Why we remember : unlocking memory's power to hold on to what matters / Charan Ranganath, PhD.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

" 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.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction: Meet Your Remembering Self (3)
• Part 1 The Fundamentals of Memory
• 1 Where Is My Mind? (11)
• Why We Remember Some Things and Forget Others.
• 2 Travelers of Time and Space (31)
• How Remembering Takes Us Back to a Place and Time.
• 3 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (50)
• How We Can Remember More by Memorizing Less.
• Part 2 The Unseen Forces
• 4 Just My Imagination (69)
• Why Remembering is Inextricably Linked with Imagination.
• 5 More Than a Feeling (85)
• Why Our Memories are Different from the Feelings We Have About Them.
• 6 All Around Me Are Familiar Faces (103)
• How We Learn, Even When We Don't Remember.
• 7 Turn and Face the Strange (118)
• How Memory Orients Us to What is New and Unexpected.
• Part 3 The Implications
• 8 Press Play and Record (139)
• How Remembering Changes Our Memories.
• 9 Some Pain, More Gain (157)
• Why We Can Learn More When We Make Mistakes.
• 10 When We Remember Together (175)
• How Memories are Shaped by Our Social Interactions.
• Coda: Dynamic Memories (191)
• Acknowledgments (195)
• Notes (199)
• Bibliography (239)
• Index (281)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

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. Agent: Rachel Neumann, Idea Architects. (Feb.)

Kirkus Book Review

A professor of neuroscience and psychology delivers a wide-ranging study of how memories make us who and what we are. Memory is a quirky thing, writes Ranganath, director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California, Davis. We can remember song lyrics from 20 years ago, but we can also forget what we ate yesterday. The author has been trying to understand memory for decades, and he admits that a huge amount still remains a puzzle. He explains the mechanisms of memory in the brain and the different types and levels of memory, as well as the evolutionary reasons for it. Many theories have been posed about how memories develop, but the current thinking involves "a phenomenon called error-driven learning," where memory is a constant process of reworking experiences to fit our larger mental picture. Memory failures have been linked to depression, poor sleep, and other ailments. Ranganath explains how fake "memories" can be inserted by repeated suggestion, to the point that people have "remembered" and confessed to crimes they didn't commit. Some memories, especially those of traumatic events, break into our consciousness unbidden. The author suggests that they can be kept under control by persistent and intentional rejection, although it takes effort. He also offers tips on how to not forget routine things (phone, keys) by connecting their image to something else. It's useful advice, but much of the book is devoted to Ranganath's examination of theories of memory and the new generation of testing. Anyone expecting a simple how-to guide on improving their memory may be disappointed. The author's research is undeniably intriguing, but the book will appeal to specialists more than general readers. A well-informed tour of a mysterious and crucial part of the brain, promising greater self-awareness and mental clarity. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.