A Dynamic Model of Autobiographical Memory Effects: Applying a Cognitive Architecture to Architectural Design
(2026) Anticipating Socio-Ecological Impacts of Artificial Intelligence — ISBN: [9783032194947], 56-78, published
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- Authors
Kaya Koç, Melahat 
Claeys, Damien Erem, Nesip
- Abstract
- Architectural design is a complex and dynamic cognitive activity informed by the architect's intuitions and subjectivity. Self-knowledge becomes significant as architects reflect on their existing knowledge and personal experiences , and translate them into design, shaping their overall design behaviour. Within this view, memory-and particularly autobiographical memory, understood as a dynamic and continually reconstructed cognitive resource-emerges as a key component of self-knowledge. Although design cognition research refers to memory, it has largely treated it as domain-specific knowledge derived from professional practice. Autobiographical memories arising from architects' spatial experiences, however, have not been examined as a cognitive mechanism, despite their embodied contribution. Extending beyond formal experience, their relevance has mostly been explored within critical theory rather than cognitive perspectives. This study aims to develop a conceptual framework explaining how an archi-tect's autobiographical memories influence design reasoning and behaviour at a cognitive level. To achieve this, two theoretical frameworks-Adaptive Control of Thought (ACT-R) and the Self-Memory System (SMS)-are integrated within a constructivist epistemology grounded in second-order cybernetics, then adapted to architectural design. An illustrative case study based on Zumthor's Thinking Architecture is employed, with a limited scope, to manage expectations of empirical generalisation. The findings indicate that autobiographical memories enter design cognition generally through direct retrieval of event-specific knowledge and are proceed in parallel with perceptual attention and spatial imagination. This study contributes design research with a systemic view to analyse dynamic cogni-tive activity of architects, with future research expected to inform design practice and education through memory-based reasoning.
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Citations
Kaya Koç, M., Claeys, D., & Erem, N. (2026). A Dynamic Model of Autobiographical Memory Effects: Applying a Cognitive Architecture to Architectural Design. In Alejandra Acevedo-De-los-Ríos, Damien Claeys, Nikitas A. Assimakopoulos (ed.), Anticipating Socio-Ecological Impacts of Artificial Intelligence (pp. 56-78). Springer Nature Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-19495-4_4