Charan Ranganath (Faber)
THERE are a lot of books about memory, so do we really need another? Why do we remember 鈥� surely we already know? Well, perhaps not as much as we thought. Whether you are into biology or not, if you only read one (more) book about memory, this is a smart choice.
Why We Remember: The science of memory and how it shapes us will leave you better informed and less distressed about forgetting why you wandered into a room. It will also have you itching to share: after all, what researchers now know about our memory, flaws and all, has far-reaching implications for law, medicine, education, social care, well-being and understanding who we are.
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Charan Ranganath is director of the Memory and Plasticity Program at the University of California, Davis, and a respected researcher. In this book, he does what many experts can鈥檛: he tells a story that is thorough and entertaining, giving a sense of the enormity of the field and, most importantly, the issues raised.
That is no mean feat. Any account of how memory works quickly draws in most other aspects of brain function: our emotions, drives, attention, decisions, creativity, curiosity and social habits.
Even if you know the field really well, this excellent summary will bring you completely up to date and to the heart of how memory shapes our perceptions, interactions, choices and even our sense of identity.
You may already know that memory isn鈥檛 particularly reliable and that we are, in fact, meant to forget most of what we learn or experience. But here we find a more nuanced view of what we do remember and why. As his book鈥檚 title suggests, Ranganath argues that the key question isn鈥檛 why we forget, but why we remember at all.
In exploring this, he demystifies how we see different types of memory 鈥� working memory for the information we keep only briefly in mind, our semantic memory for facts and our autobiographical memory for events 鈥� showing how the many facets of the memory system work together. And he ties it all together through the underlying brain anatomy.
The findings speak to why we tell stories, have intuition and are so susceptible to fake news. Ranganath also outlines why machine learning copes so badly with exceptions to rules or patterns, and how real brains get around many of these problems. He reveals how creativity is guided by memory, too, so there is no such thing as complete novelty 鈥� pertinent to recent court cases about hit songs.
Rather than seeing our memory as following a simple trajectory through life 鈥� from childhood 鈥渟ponge鈥� through maturity to older age and inevitable decline 鈥� Ranganath points out that it works differently at different life stages because that is how it evolved to work and how it needs to work.
The effects of age
Memory can function well as we get older, we might just need to work with it slightly differently. Couples who have spent a lifetime together, he writes, often help each other, combining their different memory strengths to find an answer. Sometimes the decline in memory in older people can be a result of undiagnosed depression, loss and loneliness.
And it isn鈥檛 just as we age 鈥� the perceived flaws of memory are generally features of how it should work. It isn鈥檛 meant to be easy to learn lists of abstract facts 鈥� memory didn鈥檛 evolve to do that. It isn鈥檛 there to recount the past at all, but to help us deal with the future.
That doesn鈥檛 mean we can鈥檛 improve it where we need to. We have to be active in creating a memory 鈥� and the book offers advice. Attention and intention are key to creating strong memories, but making errors is also important, says Ranganath, as he explains that our brains use past experiences to make predictions. When things don鈥檛 go to plan, we must update our models of the world, so errors actually trigger learning. This speaks to the best way to educate children, by not just rewarding correct answers but allowing, even encouraging, mistakes.
Ranganath discusses false memories and has fascinating insights into the reconstructive nature of memory, arguing that memories are never either true or false, but always creations 鈥� as much a product of individual and collective experience as a record of an event. He also has dire warnings about what social media and the shift to continuous multitasking are doing to our ability to make memories. They undermine the all-important attention and intention. In many ways, he warns, we are forgetting how to remember.
I enjoyed Why We Remember, particularly the stimulating insights and issues raised 鈥� now I really want Ranganath to write a sequel: And What Are We Going to Do About It?
Helen Phillips is based in Devon, UK
