proportion
of my sketch to objects in the surrounding, for example, will help me obtain a more realistic
composition.
Ultimately, it is evident that memory is only reliable to a certain extent as a way of knowing.
Yet it is arguably the foundation on which all of the existing ways of knowing are built upon,
thus making it too imperative to not be included as a way of knowing on its own. Memory
informs us, albeit with flaws, of what has occurred and preserves the knowledge we have already
gained. Alongside the other ways of knowing, memory provides human beings with the source
and ability to gain knowledge of the world.

MEMORY AS A FIFTH WAY OF KNOWING

REFERENCES
Audi, R. (2003). Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge. 2nd
edn. London: Routledge.
Crane, J., & Hannibal, J. (2009). IB Diploma Programme Psychology: Course Companion.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Loftus, G. R., & Loftus, E. F. (1976). Semantic Memory. Human memory: the processing of
information (p. 134). Hillsdale, N.J.: L. Erlbaum Associates.
Margalit, A. (2002). The Ethics of Memory. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.