The Seven Sins of Memory

Author: Daniel L. Schacter

Overview

This book is an expert exploration of the mysteries of memory – how it works and, more importantly, how it fails. The book lucidly discusses the neuroanatomical correlates of memory and what the author strikingly refers to as its sins. Written by a professor of psychology at Harvard University, the book’s contents are eminently matched by his engaging prose. Whilst the book focuses on the practical dimensions of the failure of memory, it also describes the concepts that drive the physiological mechanisms of memory. For example, the author provides a simplified depiction of the phonological loop, what he said is ‘the system which orchestrates the flow of information into and out of long term memory’. It also addresses such concepts as prospective memory, how we remember to perform future actions (page 29).

Synopsis

The failings of memory that the book explores seem to emerge from the fundamental vulnerability of how memories are formed. Pointing out that memory is not stored as a video recording to be replayed when needed, but that it is reconstructed each time we remember. The author emphasised how this storage and retrieval process is extremely prone to error, and how it may be influenced by factors such as feelings and beliefs (page 9).

Of the seven sins of memory that the book discusses, perhaps the one most people can relate to is that of transience or forgetting. In a discussion that covers the different types of memory, the author demonstrated that we forget about 60% of what we learn within nine hours, a phenomenon that correlates with the concept of Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. The author however reassured that transience may be mitigated by measures such as rehearsal, cues and hints. Another major sin, of everyday concern for many people, is that of absent-mindedness. In exploring this sin of memory, the author referred to the factors that drive it, for example divided attention and automatic behaviour,

A similarly common and embarrassing failing of memory the book explores is that of blocking, better known as the tip of the tongue phenomenon – something the author said happens more frequently with proper names. In explaining why people may not be able to retrieve a word we want to use, the book used the metaphor of how the ‘ugly sisters’, words that are similar to the desired ones, which come to mind more readily. The author also explained how these words may go on to perpetuate the block, and helpfully, how ‘self-cueing strategies’ that may overcome the problem (page 72).

Whilst many of the failing of memory the book discusses have only benign consequences, this is not the case with some of the other sins. For example, the consequences of sin of misattribution, assigning a memory to the wrong source, are perhaps self-evident. In exploring the serious repercussions of this memory failing, the author noted that it may cause people to ‘remember events that never happened’, or ‘recall correctly what happened, but misattribute it to the wrong time or place’. Related to this is phenomenon is when memories of different events are merged together, a concept the author called ‘memory binding’. Equally concerning is the sin of suggestibility, when false memories emerge from external suggestion, and the book discusses the impact of this on the criminal justice system, and its serious implications in the assessment of allegations of abuse (page 90).

Another sin with profound consequences on healthcare decision-making is that of bias, and the author illustrated this with the examples of the well-known hindsight bias, and the less familiar egocentric bias – remembering in such a way that we preserve our sense of self-esteem. Also relevant to healthcare is the sin is of persistence, a memory failing that the author discussed in the context of post-traumatic states.

OPINION

With a very catchy title and an attractive cover, this books reviews the major flaws of memory. These flaws which the author aptly calls ‘sins’ have grave consequences and the book explores these comprehensively. I thoroughly enjoyed the book not only for the insight it gives to personal memory failures, but for highlighting the unreliability of memory in clinical practice. The book is extensively researched and gives an in-depth understanding of the working of memory. The author discusses complex issues in a way that lay readers can easily appreciate. He gives practical examples of how memory fails, and does so with a very engaging writing style.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Doctors rely on memory probably more so than many other professions. We need to consider the different fallibilities of memory anytime we take a history from our patients. Awareness of the fallibility of memory is a call to pause every time we think we remember a treatment or a procedure. The book offers redemption for these common sins and I recommend it.

BOOK DETAILS

• Publisher, place and year: Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 2002
• Number of chapters: 8
• Pages: 272
• ISBN: 0-618-04019-6
• Rating. 5 stars
• Other related book by author: Searching for Memory