IngentaConnect Discovering the Capacity of Human Memory

Authors: Wang Y.^{1, 2}; Liu D.³

Source: Brain and Mind, Volume 4, Number 2, August 2003 , pp. 189-198(10)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

Despite the fact that the number of neurons in the human brain has been identified in cognitive and neural sciences, the magnitude of human memory capacity is still unknown. This paper reports the discovery of the memory capacity of the human brain, which is on the order of 10⁸⁴³² bits. A cognitive model of the brain is created, which shows that human memory and knowledge are represented by relations, i.e., connections of synapses between neurons, rather than by the neurons themselves as the traditional container metaphor described. The determination of the magnitude of human memory capacity is not only theoretically significant in cognitive science, but also practically useful to unveil the human potential, as well as the gap between the natural and machine intelligence.

Keywords: brain; cognitive informatics; cognitive model; knowledge representation; memory capacity; neuropsychology; OAR model; software engineering

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Theoretical and Empirical Software Engineering Research Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4; wangyx@enel.ucalgary.ca 2: The Fourth City Hospital of Xian, Dachaishi 1, Xian, Shaanxi, People's Republic of China 71000 3: Theoretical and Empirical Software Engineering Research Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4; liud@enel.ucalgary.ca

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