Memory
People seem to be intrigued by memory, and by its sometimes spectacular failure in (for example) people with amnesia. However, students of memory sometimes fail to retain this fascination. The reason is clear: in order to study memory we must carry out carefully-designed experiments, which can seem boring even when they are exciting science. Fortunately, we now know enough about memory to relate laboratory studies to the world beyond. In other words, our scientific knowledge of memory and how it works can help us to explain those aspects of memory that most people find of greatest interest. This book presents a thorough, accessible and appealing overview of the field, written with students in mind, by some of the world's leading researchers. It starts with a brief overview and explanation of the scientific approach to memory before going on to discuss the basic characteristics of the various memory systems and how they work. Summaries of short-term and working memory are followed by chapters on learning, the role of organization in memory, the ways in which our knowledge of the world is stored, retrieval, and on intentional and motivated forgetting. The latter half of the book involves the broader application of our basic understanding of memory, with chapters on autobiographical memory, amnesia, and on memory in childhood and aging.
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What Hacker News says
- This is a common misconception not supported by scientific evidence.
What experimental psychology and neuroscience research has found is that the better people memorize topics, the better they understand and reason about them.
For those interested, this book has the best compilation I've seen of such research: https://www.amazon.com/Memory-Alan-Baddeley/dp/1138326097
Edit: Of course, you can memorize things without any effort to understand. But if you are making these efforts, having an efficient and effective memorization technique can help a LOT.
- - Baddeley, Alan, Michael W. Eysenck, and Michael C. Anderson. Memory. NY: Psychology Press, 2009.
- Cat, Jordi. "On Understanding: Maxwell on the Methods of Illustration and Scientific Metaphor" Studies In History and Philosophy of Science Part B32, no. 3 (2001): 395-441
- Derman, Emanuel. Models of Behaving Badly. New York, NY: Free Press, 2011
- Foer, J. Moonwalking with Einstein. NY: Penguin, 2011
- Lutzen, Jesper. Mechanistic Images in Geometric Form. NY: Oxford University Press, 2005
- Maguire, E.A., D.G. Gadian, LS. Johnsrude, C.D. Good, J. Ashburner, R.SJ. Frackowiak, and CD. Frith. “Navigatioanelated Structural Change in the Hippocampi of Taxi Drivers.“ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97, no. 8 (2000): 4398-403
- Maguire, E.A., ER. Valentine, J.M. Wilding, and N. Kapur. “Routes to Remembering: The Brains Behind Superior Memory." Nature Neurosciencee, no. 1 (2003): 90-95
- Rocke, AJ. Image and Reality Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2010
- Solomon, Ines. “Analogical Transfer and 'Functional Fixedness' in the Science Classroom." Journal of Educational Researd 87, no. 6 (1994): 371-77
