The science of learning is still undecided on the question of whether we all share Shereshevsky’s ability to memorise virtually everything we ever have encountered, but are only better at suppressing it. After all, sometimes we suddenly remember scenes from the past in great detail, triggered by a cue like the scent of a madeleine in Proust’s recherche. These moments of involuntary memory might be like small cracks in the mental barrier through which we can catch a glimpse of all the memories we have collected over our lifetimes, but might never again have access to. Forgetting, then, would
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