About the Book
Remember things better by understanding how your memory works.
If memory is a simple thing, why does it so often go awry? Why is forgetting so common? How can you be certain about something you remember-and be wrong about it? Why is it so difficult to remember people's names? How can you study hard for an exam but not be able to recall the material on the test? In Why We Forget, Dr. Andrew Budson and Dr. Elizabeth Kensinger address these questions and more, using their years of experience to guide readers into better memory.
Why We Forget shows you how to use these answers to improve your memory. In its pages you will learn:
· How memory's most important function isn't to help you remember details from your past.
· How memory is actually a collection of different abilities.
· How you create, store, and retrieve memories of your daily life.
· Ways to control what you remember and what you forget.
· Ways to distinguish between a true and false memory.
· Effective ways to study for an exam.
· How to remember people's names, all your passwords, 50 digits of Pi, and anything else you wish.
· How memory changes in normal aging, Alzheimer's disease, depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, and other disorders-including COVID brain fog.
· How exercise, nutrition, alcohol, cannabis, sleep, mindfulness, and music affect your memory.
Why We Forget uses the science of memory to empower you with the knowledge you need to remember better, whether you are a college student looking to ace your next exam, a business professional preparing a presentation, or a healthcare worker needing to memorize the 600+ muscles in the human body.
Table of Contents:
Foreword, Daniel Schacter
Preface
Part 1: All the ways to remember
Chapter 1: Memory is not one thing
Chapter 2: Travel back in time
Chapter 3: Keep it in mind
Chapter 4: Muscle memory
Chapter 5: Our store of knowledge
Chapter 6: What we remember together
Part 2: Remembering the days of our lives
Chapter 7: Do you need to try to remember?
Chapter 8: Get it into your memory - and keep it there
Chapter 9: Retrieve that memory
Chapter 10: Associate information
Chapter 11: Control what you forget and remember
Chapter 12: Are you sure that's not a false memory?
Part 3: When there is too little memory - or too much
Chapter 13: Just normal aging - or is it Alzheimer's disease?
Chapter 14: What else can go wrong with your memory
Chapter 15: When you can't forget
Chapter 16: Those who can remember everything
Part 4: How to remember better
Chapter 17: Exercise, exercise, exercise
Chapter 18: Diet, alcohol, and drugs
Chapter 19: Sleep
Chapter 20: Do the right things
Chapter 21: Use strategies
Chapter 22: Use memory aids
Chapter 23: Putting it all together
Appendix: Twelve tips to remember better
Acknowledgments
References
About the Authors
Index
About the Author :
Andrew E. Budson, Chief, Cognitive & Behavioral Neurology and Associate Chief of Staff for Education, VA Boston Healthcare System, Associate Director & Education Core Leader, Boston University Alzheimer's Disease Center, Professor of Neurology, Boston University School of Medicine, Lecturer in Neurology, Harvard Medical School
Andrew Budson majored in chemistry and philosophy at Haverford College, graduated cum laude from Harvard Medical School, interned at Brigham and Women's Hospital, attended the Harvard-Longwood Neurology Residency Program, and then pursued a clinical fellowship in behavioral neurology and dementia at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a research post-doctoral fellowship in experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience at Harvard University. He has given over 700 talks and published over 150
papers in peer-reviewed journals. From the American Academy of Neurology he received the Norman Geschwind Prize in Behavioral Neurology in 2008 and the Research Award in Geriatric Neurology in 2009.
Elizabeth Kensinger, PhD,Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College
Elizabeth Kensinger majored in psychology and biology at Harvard University and received her Ph.D. in neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University and the Massachusetts General Hospital, she joined the faculty of Boston College, where she is now a Full Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. She directs a research laboratory that investigates many aspects of human memory, including how
emotion, stress, and sleep affect memory, and how memory strengths shift as adults age, and she teaches courses on these topics.
Review :
This book is an essential read for all those concerned with memory loss and should be a part of all collections in the behavioral and social sciences.
In "Why we Forget", memory experts Andrew Budson and Elizabeth Kensinger provide readers with a practical and clearly explained masterclass in how memory works and how to keep it working well as we age. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand and maximize their memory functions.
In this highly readable book, two authorities on the science of memory and the brain unpack everything you could want to know about memory and memory disorders. You will find surprising answers here to fascinating puzzles - for example, why we form false memories, why someone with Alzheimer's disease remembers how to play the piano but forgets the names of family members, how to distinguish between memory decline due to normal aging and disorders of memory, and why sleep is so important for memory. In addition, the authors describe evidence-based ways to remember better and to defend against false memories.
Budson and Kensinger have done a marvelous job creating an accessible summary of the wide-ranging field of memory research. A perfect place to start for anyone interested in understanding this fundamental human capacity.
This book delivers on all fronts. Written by two of the most eminent memory scientists in the world, the book draws in the reader immediately - engaging both the practitioners of the science of memory as well as those who are new to memory research. The reader is presented with many relatable, everyday examples and practical tips, and with concrete steps that unfold and explain complex theories of memory and forgetting. The authors cover a wide range of representative phenomena about when memory works and when it fails. The book delves into the neuroscience of memory and effects of aging at one end, strategies for improving memory at the other, and many key topics in between. I want this book for my memory course, and for my family and friends who are curious about how memory works.
Everyone knows how memory works, we have our own experiences of remembering and forgetting to go on. But the science of memory, as Budson and Kensinger engagingly recount, teaches us so much more—how it really works and how it doesn't. And how this scientifically grounded knowledge enriches our understanding of our own minds.
the book is worth the time for anyone wanting a better understanding of how memory works. Recommended. All readers.
