I was recently doing a search about memory consolidation and briefly opened a paper showing a block quote at the beginning. The quote was from a researcher, decades ago, who wrote something to the effect of after all of his research he had determined that learning and memory were impossible. He was obviously being facetious, but I liked the quote because of how illusive the mechanisms of learning and memory are, even today.
I have searched and searched without any success in finding the quote or the paper that used it.
Can anyone help me out?
Thanks in advance.
Tried your question on ChatGPT :-), does it resonate with what you were after?
"The quote you're referring to is likely from Karl Lashley, a prominent psychologist and behaviorist known for his work on the brain mechanisms of learning and memory. Lashley conducted extensive research trying to locate the "engram," the physical trace of memory in the brain. Despite his efforts, he concluded that memory might not be localized to a single part of the brain, leading to his famous statement.
The quote goes something like this:
"In my search for the engram, I have found that learning is just impossible."
This quote captures the frustration and complexity involved in understanding the neural basis of learning and memory, as Lashley's experiments suggested that memory is distributed across the brain rather than localized to one area. This idea has influenced subsequent research and remains a significant aspect of neuroscience today."
Dear John,
I do not know if this may be helpful to you, but this is a book discussing the impossibilty of knowledge of the consciousness of others:
Impossible Minds: My Neurons, My Consciousness (1996)
https://www.google.it/books/edition/Impossible_Minds_My_Neurons_My_Conscious/QwO4CgAAQBAJ?hl
Additionally, this is a quote on pedantic learning from Michel de Montaigne:
"We should rather examine, who is better learned, than who is more learned. We only labor to stuff the memory, and leave the conscience and the understanding unfurnished and void. Like birds who fly abroad to forage for grain, and bring it home in the beak, without tasting it themselves, to feed their young; so our pedants go picking knowledge here and there, out of books, and hold it at the tongue’s end, only to spit it out and distribute it abroad."
Finally, on the difficulties of precise memory recalling, see the book The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers (2001), by Daniel Schacter:
https://www.apa.org/monitor/oct03/sins
P.S. Regarding the quote from Karl Lashley, in his famous 1950 article on the search for the engram, Lashly wrote: "it is impossible to demonstrate the isolated localization of a memory trace anywhere within the nervous system". The article is the following:
In search of the engram (1950)
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1952-05966-020
Best,
Raffaele
Fascinating, Johan Ivari ! Thank you so much for sharing and for your extra efforts to help!!!