Understanding the Flaws and Fabrications of Memory

by Steven Novella

Audible Audio

Published March 2, 2012

Reviews

[Lily P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Audible)
Great Courses Lecture

Memory is not a computer drive or a vault of record. Every time we remember something we are actually "re programming" that memory and filing it away again revised with nuances of detail, emotion, and impact.

Tackles the thorny issue of false memories and how they can be manipulated. While that is concerning, it also raises the issue that when we hang on to traumatic memories, or memories of negative experiences and encounters, we are reinvesting in that experience over and over again.
We have the power to realign memory and focus on gratitude, empathy, compassion, and forgiveness by sitting with difficult memories and finding these threads, focusing on them and adding them to the narrative in our memory.

Recommend

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 30 minute lecture from the Great Courses series "Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills". I already knew most of this material. I had seen the PBS Nova episode "Memory Hackers". (You can find clips of the show on YouTube.) Nevertheless, I liked this lecture. Memory is not really remembered. It is reconstructed, and then placed back in your memory like a new memory. This introduces the problem of modifying a memory and then being absolutely sure one remembered it just that way.

I'll listen to this lecture again, no doubt.