Author: Charan Ranganath, PhD
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: 2024
ISBN: 978-0-385-54863-2
Pages: 304
Price: $30 (hardcover)
Each semester, I teach Psychology 101 to undergraduates, and at the end of the term, I like to review the course. Psychology 101 surveys a wide swath of topics, so I am always curious to see which of them were of most interest to students. My unit on memory is consistently rated as a high point, with students expressing that they wish it had included more than what was covered in the class text. Because of that, I have been looking for an approachable, scientifically grounded book on the psychology of memory to incorporate into my teaching of this popular subject. In Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold on to What Matters by Charan Ranganath, PhD, I found such a book.
Why We Remember opens with a question often asked by my students during this unit: “Why do we remember some events, but forget others?” In the pages that follow, Ranganath answers that question with both nuance and clarity, incorporating foundational findings from multiple scientific studies in language that is clear and easy to understand.
Some of these findings, like the connection between attention and memory (chapter 1: Where is my Mind), or the role of the hippocampus in memory processing (chapter 2: Travelers of Time and Space), are likely already present in an undergraduate Psychology 101 textbook. However, the degree to which Why We Remember can use these more basic conclusions as springboards for other, more advanced discussions is where this book realizes its value as an auxiliary teaching tool.
Such advanced discussions, like the experience of déjà vu, or the ability to distort memories with recall, frequently come up as questions in my classes. This book wastes no time in addressing these topics, highlighting the many implications that stem from having a mostly reliable, but reliably flawed, memory. Chapter 8 (Press Play and Record) provides excellent real world examples of the ways in which our recall can be distorted, alerting readers to their susceptibility to these phenomena. For students with an interest in clinical psychology, chapter 5 (More Than A Feeling) highlights the role that intense emotions play in memory formation and provides an approachable explanation of how psychotherapy can aid in the processing of traumatic memories.
That said, the chapter which most interested me, and which I will absolutely be using to augment my own lectures, concerns Ranganath’s discussion of the connection between human imagination and episodic memory recall. This chapter (Just My Imagination), which opens part two of the book, is a fascinating recontextualization of what happens when we attempt to bring up an experience from our past. To do this, Ranganath introduces the reader to Solomon Sheresevsky, a patient with particularly strong synesthesia and memory. Sheresevsky’s remarkable memory, according to the neuropsychologists who examined him, was intimately connected to his ability to use both his imagination and sensory connections to store and recall information. In introducing this story, Ranganath highlights an often overlooked, but singularly important part of the memory process: Recall is less about retrieval of information than it is the re-imagining of an experience. The mental processes involved in visualizing what could be are not altogether different from the mental processes involved in visualizing what has been. Memory, it appears, is less like the storage of files and more like the constant re-writing of the same book.
From a teaching perspective, this is a particularly important distinction to make, because it stands in sharp contrast to popular societal perspectives on memory and carries with it important implications for students interested in the strengths and weaknesses of their own memory abilities. Reinforcing to students that their brain is not like a computer hard drive will go a long way in helping them to use memory skills that complement the unique strengths of the human brain’s connectivity. Additionally, it helps students become aware of the many subtle ways in which human memory can be deceived, and to approach their own memories with curiosity, rather than rigidity.
While Why We Remember certainly provides interesting and well-researched information on our current understanding of memory, it ends with the message that there is still more to be discovered. It is this continued sense of wonder in the face of all that has been found that I think makes the book as a whole so engaging. Students who study psychology are given the unique opportunity not only to learn, but also apply classroom concepts to their lives to improve not just their understanding of a concept, but their firsthand experience of it. With its approachable style and wide-ranging scope, Why We Remember will certainly be a memorable addition to any psychology syllabus.
