Full Idea
I favour the inferential view of memory over the preservation view. …One constantly reinfers old beliefs.
Clarification
Memory is more like explaining something than like looking in a photograph album
Gist of Idea
Memories are not just preserved, they are constantly reinferred
Source
Gilbert Harman (Thought [1973], 12.1)
Book Reference
Harman,Gilbert: 'Thought' [Princeton 1977], p.190
A Reaction
This has a grain of truth, but seems a distortion. An image of the old home floats into my mind when I am thinking about something utterly unconnected. When we search memory we may be inferring and explaining, but the same applies to searching images.