MEMORY RESEARCH IS NOT A ZERO-SUM GAME

Some reflections on the debate between representatives of laboratory-based and naturalistic study of memory, as to the relative merits and shortcomings of the two approaches, are presented. The debate, or quarrel, or squabble was not called for; the polemics that have ensued from it are not going to advance science. There is no reason to believe that there is only one correct way of studying memory. What counts in the final analysis is the extent to which the present work, whatever its orientation, shapes the future. The study of memory from different vantage points is not a zero-sum game in which only one side can win.