Photos by Lee Pellegrini
Explaining the science behind memory and memory loss鈥攊ncluding why forgetting is a crucial property of memory, as well as strategies that help people remember better鈥攊s the subject of a new book co-authored by Professor and Chair of Psychology and Neuroscience Elizabeth A. Kensinger.
In Why We Forget and How to Remember Better: The Science Behind Memory, Kensinger and Boston University Professor of Neurology Andrew E. Budson, M.D., examine how memories exist in the short term and how they get stored for longer-term access, Kensinger said. The book explains how memory influences our behavior without our awareness, underscoring the fact that what and how we remember influences everything from our social relationships to the decisions we make on a daily basis.
鈥淲hen most of us talk about our memory, we are referring to our ability to bring specific past events to mind,鈥� said Kensinger. 鈥淏ut memory is so much more than that, encompassing all the ways our past experiences influence our current thoughts and behavior.
鈥淓veryone relies on memory, for everything from remembering how to type, to navigating a familiar environment, to remembering a favorite dish at a restaurant,鈥� said Kensinger. 鈥淵et most of us are also surprised by how our memory works鈥攕ometimes we are pleasantly surprised by what we鈥檝e managed to remember, and other times we are frustrated by what we鈥檝e forgotten.鈥�
Elizabeth Kensinger
Memory is an active and cyclical process, Kensinger said, analogous to building a structure out of blocks.
鈥淎s you experience an event, you鈥檙e representing different features of the event in different regions of the brain; one portion of your brain is representing the sounds, another the sights, another the emotions,鈥� she said. 鈥淎 particular region of your brain, the hippocampus, is serving as the tape that binds those blocks together, and that stores the blueprints for how to later rebuild that memory structure.鈥�
When we need to access that memory, we have to use the blueprints for that structure to actively rebuild memory, she said.
鈥淭hinking of memory in this way can help to understand how memory errors and omissions can arise. It鈥檚 easy to grab an incorrect block, perhaps one that should be in another memory structure, or to omit a set of blocks that might change the overall structure or interpretation of a past event.鈥�
Kensinger and Budson discuss memory as a cycle because, as individuals rebuild a memory, they鈥檙e likely to update it with current information鈥攕uch as, has a friend changed their appearance by growing a beard, or cutting their hair? Once updated or modified, these revised blueprints are stored again.
鈥淚n this way, memory is a continually changing representation; it is not a static representation of the past,鈥� said Kensinger.
At a time of increased attention to memory and brain health, Why We Forget examines a range of cognitive issues that affect people on a daily basis: changes that accompany normal aging, Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, and other disorders鈥攊ncluding COVID brain fog.
As they incorporated their own findings, as well as the body of research on the subject, the co-authors were surprised to discover that memory is not really about the past.
鈥淢emory can be thought of as a powerful source of data that the brain can use to make sense of the present moment and to make predictions about the future,鈥� Kensinger said. 鈥淢emory holds onto the features that are going to be the most useful pieces of data for the brain to use for these purposes. Most of the time, those features don鈥檛 include very specific details about an experience but rather are broader representations of the gist or general concept of what happened.鈥�
Why We Forget and How to Remember Better offers evidence-based lessons and strategies readers can use to improve their memory, including:
鈥ays to control what you remember and what you forget
鈥ays to distinguish between a true and false memory
鈥ffective methods to study for an exam
鈥ow exercise, nutrition, alcohol, cannabis, sleep, mindfulness, and music affect memory
鈥ow to remember people鈥檚 names, 50 digits of Pi, and anything else you desire
鈥淲e hope that by reading this book, individuals will come to understand their memories in a broader way and will benefit from science-backed strategies to minimize unwanted forgetting,鈥� said Kensinger.
Ed Hayward | University Communications | March 2023