Memory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember

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. (Mar.)