Doctoral defence: Oscar Salvador Miyamoto Gómez “The Forms of Memory: Biosemiotic Modelling of Alloanimal Episodic Semiosis”

On 14 October at 12:15 Oscar Salvador Miyamoto Gómez will defend his doctoral thesis “The Forms of Memory: Biosemiotic Modelling of Alloanimal Episodic Semiosis” for obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Semiotics and Culture Studies). 

Supervisors:  
Professor Kalevi Kull, University of Tartu 
Professor Timo Maran, University of Tartu 

Opponent:  
Professor Jordan Zlatev, Lund University (Sweden) 

Summary

Where were you and what were you doing three sunsets ago? When were you last at the grocery store, and what things did you buy there? When and where did you last meet your best friend? When and where, most likely, will you do each of the above again? If you can answer these questions without the help of external information, it could be said that you possess Episodic Memory (EM). This peculiar long-term form of memory relies on your capacity to consciously relive past personal experiences, and pre-live probable future scenarios. Some animals have EM too, such as crows, magpies, pigeons, rats, mice, gorillas, monkeys, chimpanzees, orangutans, dogs, elephants, dolphins, octopi, and many others. 

This doctoral dissertation explains how these animal species, similarly to humans, can answer what-where-when questions in their own particular ways. The main finding of this research is that animal EM depends on a meaning-making process I call “episodic semiosis”. This process connects mental images and non-present spatiotemporal scenarios by means of interpretation or choice-making. The term EM was coined by Endel Tulving (1927-2023), a Canadian-Estonian experimental psychologist considered the father of EM theory.   

The dissertation studied EM from a biosemiotic perspective. It explained how animals with EM sense and modify their ecosystem as a meaningful world. Based on their behaviour, I created biosemiotic ‘maps’ or ‘models’ of their senses, habits, and actions in relation to EM.   

A biosemiotic understanding of EM is crucial amidst the anthropogenic disruption of animal societies. Cultural habits, shared knowledge, and arbitrary codes are features that depend on complex forms of memory that are not genetically inherited but learned during a lifetime. Under these terms, it is concluded, biosemiotics has the responsibility to recognise animals with EM as rather being subjects of a lifetime, or sentient beings with goals, agendas, and a sense of their own future. 

The doctoral defence can also be followed in Zoom (meeting ID: 981 0078 8592, passcode: 900404).