Why We Remember
Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters
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- 109,00 kr
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER • Memory is far more than a record of the past. In this groundbreaking tour of the mind and brain, one of the world’s top memory researchers reveals the powerful role memory plays in nearly every aspect of our lives, from recalling faces and names, to learning, decision-making, trauma and healing.
A BEST SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR: Financial Times, Smithsonian Magazine, The Telegraph, Waterstones,
The Times, Marie Claire, Greater Good Magazine
"Why We Remember offers a radically new and engaging explanation of how and why we remember." —Dr. Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep
"Prominent neuroscientist and Guggenheim Fellow Charan Ranganath guides us through the science of our memories with incredible insight and clear science. He combines fascinating tales of the peculiarities of memory with practical, actionable steps. Not only will every reader remember better afterward, they’ll also never forget this life-changing book.” —Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of Maladies and Gene
A new understanding of memory is emerging from the latest scientific research. In Why We Remember, pioneering neuroscientist and psychologist Charan Ranganath radically reframes the way we think about the everyday act of remembering. Combining accessible language with cutting-edge research, he reveals the surprising ways our brains record the past and how we use that information to understand who we are in the present, and to imagine and plan for the future.
Memory, Dr. Ranganath shows, is a highly transformative force that shapes how we experience the world in often invisible and sometimes destructive ways. Knowing this can help us with daily remembering tasks, like finding our keys, and with the challenge of memory loss as we age. What’s more, when we work with the brain’s ability to learn and reinterpret past events, we can heal trauma, shed our biases, learn faster, and grow in self-awareness.
Including fascinating studies and examples from pop culture, and drawing on Ranganath’s life as a scientist, father, and child of immigrants, Why We Remember is a captivating read that unveils the hidden role memory plays throughout our lives. When we understand its power-- and its quirks--we can cut through the clutter and remember the things we want to remember. We can make freer choices and plan a happier future.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Want to discover how your memory works? Neuroscientist Charan Ranganath has spent a quarter century investigating the catchy songs and memorable quotes that stick with us—as well as the important faces and moments we forget. In this fascinating and thought-provoking listen, Ranganath digs into the science behind how our brains process and retain experiences and how our memories impact every aspect of our lives. Like, did you know that your brain is a democracy? Our neurons basically vote on whether to remember something. And science confirms that we tend to remember painful or embarrassing failures, which explains why our mistakes are also our best teachers. Ranganath’s conversational explanations never get bogged down in technical talk or jargon. Why We Remember is a fresh look at how our minds operate.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ranganath, a psychology professor at the University of California Davis, debuts with a riveting overview of how memory works. He explains that the prefrontal cortex helps coordinate brain activity and direct attention, influencing what details are remembered or forgotten, and that the hippocampus enables recall by reactivating the neuronal connections that were active at the moment a memory formed. Discussing memory's fallibility, the author describes how in the 1990s psychologist Elizabeth Loftus presented study subjects with a list of memories, three real and one made-up, assembled by a "trusted close relative" and found that, after repeated questioning, the participants began to "remember" and embellish the fake event. A contributing factor to false memories, he suggests, is that information about "what's happening at the time you are trying to reconstruct the experience" gets incorporated into the original memory during recall, so that "every time you recall the event, the memory updates a little bit more." Ranganath has a knack for describing neuroanatomy in accessible terms, and the science consistently surprises, as when he reports on research showing how individuals often have worse recall when working in groups because listening to the recollections of others can crowd out one's own memories, producing a "homogenizing" effect in which information that's not shared is more readily forgotten. Approachable and enlightening, this is worth seeking out.
