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Abstract

There is now substantial evidence that memory processes play an important role in many species-typical behaviors. The need exists for approaches that more explicitly take into account the capacity for information storage and use. Memory control, as described in this article, is a specialized, episodic, task-dependent form of memory, the influence of which integrates itself with the influence of immediate stimuli. Memory control is selective (a memory selective mechanism is postulated), structured, and subject to transformations through combinatorial processes and through further storage of information. A comparative approach may enlarge our insight into the causal and adaptive aspects of such control.