Language and/or memory: How to slice the domain-cake?

Abstract

Historically, memory and language have been seen as separate cognitive functions and studied in isolation. To date, it remains an open question to what extent these cognitive domains are related. Here, we present the interdisciplinary discussions from the 42nd European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology around the central question of how we should see the relationship between the domains of language and memory. We discuss relevant empirical evidence from the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience and take a philosophical perspective on this central question, considering issues such as how to weigh different types of evidence and how to conceptualize the relationship between language and memory. We conclude that elucidating questions about the nature of the relationship between language and memory requires not only more empirical data, but also parallel conceptual development.