ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the active role played by memory in coping with day-to-day experiences. The assumption is that all this knowledge is stored away somewhere; the problem is how to activate it when required. In other words, passive knowledge has to be transformed into active memory. However, the contents of active memory are constantly changing as the shift attention to the changing requirements of a situation. One big question for cognitive psychology is to explain how we shift information between passive and active memory. Schank discusses active memory in terms of being reminded of past events. Schank called these knowledge representations Memory Organization Packets (MOPs), defining them as 'packets' of information about objects and situations. On the other hand, being told about a hitherto unknown breed of dog would be a useful bit of new information to store in memory.
