Different Kinds Of Memory Research Articles

Spirals of Recurrence

Prior to the publication of his first work on the co-origination of hominization and technicization, Bernard Stiegler formulated the elements of his philosophical outlook, embodied in the concept of the “idiotext,” conceived as a way of thinking beyond the metaphysical opposition of the empirical and the transcendental. This concept describes the meeting of the spirals of different kinds of memories, and the way this meeting also involves the spiraling of a milieu that supports this encounter, and which is itself a kind of memory—and a support of dreams. The profound reflection that underlay the formulation of this concept never ceased to inform the continued unfolding of Stiegler’s work, and never ceased to return in constantly renewed ways. This article elaborates Stiegler’s notion of the “idiotext” and attempts to indicate its significance for Stiegler’s work and for any thought that wishes to take the measure of our decomposing times.

In Permanent Evolution: An Epilogue

Abstract: Using Pierre Nora's notion (1989) that memory "remains in permanent evolution, open to the dialectic of remembering and forgetting, … vulnerable to manipulation and appropriation, susceptible to being long dormant and periodically revived," this paper demonstrates that memories of Indonesia's anti-communist purge beginning in 1965 continue to fluctuate between remembering and forgetting. While vulnerable to manipulation and appropriation, memories of the purge are also susceptible to periods of dormancy and revival. Against this backdrop, members of the Indonesian civil society attempt to produce "different kinds of memories" of the purge. They pursue the attempts through different kinds of initiatives, including music, art performances, studies on demographic changes, and hosting educational fora. Further research is needed to explore similar initiatives to study how the permanent evolution of the memories of the 1965-66 purge continues to produce negotiation between the purge's different narratives and their respective adherents.

H2M: Exploiting Heterogeneous Shared Memory Architectures

Over the past decades, the performance gap between the memory subsystem and compute capabilities continued to spread. However, scientific applications and simulations show increasing demand for both memory speed and capacity. To tackle these demands, new technologies such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM) or non-volatile memory (NVM) emerged, which are usually combined with classical DRAM. The resulting architecture is a heterogeneous memory system in which no single memory is “best”. HBM is smaller but offers higher bandwidth than DRAM, whereas NVM provides larger capacity than DRAM at a reasonable cost and less energy consumption. Despite that, in several cases, DRAM still offers the best latency out of all three technologies.In order to use different kinds of memory, applications typically have to be modified to a great extent. Consequently, vendor-agnostic solutions are desirable. First, they should offer the functionality to identify kinds of memory, and second, to allocate data on it. In addition, because memory capacities may be limited, decisions about data placement regarding the different memory kinds have to be made. Finally, in making these decisions, changes over time in data that is accessed, and the actual access pattern, should be considered for initial data placement and be respected in data migration at run-time.In this paper, we introduce a new methodology that aims to provide portable tools and methods for managing data placement in systems with heterogeneous memory. Our approach allows programmers to provide traits (hints) for allocations that describe how data is used and accessed. Combined with characteristics of the platforms’ memory subsystem, these traits are exploited by heuristics to decide where to place data items. We also discuss methodologies for analyzing and identifying memory access characteristics of existing applications, and for recommending allocation traits.In our evaluation, we conduct experiments with several kernels and two proxy applications on Intel Knights Landing (HBM + DRAM) and Intel Ice Lake with Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory (DRAM + NVM) systems. We demonstrate that our methodology can bridge the performance gap between slow and fast memory by applying heuristics for initial data placement.

IoT‐Based Voice‐Controlled Smart Homes with Source Separation Based on Deep Learning

The widespread availability of cutting‐edge computer technologies has shed light on the relevance of artificial intelligence (AI) applications in almost all sectors of the economy. As a result of the incorporation of voice control processing into many Internet of Things (IoT) devices, many of these IoT devices may be operated using spoken commands. The environment that is controlled by speech may include several devices, each of which may be used for a separate activity; yet, all of the devices may collect and process the same command at the same time. This may be the case if the devices can communicate with one another. Because other devices may choose to ignore orders that are intended for particular devices if those devices are not equipped to deal with those orders, only the device that is designed to carry out the activity and process the command will be able to carry out the activity. This is because only the device that is designed to carry out the activity and process the command will be able to carry out the activity. On the other hand, when all of the voice‐controlled devices capture the command through the microphone, there is a greater chance that it will mix with other sounds coming from a variety of sources. This is because the microphone is being used to capture the command from all of the voice‐controlled devices. These noises may include those that are emanating from the television, music systems, and other sounds that are created by activities taking on inside the family, among other things. During the identification of instructions via processing, any blending of other sounds that are not the primary command is regarded as noise and has to be deleted. This is because any such blending is deemed to be noise. The direction of arrival (also known as DOA) of the sound waves is given primary consideration by this approach. This is done at the same time as the performance of the system, and the proposal for it are being evaluated. Based on the angle of arrival estimate, a specific room impulse response (RIR) from a collection of defined RIR is identified as a room acoustic characteristic, and source separation is carried out using the technique of independent component analysis (ICA). Following the completion of the analysis of the signals produced by the split command speech, the characteristics of the speech are retrieved from the signals. The Mel‐frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) approach is used so that the operation of feature extraction may be carried out. This is the goal of the technique. Following that, a support vector machine classifier is used to the data in order to further split these characteristics into a large range of distinct groups. Comparisons are made between the performance of the SVM classifier and the performance of a large number of different classifiers, including decision trees, which are often used in applications that incorporate machine learning (DT). After analyzing its performance, the multiclass SVM classifier is found to have an accuracy of 91%, according to the conclusions of the study. Utilizing a classifier that is based on a probabilistic neural network, which is sometimes referred to as a PNN, is one way in which the accuracy of future classifications may be enhanced. This particular classifier is made up of three layers: one layer of gated recurrent units (GRU), one layer of long short‐term memory (LSTM), and one layer that integrates the two of those different kinds of memory. This classification seems to have obtained an accuracy of 94.5 percent, which is higher than the classification accuracy attained by the multiclass SVM classifier.

Learning in Transcriptional Network Models: Computational Discovery of Pathway-Level Memory and Effective Interventions.

Trainability, in any substrate, refers to the ability to change future behavior based on past experiences. An understanding of such capacity within biological cells and tissues would enable a particularly powerful set of methods for prediction and control of their behavior through specific patterns of stimuli. This top-down mode of control (as an alternative to bottom-up modification of hardware) has been extensively exploited by computer science and the behavioral sciences; in biology however, it is usually reserved for organism-level behavior in animals with brains, such as training animals towards a desired response. Exciting work in the field of basal cognition has begun to reveal degrees and forms of unconventional memory in non-neural tissues and even in subcellular biochemical dynamics. Here, we characterize biological gene regulatory circuit models and protein pathways and find them capable of several different kinds of memory. We extend prior results on learning in binary transcriptional networks to continuous models and identify specific interventions (regimes of stimulation, as opposed to network rewiring) that abolish undesirable network behavior such as drug pharmacoresistance and drug sensitization. We also explore the stability of created memories by assessing their long-term behavior and find that most memories do not decay over long time periods. Additionally, we find that the memory properties are quite robust to noise; surprisingly, in many cases noise actually increases memory potential. We examine various network properties associated with these behaviors and find that no one network property is indicative of memory. Random networks do not show similar memory behavior as models of biological processes, indicating that generic network dynamics are not solely responsible for trainability. Rational control of dynamic pathway function using stimuli derived from computational models opens the door to empirical studies of proto-cognitive capacities in unconventional embodiments and suggests numerous possible applications in biomedicine, where behavior shaping of pathway responses stand as a potential alternative to gene therapy.

Algorithmic TCAMs: Implementing Packet Classification Algorithms in Hardware

The adoption of cloud computing and the deployment of new services require more and more computing and networking resources in large data centers. In particular, there is a need for faster, rich featured switches. Today, switching integrated circuits can handle more than 50 Tb/s and are expected to reach 100 Tb/s next year. This trend is likely to continue, approaching petabit capacities in a few years. At the same time, switches need to support more advanced packet classification features. This poses many challenges to the designers of switching integrated circuits, creating a need for innovations to move forward. One of those challenges is to support programmable packet classification with large rulesets at wire speed using limited silicon footprint. Unfortunately, traditional solutions like ternary content addressable memories (TCAMs) have high cost in area and power, and therefore are not a viable option for large on-chip rulesets, so new alternatives are needed. In the last two decades, researchers have extensively studied the problem of packet classification, proposing many algorithms based on standard memories, mostly targeting software implementations. These packet classification algorithms could be a solution to enable large on-chip classification rulesets using standard memories. However, porting the standard packet classification algorithms to a hardware implementation is not a trivial task, due to the different requirements and the different kinds of memory and computing resources available on application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) switching chips. This article describes a packet classification design tailored for high-speed switching integrated circuits, which is currently used in the NVIDIA® Mellanox® Spectrum® switching ASIC product line, illustrating how to solve the mismatch between the usual software-based classification algorithms and the specific requirements of a hardware implementation.

Means of the future engineers-teachers’ professional competence formation: pedagogical and psychological conditions

The article considers the psychological and pedagogical conditions of the future engineers-teachers’ professional competence formation, pedagogical creativity as a component of pedagogical skills, as well as features of working with talented and gifted students as an important factor in effective professional development. The psychological and pedagogical principles of linguistic activity of able and gifted students were studied. Scientific approaches to understanding of “ability” and “dedication” and their influence on language activity of non-philological specialties students are defined. The psychological and pedagogical principles of organization of interaction of the teacher and students were formulated. Pedagogical psychology investigates the processes of development of students’ thinking, attention and memory, ability to perceive language facts and phenomena in their dialectical unity. For gifted students there are high enough development of thinking, long-term memorization of educational material, high efficiency, developed self-control skills in educational activity, ability to give doubt and scientific thinking certain stereotypes. They are distinguished by an increased propensity to mental activity, originality, the formation of different kinds of memory, respect, assembly, speed of reaction, richness of imagination. For effective work with gifted students teachers have to know their psychological and pedagogical peculiarities and specifics of their learning, to be recognized with the concept of diligence, to understand the content of understanding “ability”, “dedication”, “talent”, types of diligence. It is important in the teaching of the future profession, that students are aware of their own activities, both theoretical and practical. The development of professional competence is the development of creative individuality, the formation of readiness to accept the new, the development of receptivity to pedagogical innovations

Mixing memory and desire: How memory reactivation supports deliberative decision-making.

Memories affect nearly every aspect of our mental life. They allow us to both resolve uncertainty in the present and to construct plans for the future. Recently, renewed interest in the role memory plays in adaptive behavior has led to new theoretical advances and empirical observations. We review key findings, with particular emphasis on how the retrieval of many kinds of memories affects deliberative action selection. These results are interpreted in a sequential inference framework, in which reinstatements from memory serve as "samples" of potential action outcomes. The resulting model suggests a central role for the dynamics of memory reactivation in determining the influence of different kinds of memory in decisions. We propose that representation-specific dynamics can implement a bottom-up "product of experts" rule that integrates multiple sets of action-outcome predictions weighted based on their uncertainty. We close by reviewing related findings and identifying areas for further research. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Reasoning and Decision Making Neuroscience > Cognition Neuroscience > Computation.

The Hippocampus and Dorsolateral Striatum Integrate Distinct Types of Memories through Time and Space, Respectively.

Several decades of research have established that different kinds of memories result from the activity of discrete neural networks. Studying how these networks process information in experiments that target specific types of mnemonic representations has provided deep insights into memory architecture and its neural underpinnings. However, in natural settings reality confronts organisms with problems that are not neatly compartmentalized. Thus, a critical problem in memory research that still needs to be addressed is how distinct types of memories are ultimately integrated. Here we demonstrate how two memory networks, the hippocampus and dorsolateral striatum, may accomplish such a goal. The hippocampus supports memory for facts and events, collectively known as declarative memory and often studied as spatial memory in rodents. The dorsolateral striatum provides the basis for habits that are assessed in stimulus-response types of tasks. Expanding previous findings, the current work revealed that in male Long-Evans rats, the hippocampus and dorsolateral striatum use time and space in distinct and largely complementary ways to integrate spatial and habitual representations. Specifically, the hippocampus supported both types of memories when they were formed in temporal juxtaposition, even if the learning took place in different environments. In contrast, the lateral striatum supported both types of memories if they were formed in the same environment, even at temporally distinct points. These results reveal for the first time that by using fundamental aspects of experience in specific ways, the hippocampus and dorsolateral striatum can transcend their attributed roles in information storage.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The current paradigm in memory research postulates that different types of memories reflected in separate types of behavioral strategies result from activity in distinct neural circuits. However, recent data have shown that when rats concurrently acquired in the same environment of hippocampal-dependent spatial navigation and striatal-dependent approach of a visual cue, each of the two types of memories became dependent on both the hippocampus and dorsolateral striatum. The current work reveals that the hippocampus and dorsolateral striatum use distinct and complementary principles to integrate different types of memories in time and space: the hippocampus integrates memories formed in temporal proximity, while the lateral striatum integrates memories formed in the same space.

Investigating the efficacy of the reminder-extinction procedure to disrupt contextual threat memories in humans using immersive Virtual Reality

Upon reactivation, consolidated memories can enter a temporary labile state and require restabilisation, known as reconsolidation. Interventions during this reconsolidation period can disrupt the reactivated memory. However, it is unclear whether different kinds of memory that depend on distinct brain regions all undergo reconsolidation. Evidence for reconsolidation originates from studies assessing amygdala-dependent memories using cue-conditioning paradigms in rodents, which were subsequently replicated in humans. Whilst studies providing evidence for reconsolidation of hippocampus-dependent memories in rodents have predominantly used context conditioning paradigms, studies in humans have used completely different paradigms such as tests for wordlists or stories. Here our objective was to bridge this paradigm gap between rodent and human studies probing reconsolidation of hippocampus-dependent memories. We modified a recently developed immersive Virtual Reality paradigm to test in humans whether contextual threat-conditioned memories can be disrupted by a reminder-extinction procedure that putatively targets reconsolidation. In contrast to our hypothesis, we found comparable recovery of contextual conditioned threat responses, and comparable retention of subjective measures of threat memory, episodic memory and exploration behaviour between the reminder-extinction and standard extinction groups. Our result provide no evidence that a reminder before extinction can prevent the return of context conditioned threat memories in humans.

Assessment of Memory Function in Pilocarpine-induced Epileptic Mice.

Cognitive impairment is one of the most common comorbidities in temporal lobe epilepsy. To recapitulate epilepsy-associated cognitive decline in an animal model of epilepsy, we generated pilocarpine-treated chronic epileptic mice. We present a protocol for three different behavioral tests using these epileptic mice: novel object location (NL), novel object recognition (NO), and pattern separation (PS) tests to evaluate learning and memory for places, objects, and contexts, respectively. We explain how to set the behavioral apparatus and provide experimental procedures for the NL, NO, and PS tests following an open field test that measures the animals' basal locomotor activities. We also describe the technical advantages of the NL, NO, and PS tests with respect to other behavioral tests for assessing memory function in epileptic mice. Finally, we discuss possible causes and solutions for epileptic mice failing to make 30 s of good contact with the objects during the familiarization sessions, which is a critical step for successful memory tests. Thus, this protocol provides detailed information about how to assess epilepsy-associated memory impairments using mice. The NL, NO, and PS tests are simple, efficient assays that are appropriate for the evaluation of different kinds of memory in epileptic mice.

Toward an Exergue on the Future of Différance

In Of Grammatology, Derrida discusses Leroi-Gourhan in relating différance to memory, the ‘program’, and the history of life. In Technics and Time, 1, Stiegler argues that Derrida failed to draw all the philosophical implications of linking différance to the questions of life and retention. Derrida returned to the life sciences in 1975, in a seminar not published in its entirety until 2019. There, Derrida attempts to deconstruct the geneticist François Jacob's account of the ‘logic of life’, but Derrida's analysis of different kinds of memory and programs seems confused, suggesting that the Derridean text remains haunted by the deficiencies of his earlier reading of Leroi-Gourhan. Later in the seminar, Derrida shows foresight concerning the problems arising from seeing the genetic molecule as akin to a computer program, despite Jacob making this link via Schrödinger and Wiener's discussions of negentropy. When Derrida turns to a reading of Freud and libidinal energy, however, he ‘assumes’ a reading of Laplanche but ignores the latter's critique of Freud's own preoccupations with the second law of thermodynamics. The limitations of Derrida's attempts to bring deconstruction together with scientific understanding expose the need for the kind of ‘organological’ and ‘neganthropological’ approach that Stiegler will ultimately pursue.

Thalamic-Medial Temporal Lobe Connectivity Underpins Familiarity Memory.

The neural basis of memory is highly distributed, but the thalamus is known to play a particularly critical role. However, exactly how the different thalamic nuclei contribute to different kinds of memory is unclear. Moreover, whether thalamic connectivity with the medial temporal lobe (MTL), arguably the most fundamental memory structure, is critical for memory remains unknown. We explore these questions using an fMRI recognition memory paradigm that taps familiarity and recollection (i.e., the two types of memory that support recognition) for objects, faces, and scenes. We show that the mediodorsal thalamus (MDt) plays a material-general role in familiarity, while the anterior thalamus plays a material-general role in recollection. Material-specific regions were found for scene familiarity (ventral posteromedial and pulvinar thalamic nuclei) and face familiarity (left ventrolateral thalamus). Critically, increased functional connectivity between the MDt and the parahippocampal (PHC) and perirhinal cortices (PRC) of the MTL underpinned increases in reported familiarity confidence. These findings suggest that familiarity signals are generated through the dynamic interaction of functionally connected MTL-thalamic structures.

Generalized Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model for active motion.

We investigate a one-dimensional model of active motion, which takes into account the effects of persistent self-propulsion through a memory function in a dissipative-like term of the generalized Langevin equation for particle swimming velocity. The proposed model is a generalization of the active Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model introduced by G. Szamel [Phys. Rev. E 90, 012111 (2014)10.1103/PhysRevE.90.012111]. We focus on two different kinds of memory which arise in many natural systems: an exponential decay and a power law, supplemented with additive colored noise. We provide analytical expressions for the velocity autocorrelation function and the mean-squared displacement, which are in excellent agreement with numerical simulations. For both models, damped oscillatory solutions emerge due to the competition between the memory of the system and the persistence of velocity fluctuations. In particular, for a power-law model with fractional Brownian noise, we show that long-time active subdiffusion occurs with increasing long-term memory.

There Is More Than One Kind of Extinction Learning.

The view that different kinds of memory are mediated by dissociable neural systems has received extensive experimental support. Dissociations between memory systems are usually observed during initial acquisition, consolidation, and retrieval of memory, however increasing evidence also indicates a role for multiple memory systems in extinction behavior. The present article reviews a recent series of maze learning experiments that provide evidence for a multiple memory systems approach to extinction learning and memory. Evidence is described indicating that: (1) the hippocampus and dorsolateral striatum (DLS) mediate different kinds of extinction learning; (2) the effectiveness of different extinction protocols depends on the kind of memory being extinguished; and (3) whether a neural system is involved in extinction is also determined by the extinction protocol and kind of memory undergoing extinction. Based on these findings, a novel hypothetical model regarding the role of multiple memory systems in extinction is presented. In addition, the relevance of this multiple memory systems approach to other learning paradigms involving extinction (i.e., extinction of conditioned fear) and for treating human psychopathologies characterized by maladaptive memories (e.g., drug addiction and relapse) is briefly considered.

Saber moral: fundamentos epistêmicos da neurobioética

This paper discusses the contributions neuroscience can make to establish the epistemic foundations of neuroethics. Starting with the association of different kinds of memory with kinds of knowledge, it analyses moral knowing-how in non-propositional terms and develops a new moral epistemology, namely practical cognitivism. Such approach is then used to establish the normative bases of both bioethics and neuroethics contributing to a new emerging field: neurobioethics. Keywords : meta-ethics, moral epistemology, cognitivism, neurobioethics.

Comparison of Different Kinds of Memory in Bipolar Disorder With or Without ObsessiveCompulsive Disorder Comorbidity

Background: One challenging area in psychological pathology pertains to the comorbidity of the psychological disorders. Bipolar disorder can be pointed out among the most critical psychological diseases featuring common psychiatric comorbidity. The purpose of this study is to compare different kinds of memory in Bipolar Disorder with or without obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) comorbidity. Methods: Sixty samples selected in 3 groups: 20 bipolar patients, 20 bipolar disorder with OCD comorbidity, and 20 healthy volunteers. Samples were selected using the available sampling method. Data collection tool included 3 questionnaires: Demographic Information Questionnaire, Comprehensive International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), Wechsler’s Memory Scale. Data analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance and descriptive statistics. Results: The results of multivariate analysis of variance analysis showed that at the level of 0.001, there was a significant difference at least regarding one of the memory variables, between the subjects of the 3 groups of bipolar/OCD, bipolar disorder and healthy. According to the mean of the groups, the weakest function is related to patients with bipolar/OCD. Conclusion: The results of the study showed that memory damage is more common in the bipolar/ OCD group, which should consider the treatment processes of these patients.

Different memory patterns of digits: a functional MRI study

BackgroundPsychological investigations and functional imaging technology have been used to describe neural correlations of different types of memory with various stimuli. Memory with limited storage capacity and a short retention time can be classified as short-term memory (STM) while long-term memory (LTM) can be life-long without defined capacity.MethodsTo identify brain activation pattern associated with different modes of memory for numerical figures, we detected brain activities from twenty-two healthy subjects when performing three types of memory tasks for numbers, namely STM, LTM and working memory (WM), by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique.ResultsThe result revealed variable patterns of activation in different brain regions responding to different types of memory tasks. The activation regions with primary processing and transient maintenance of STM for numerical figures are located in the visual cortex and mainly encoded by visual representations, while LTM was encoded by semantics and mainly recruiting left frontal cortex. We also found that subcortical structures, such as the caudate nucleus and the marginal division of the striatum, plays important roles in working memory.ConclusionsActivation of different brain regions in these three kinds of memories, indicating that different kinds of memories rely on different neural correlates and mental processes.

Integration and segregation of functional segmented anterior and posterior hippocampal networks in memory performance.

To determine the association between functional connectivity (FC) of functional-segmented anterior and posterior portions of the hippocampus and performance on verbal and visual memory tests in a young, healthy population. We recruited 100 healthy participants in the age of 19-29. Resting state fMRI data were acquired and voxel-wise correlation analysis was performed to functionally divide the hippocampus. We investigated the inter-hemispheric hippocampal-cortical functional connectivity after the participants took the assessment of episodic memory using verbal (California Verbal Learning Test II, CVLT-II) and visual subtests (Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure, ROCF). The partial correlations were used to identify the association between the intra-hemispheric hippocampal-cortical mean resting correlation and memory performance. The results showed that the anterior and posterior hippocampal networks involved differently in verbal and visual memory. Intra-hemispheric FC between left posterior hippocampus and posterior parahippocampal gyrus (PPHG) was positively correlated with CVLT-II Trail 2 Immediate Free Recall (r = 0.223, p = 0.029). Intra-hemispheric FC between left posterior hippocampus and posterior cingulate (PCC) was negatively correlated with ROCF Immediate Recall (r = -0.217 p = 0.034). Intra-hemispheric FC between left anterior hippocampus and temporal pole (TP) negatively correlated with ROCF Delayed Recall (r = -0.228, p = 0.025). Split half resampling procedure results showed some repeatability in our subjects. The present results demonstrated that, the anterior hippocampus was specifically involved in the visual memory processing, whereas the posterior hippocampus contributed to both the verbal and visual memories, which may have implications for a functionally synergetic and dissociable role of the hippocampus in different kinds of memory.

Medieval Narratives of Alexander the Great: Transnational Texts in England and France by Venetia Bridges

MLR, .,   Griffiths’s essay on Chaucer’s e House of Fame examines the function of different kinds of memory and their effectiveness in poetic creation, and sees the poem as a representation of the poet’s own mind and thought processes. Julia Bourke analyses meditations, emotional responses, and memory training induced by hand mnemonics (illustrated) and the meditative texts of Anselm, Aelred of Rievaulx, and Stephen of Sawley. Gustave Zamore traces the evolving use of synderesis in Bonaventura’s writings, from a moral-psychological sense that allows one to perceive right from wrong to a more mystical one which culminates in the mind’s union with God, and considers Saint Francis’s stigmata to be a supreme example of union through the suffering of Christ. Petrarch’s fictional ascent of Mount Ventoux is constantly beset by errant thoughts, representing his attachment to human desire and impeding his soul’s spiritual ascent towards God. Francesca Southerden analyses this and compares it with canzone  of his Rerum vulgarium fragmenta. Philip Knox interprets Jean de Meun’s Rose as a kind of thought experiment developing to its comic limits Boethius’s philosophical notion of the natural desire for the good. Examining three different fabliaux, Gabrielle Lyons shows how the genre provides the opportunity to explore freely the exegetical methods normally used in biblical exegesis and suggests a range of interpretations of the moral lessons she finds in each poem. Examining the relationship between Alan de Lille’s De planctu Naturae and Ipomedon, Daniel Reeve sees the convoluted French poem as a response to the philosophical Latin text, and as a quest for pleasure rather than truth. Finally, Vincent Gillespie looks at medieval poetic theory and the differing effects on the individual of rhetoric, which works by persuasion, and poetry, which relies on imagination. Overall these densely argued essays present a stimulating review of the variety of thought experiments to be found in the Middle Ages. U  B L C. B Medieval Narratives of Alexander the Great: Transnational Texts in England and France. By V B. Woodbridge: Brewer. . xi+ pp. £. ISBN ––––. is welcome monograph brings together two difficult subjects and uses each to understand the other in productive ways. e literary, historical, and textual traditions of the iconic Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great are ferociously vast and complex, branching out from antiquity onwards and intersecting across Asia, Europe, and parts of Africa. Even offering a more local account, as Venetia Bridges does, of French, English, and Latin romance texts circulating in the medieval context of France and England is a challenge. In answering that challenge she gives a clear and authoritative picture of this branch of the Alexander tradition, situating it in relation to other key literary texts composed in France and England . Opposing national-linguistic anachronisms, the aim is to take a ‘more truly historicist’ approach (p. ) to the medieval literature of France and especially to that of England. is is a timely approach that chimes with the current scholarly  Reviews focus on understanding texts, stories, and knowledge as phenomena moving across borders and that should be seen as European or global just as much as local. Bridges uses the context of ‘networks’ to understand the movement of texts and people and uses the term ‘transnational’ as a way into thinking about the relation between what might be called the ‘local’ and the ‘global’. e book does not lose itself in the long grass of theoretical considerations, though, but stays rooted in the history and study of specific texts. It offers readers a clear and most usable guide through the Alexander tradition as it particularly evolves in the British context, and the first chapter is particularly important in this regard: it clearly sets out the different textual traditions that feed into the Alexander literature composed in the twelh century and should be read by anyone working on this material as received in a francophone or Insular context. It contrasts in method with the more expansive four-volume work recently brought out by Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas (La Fascination pour Alexandre le Grand dans les littératures européennes (Xe–XVIe si...