Confabulations in Korsakoff’s Syndrome: Defending an Error-Based Account

Abstract

This paper investigates confabulations in Korsakoff’s syndrome (KS) from the perspective of error-based teleosemantics, a framework that emphasizes the role of error detection in mental representation. I introduce a distributed and communicative model of memory, framing it as a network of information transfer encompassing both internal cognitive processes and external social interactions. This model, grounded in teleosemantics, allows for an understanding of how confabulations arise not solely from internal memory deficits, but also from disruptions in the feedback loops between individuals and their social environments. By analyzing cases of provoked and spontaneous confabulations in KS patients, I demonstrate how this framework illuminates the crucial role of external consumers (e.g., caregivers) in either reinforcing or correcting erroneous memory reports. This approach, emphasizing error detection mechanisms, offers a new lens for examining the interplay between individual cognitive processes and social scaffolding in shaping memory and its pathologies.