Memory Lane
The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember
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- $30.99
Publisher Description
An illuminating look at the adaptive nature of our memories—and how their flexibility and fallibility help us survive and thrive
We tend to think of our memories as impressions of the past that remain fully intact, preserved somewhere inside our brains. In fact, we construct and reconstruct our memories every time we attempt to recall them. Memory Lane introduces readers to the cutting-edge science of human memory, revealing how our recollections of the past are constantly adapting and changing, and why a faulty memory isn’t always a bad thing.
Shedding light on what memory is and what it evolved to do, Ciara Greene and Gillian Murphy discuss the many benefits of our flexible yet fallible memory system, including helping us to maintain a coherent identity, sustain social bonds, and vividly imagine possible futures. But these flexible and easily distorted memories can also result in significant harm, leading us to provide erroneous eyewitness testimony or fall victim to fake news. Greene and Murphy explain why our flawed memories are not a failure of evolution but rather a byproduct of the perfectly imperfect way our minds have evolved to solve problems. They also grapple with important ethical questions surrounding the study and manipulation of memory.
Blending engaging storytelling with the latest science, the authors demonstrate how our continuous reconstruction of the past makes us who we are, helps us to interpret our experiences, and explains why no two trips down memory lane are ever quite the same.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Greene and Murphy—psychology professors at University College Dublin and University College Cork, respectively—explore the fragility of memory in this insightful debut survey. They explain that memories take the form of synaptic connections in the brain's hippocampus and describe the case of Henry Molaison, who lost his ability to form new memories after doctors removed his hippocampus in an effort to treat his epileptic seizures. Arguing that "forgetting is necessary and important," the authors present as a cautionary tale the case of Jill Price, whose "highly superior autobiographical memory" enables her to recall events from her life with astonishing accuracy (given a particular date, she can "recite what day of the week it fell on, what she did on that day, and who she was with") but leaves her feeling overwhelmed by a constant barrage of irrelevant recollections. Memory is also highly malleable, the authors contend, detailing how in the 1980s, suggestive interviewing techniques by prosecutors coaxed children at a California preschool into falsely remembering sexual abuse at the hands of school staff. The authors make a persuasive argument that forgetting has its benefits, even as the fascinating case studies show the many downsides of memory's fallibility. Pop science readers will want to check out this splendid study.
