Widespread acceptance of memory research as a case study of levels of scientific explanation has not led to equally widespread agreement about its correct philosophical lessons. This chapter focuses on Craver and Darden's useful diagram that illustrates four levels of scientific explanations of rodent spatial memory. The top level is the behavioral, the level explained by psychology and cognitive science. The next level down is the gross neuroanatomical and neurofunctional; below that the cellular neurophysiological; and finally the molecular-neurobiological. Widely employed, distinctively non-spatial memory tasks for rodents exploit their natural curiosity for novelty. In the object recognition task, rodents are exposed to a novel object and permitted to explore it for a specified time. The chapter also focuses on components of neurons, specifically to those whose activities drive the plastic changes that enable specific neurons to participate in particular memory processes.
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