Within philosophy of memory work has been predominantly dedicated to developing theories of episodic memory (roughly defined as memory of past events). Focus on episodic memory, though, has come at the expense of robust philosophical treatments of other forms of memory including semantic memory (roughly defined as memory of facts). For example, despite its apparent crucial role in nearly all cognitive endeavors from future oriented thought, to imagination, our memory of facts has not been given a direct thoroughgoing philosophical treatment in the literature (To clarify, while semantic memory has been discussed, it is usually in service to other discussions, or focus is placed on the epistemological aspects as opposed to the nature of the memories and/or system). 

The lack of focus on semantic memory in philosophy may be due to the influence of a widely accepted, yet seldom thoroughly analyzed view of semantic memory as a dedicated storage space of facts about the world. But recent developments in philosophy of memory and cognitive science flatly contradict much of the orthodox view. 

As I see it, the standard account of semantic memory as a dedicated storage space of facts mistakes the ability to make use of facts about the world, with a need for those facts to be stored in explicit form. My constructive account attempts to remedy this by focusing on the (re)constructive processes of memory, treating procedural skills as the basic building blocks upon which semantic memories are constructed, and analyzing the type of memory in terms of the skills and activity involved in its construction. 

First, where other memory accounts ultimately determine type of memory used based on appeal to predefined knowledge types (the memory system utilized is stipulated by the apparent inclusion of the properties of the predefined knowledge type in output performance), I propose an account in which memory is typed according to the kinds of actions and skills involved in their (re)construction. 

Second, this approach allows me to evaluate the place of action and embodied processes in the construction of memory. Accordingly, I split semantic memory between two mutually reinforcing ways of constructing semantic memories - mnemonic efforts and mnemonic habits. Mnemonic efforts are the production of semantic knowledge through the conscious use of prior experience and often take the form of skill based memory strategies (both cognitive and embodied). Mnemonic habits are the habitual use of memory attributable to embodied processes that become causally connected to the constructive processes of mnemonic efforts.

Finally, this constructive approach to memory allows us to critically examine the ways in which the metaphors of “storage and search” influence our conceptualization of memory and memory traces as storage systems. My constructive approach imagines the (re)constructive operations of memory like the folding and sculpting techniques one uses in origami. On the “origami view” of memory, instead of viewing memory as involving storage of representations to be recalled at some later point, memory is a constructive process in which procedural skills construct representations. Memory traces are like sheets of origami paper out of which, using the right set of procedural skills, a memory can be (re)constructed. In these cases the procedural skills “unfold” in ways characteristic of prior constructive processes, thus potentiating a memory. 

The constructive semantic memory account provides a picture of memory, in general, as a dynamic, creative process, that rejects the widely held assumption that remembering requires the retrieval of stored information. 

In the short term, I aim to publish papers that build on the work outlined above as well as to restructure and expand my work on semantic memory into a book length treatment, in which I explore semantic memory and its importance for cognition while providing critical examination of the current most widely accepted understanding of semantic memory before arguing for my constructive, dynamic approach to semantic memory. While the semantic memory framework has been largely worked out, I am currently extending it into accounts of memory (in general), imagination, mental action, future oriented thought, artificial intelligence, and perception. 

For example, in examining the connections between memory and perception I argue that perception and memory result from the same types of activity, operate simultaneously, and that constructive processes from each can become causally connected creating reusable embodied processes that enact knowledge through skillful operation of body schema.