Memory and the construction of scientific meaning: Michael Faraday’s use of notebooks and records

Abstract

Research examining the relationship between external artifacts and scientific thinking has highlighted the dynamic role of memory aids. This article explores how the nineteenth-century physicist Michael Faraday (1791–1867) used extensive laboratory notebooks and a highly structured set of retrieval strategies as dynamic aids during his scientific research. The development and dynamic use of memory artifacts are described as part of a distributed, “real-world,” cognitive environment. The processes involved are then related to aspects of expert memory and to the use of model-based reasoning in science. The system demonstrates the importance of epistemic artifacts in scientific cognition and is suggestively related to other cognitive artifacts used in scientific research that rely on similar cognitive processes.