The Mind's Theorist

• Main Author: Richard C. Atkinson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2018-01-01
• Series: Revista Colombiana de Psicología
• Subjects: mind’s theorist; memory traces; theory building; trolling; hypothesis testing
• Online Access: https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/psicologia/article/view/68594

The highest-order function of the mind is as a theorist. The memory system accumulates information about the outside world. The mind’s theorist must sort through the information to formulate a theory about that world. The basic component of the system for theory building is a process called trolling. When the conscious mind is not being bombarded by external stimuli, or during certain stages of sleep, the mind’s theorist trolls through memory searching for traces that contain similar information. If several traces are identified, analysis may yield information that was not evident when each was examined individually; reification of this sort can add new information to memory. The trolling process, and its ability to form new memory traces in the absence of external stimulation, is key to understanding many psychological phenomena.