ABSTRACT
There is a special difficulty about trying to write a book about memory, thinking and language, since these are just the processes which have gone into writing it. (At least one hopes some memory and thinking have gone into it and it is certainly presented in written language.) The equivalent volume to this in the earlier Essential Psychology series had the title Thinking andLanguage. The implication was that thinking and language could be treated as independent psychological activities. Interestingly there were many scattered references to the influence of memory on thought and language. Ten years on, the role of knowledge stored in memory has moved to the centre of the stage. Mental representations of knowledge based on past experiences, and the mental processes which exploit knowledge in order to interpret and act in the world, are seen as central issues in psychology.
