Question
Are memory and intelligence correlated?
Answer
Absolutely. You can't even separate the two in the architecture of the human brain, since the way memories are processed from sensory to short-term to long-term is actually integral to how we think. John Medina's "Brain Rules" has 2 very interesting sections on memory:
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2008/1...
To elaborate on what Stefan said, long-term memories arise out of a subconscious process of rehearsal/renarration etc. that is very complex.
By analogy to computers, where the distinction is very strong, the brain works as though the memory and disk r/w processes are where a lot of the code logic also happens, since the neural hardware is the same for both 'thinking' and 'remembering' (it's all neurons). The logic of thought is codified and embedded as the logic of association among memories.
Imagine if your computer, instead of just maintaining a disk FAT and allocating sectors like commodity items, were to figure out carefully which files relate to which other files, down at the line level, and create connections on-disk in the process of storing them.
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2008/1...
To elaborate on what Stefan said, long-term memories arise out of a subconscious process of rehearsal/renarration etc. that is very complex.
By analogy to computers, where the distinction is very strong, the brain works as though the memory and disk r/w processes are where a lot of the code logic also happens, since the neural hardware is the same for both 'thinking' and 'remembering' (it's all neurons). The logic of thought is codified and embedded as the logic of association among memories.
Imagine if your computer, instead of just maintaining a disk FAT and allocating sectors like commodity items, were to figure out carefully which files relate to which other files, down at the line level, and create connections on-disk in the process of storing them.