ABSTRACT
Graeculi (singular Graeculus, “little Greek”) were Roman slaves of Greek descent. They were intellectually trained and also acquired memory skills. Graeculi served Roman politicians and lawyers by memorizing names, family relations, military rank, private property, and technical information, and prompted their masters during court sessions, political debates, and other social events (Grimai, 1986). Today, friends, spouses, secretaries, consultants, and so forth take over the Graeculus’ role when they prompt another person, and become available for answering questions. In addition, technical devices such as tapes or prints serve the tasks of preserving and supplying information. Given an advanced cultural setting, human memory is supplemented with social and technical extensions. This should be considered in psychological research. From a biological perspective, individual memory functions can be studied without taking extensions into account. From an ecological perspective, individual memory should be analyzed as a component of an extended system that also comprises social and technical supports. The latter perspective is taken in this chapter.
