As part of the general trend toward interdisciplinary research in recent years, a growing number of investigators have come to consider both cognitive and neuroscientific perspectives when theorizing about memory. Although such cognitive neuroscience analyses are a relatively recent development, the approach has precedents in earlier scientific thinking about memory. In this article we present a historical review of three major issues in memory research-consolidation processes, the nature of memory representations, and multiple memory systems. We discuss the nature of the relation between cognitive Cognitive neuroscience is a fundamentally interdisciplinary pursuit that draws on the methodological tools and theoretical frameworks of both of its constituent disciplines. In doing so, it promises to provide a more complete understanding of mnemonic processes than could be achieved by either discipline alone. During the past few decades, the cognitive neuroscience approach has become increasingly prominent in the analysis of memory. A growing number of cognitive scientists have made use of findings and ideas about brain function (e.g., Schacter, 1985a; Rumelhart, 1986a, 1986b;Shimamura, 1989), and similarly an increasing number of neuroscientists have drawn on cognitive theories and paradigms (e.g., Kean & Nadel, 1982; Mishkin & Petri, 1984;. Although still in its infancy, this approach has already begun to yield important insights into various aspects of memory, and there is every reason to believe that it will become even more prominent in the future.Although the emergence of widespread interest in cognitive neuroscience analyses of memory is a relatively recent phenomenon, the approach itself is not entirely without precedent in the history of scientific thinlung about memory. Thus, for example, investigators such as Ribot (1882), Burnham (1903), Semon (19041921), 0 1991 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and neuroscientific approaches to each of these issues with respect to the distinction between collateral, complementary, and convergent relations (Schacter, 1986). Although some early investigators offered analyses that linked psychological and physiological perspectives, there is little historical evidence of systematic o r sustained interdisciplinary research. However, more recent work, especially with respect to hypotheses about memory systems, suggests progress toward establishing programmatic interdisciplinary research. m Hebb (1949), and even Freud (1895;in Bonaparte, Freud, & &is, 1954) put forward what could be broadly construed as memory theories that drew on both psychological and physiological perspectives. Nevertheless, we are not aware of any scholarly attempt to trace systematically the extent to which memory researchers have attempted to combine these two approaches. The main purpose of this article is to provide the beginnings of such an analysis.There are several reasons why such a historical analysis is worth pursuing. First, there is simple intellectual curiosity about the antece...