I found this explanation interesting. In order to remember memories, this person says he remembers it like we remember facts we read from a book:
What did you do today?
I don’t know. I don’t know what I did today.
Answering questions like this requires me to “do mental work,” the way you might if you’re struggling to recall what happened in the Battle of Trafalgar. If I haven’t prepared, I can’t begin to answer.
He does have access to past information:
So you don’t know what I look like?
I know facts about the characteristics of your face. If you have radiant blue eyes, I may have stored that information. I know the “essence” of your face, but I’m unable to project it visually in my mind because there’s no screen.
But his sensory recall is limited:
I do have the ‘milk voice’—that flat, inner monologue that has no texture or sound, which we use to tell ourselves: “Remember to pick up milk.”
[…]
More generally, I have no sensory experience in my mind of any discernible nature.