Complementarity and the Relation Between Psychological and Neurophysiological Phenomena

Abstract

In their recent article, Kirsch and Hyland questioned the relation between psychological and associated neurophysiological phenomena in the introduction of complementarity into psychology. Mishkin's work on the neurophysiological basis of memory and perception provides an example of the extension of complementarity that I have proposed and that can serve as the basis for empirical testing of this extension. Mishkin's thesis that memory storage occurs at sensory stations in the cortex allows for the resolution of a fundamental problem in cognitive psychology, namely the reciprocal dependence of perception and memory. Also, Mishkin's thesis allows that psychological phenomena do not depend on an objective world for their existence.