The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers

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Summary: "A Memory Expert Explains Our Sometimes Imperfect Memory"
Review: "The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers", ISBN 0-6518-04019-6 (H/C), Houghton Mifflin, 2001 is a 206 page treatise by accomplished author Daniel L. Schacter.

We are given an enticing introduction that is a snapshot of the 8 chapters which follow, the first 7 dealing with the seven sins: Transience, Absent-mindedness, Blocking, Misattribution, Suggestibility, Bias, and Persistence. The final chapter "...Vices or Virtues?" is a grand climateric which reviews the intrinsic(s) of each virtue and a discourse on origin of memory sins: whether collosal blunder by Mother Nature or a by-product of otherwise adaptive features of memory and in which the best explanations might be explored utilizing "reverse-engineering" theorizing.

The book both is and is not a teaching text: it may be read for general concept but also reaches into deeper levels of cognitive processes which may invoke tedious but pleasureable ratiocination. The case of mnemonist Shereshevski whose virtual (near total) recall of everything, significant and insignificant, precluded his ability to function at an abstract level gives us pause.

Sources of these memory pecadilloes is discussed as adaptive (adaptation), exaption (SJG), and spandrel, where the faux pas are not mere nuisances, and where memory links our past with the present and is available for future reference. Again, though the book reads easily, there is an enormous wealth of data and tentative assumptions which causes us to ruminate with weighty passion; and, if we are so disposed, to ponder the wither of memory and its various modes of rigidity, plasticity, and specious nature - and shown to vary betwixt the sexes and within the sexes. The author provokes us to mull these issues and so try to grasp the delicate wonderment of memory and those old ghost glories again to rise.

An error to be pointed out to the reader lies on page 182 which states "-the beta-blocker propanolol - that prevents the release of stress-related hormone." should read "...that prevents the action of stress-related hormone."

The book has sundry good features including 21 pages of notes, 26 pages of significant bibliography, and 14 page index written by seasoned writer of 8 prior books on memory. It is highly recommended and I believe it will improve your memory also.

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Summary: facinating
Review: As a frequent reader of popular science, I appreciate the ability of Dr. Schacter to clearly elucidate his points. He smoothly interweaves laboratory results with everyday examples to illuminate his 'seven sins'.
The only minor quibble that I might have is the fact that I didn't really find that his examination of memory cleanly fit into 7 categories. There was a lot of overlap between the items - I'd guess he divided it this way merely to have a clever title for the book.
But that observation is more than offset by the quality of his writing. He was able to summarize the current scientific understanding of memory into a book that is easily understandable to the layman.

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Summary: Interesting for Scientific and Popular Readers Alike
Review: As a graduate student who studies human memory (and its errors), I picked up this book as a "fun read" to suppliment my academic curiosity. While I am familar with much of the research Dr. Schacter summerizes in this book, I never found the text "too dumbed down" for my taste. In fact, I found it to be a very enjoyable read and discovered many new studies I was previously not familar with. At the same time, I do not think this book is too technical for the average educated reader that may not be familar with memory or even psychological research. Dr. Schacter's book provides an interesting framework for considering many of the everyday (and not so everyday) problems with memory. By combining research from psychology and neuroscience, with anecdotes from popular culture and history "The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers" gives a complete overview that is both stimulating and entertaining.

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Summary: An excellent primer on memory
Review: Daniel Schacter's book, The Seven Sins of Memory, is an excellent starting point for those interested in learning more about current human memory research. It succeeds as a wonderful introduction for three reasons: (a) it is accessible -- you don't need a degree in Psychology to understand it (b) it surveys the key players in the field -- make no mistake, this is a book that backs up its claims and conjectures with summaries of results from top researchers, and (c) it is short -- at just over 200 pages, there is absolutely no fluff. The author looks into 7 faults of memory, including transience, persistence, misattribution, bias, blocking and absent-mindedness. There is also a wonderful section at the end where the author tries to tie everything together and ponder why we have these faults: for example, are they evolutionary (ie, as a result of survival of the fittest)? This last part is a nice section, and quite daring, even if you decide that you don't agree with the author.

Having gotten my undergrad degree in Cognitive Science several years ago, I now work in the computer industry. When I passed by the book in a local bookstore, I thought it'd be fun to revist my past studies. Not only did Dr. Schacter refresh my knowledge of the eyewitness studies of Loftus, the work on memory by Robert and Elizabeth Bjork (both of whom are excellent instructors, btw), and the theories of McLelland and Anderson, he provided a wealth of summaries about other researchers and up-to-date studies. This is really a book that any undergrad in Psych or Cognitive Sci should read, yet it is easily accessible for all.

As far as problems, there are only a few. One is the title: I'm not sure why the author chooses to term the memory faults he describes as "sins". Maybe it makes the book sound more intriguing -- I would have rather he called them "faults". The only other problem that comes to mind is that some of the explanations for why we cannot remember do not address other motives. For example, at one point in the book, the author theorizes about why people cannot recall certain "unpleasant" incidents (such as a rejection or poor performance on a test). In addition to the explanations provided, I think it would have been worthwhile to investigate an obvious other motive: pride. Some people choose not to acknowledge unpleasant incidents in the past because it hurts their ego. That's not a case of faulty memory, but rather a deliberate choice to avoid the truth.

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Summary: Finding Faults, and Praising Them
Review: Everyone, even young people, has suffered the frustration of an imperfect memory. What does not get acknowledged is that those frustrations, as common as they are, are only frustrating because they are so uncommon. Most of the time our memories function incredibly well. But as in most of neuroscience, when the brain doesn't function well, that's when we get a picture of what it is doing. A fascinating book, _The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers_ (Houghton Mifflin) by Daniel L. Schacter, details just how memory goes wrong, and gives some answers about why. Most important, it tells how at least some of memory's mistakes are directly related to it's remarkable, almost error-free, functioning. Schacter is a neuropsychologist who has written about memory in both academic and popular publications, but his descriptions of the seven ways memory fails are novel, and everyone will recognize at least some of the failures, since they are universal.

Schacter devotes a chapter to each of the sins, like transience, absentmindedness, and so on. There is a chapter on the sin of blocking. We have a phrase for it: "It's on the tip of my tongue." This one is so universal that of fifty-one languages surveyed, forty-five have a similar phrase (the Cheyenne translates to "I have lost it on my tongue."). It is far more likely to happen when you are trying to remember someone's name; remembering Mr. Baker is much harder to remember than the word "baker" because Mr. Baker designates one individual, whereas "baker" designates a well known range of activities and products. One of the traps people fall into is while trying to retrieve a tip-of-the-tongue word, they find a sound-alike word and keep hitting on that, which delays finding the target word.

There is lots that can go wrong with memory, and Schacter presents amazing clinical cases, like the man who had no capacity to remember anyone's name while he could remember other things without difficulty, to show specific and extreme problems. But in the final chapter of the book Schacter reports that these sins are not design flaws, not products of a basically defective system. He uses (but does not over-use) evolutionary biology to show that brains have made trade-offs to produce a useful working system that will quite naturally fail in some instances. It might be handy to remember absolutely everything, but then our minds would be too crowded to do other things efficiently; there have been cases of people who formed memories of virtually everything that happened to them, and were so inundated with details they could not function in the real world. The brain is made to forget things it does not use regularly. You can read this book and become more forgiving about your own forgetfulness and others; Schacter's readable, fascinating account will make you admire just how well your faulty memory works.

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Summary: Boggling stuff about how our minds remember & forget!
Review: Just like the seven deadly sins, the seven memory sins appear routinely in everyday life. How does transcience reflect a weakening of memory over time, how does absent-mindedness occur when failure of attention sabotages memory & how blocking happens when we can't retrieve a name we know well.

What startled me about Daniel L. Schacter's point of view is his re-casting of the mold of sin. We all have it that sins are dreadful things that lurk around every corner just waiting to mug us. This researcher-cum-author posits otherwise. You will learn about the biology of memory, the difference between brain & mind, forgetfulness & remembering &, which is perhaps the most novel aspect of this book: discover another way of perceiving "sin".

There are The Three Sins of Omission: 1) transcience - here today/gone tomorrow. 2) absent-mindedness - if my head wasn't attached to my neck I'd lose it. 3) blocking - ah, this one is hellatious, especially for a writer!

Then there are the Four Sins of Commission: 4) misattribution - you never really said that! 5) suggestibility - like the 'flu, these can be pernicious & withering. 6) bias - how our current knowledge & beliefs color how we remember. 7) persistence - recalling disturbing events or information we wish we wouldn't.

Oh, before I forget, this author game me a fascinating & humorous eInterview. What a mind-boggling read! Delightful? Yes, indeed. Well written? Certainly! Interesting? Definitely! Understandable? Readable? Memorable? Eminently so!

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Summary: Memory fallout
Review: My undertaking of "The Seven sins of Memory" was more of an intellectual curiosity than for a scientific research. In this endeavor David Schacter made me more aware of the workings of memory. His work is divided into eight chapters; the first seven dedicated to a specific lacking which he calls sin and the eight to the virtues and vices of memory.

Transience: A sin of loosing memory over time. It may be a vice if one forgets information at a crucial time; but it can work as a gift, for remembering every event with vivid detail would clutter the thinking process. To prevent loosing key data Schacter suggests using visual mnemonics to elaborate on information they wish to remember.

Absent Mindedness: A sin committed when we are devoting our mental resources to more important things like wrestling with a personal dilemma or pre-occupied with an urgent task. Insufficient attention paid at the time of encoding is an important contributor to absent-mindedness.

Blocking: the phrase "It is at the tip of my tongue" a key indicator to this sin. Information that has not been encountered recently is susceptible to blocking. Names are especially susceptible to be blocked. Encountering a person activates both the conceptual and lexical representation for that person and this strengthens their interconnection. If we don't see a person for some time the link is weakened. Name blocking is more common than objects, as objects can be described in multiple levels for e.g., Honda, Accord, Sedan, car automobile, vehicle etc.

Misattribution: a sense of déjà vu. A strong sense of general familiarity, together with an absence of specific recollections, adds up to a lethal recipe for misattribution.

Suggestibility: Relates to an individuals tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources, other people, sources, media, pictures into personal re-collections. Emotional stress, combined with social pressure and suggestion, could distract memory to the point at which people falsely believe they had committed a crime.

Bias: refers to influences of our present knowledge, belief and feeling on new experiences or memories of them.

Persistence: is strongly linked with our emotional lives the relationship between emotion and memory are key. Emotionally charged incidents are better remembered than non-emotional events. Hence these events are remembered and persist over time.

On the whole it was easy read. One does not need a medical or psychology degree to understand the message. I liked the fact that Schacter has included numerous experiments and examples to explain his theories.

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Summary: Entertaining, as far as I recall.
Review: Now, what was I going to say? Oh yes, no more corny humor! An entertaining, informative and well-written read on just how memory can fail us. Illustrated with amusing anecdotes like those of a former US National Memory Champion who's absent minded. Helps to distinguish between seemingly similar but quite distinct flaws of memory. Seeks to emphasize that these flaws are not leftovers or design flaws but a direct consequence of how memory functions. Offers some basic advice on how to minimize them.

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Summary: A sin if you do not read!
Review: One of the best books I have ever read. It is a topic that that is relevant to every human being. This book has made me aware of the numerous shortcomings and amazing power of our memories and explains the causes. After reading this book I now think twice about insisting on something I am "sure" of. Although I am not in the legal profession I imagine this book could be essential reading for many in the legal profession and in particular trial lawyers. Fascinating!

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Summary: Well written but neither a good reference nor full overview
Review: Schacter's book certainly intrigued me. 'Groundbreaking work'... 'first framework'... Unfortunately the reality of the book is far from the snippets on the back cover.

First the good. Essentially Schacter illustrates his 7 sins in a one-sin per chapter style. He describes the sin, illustrates it, often discusses ways to avoid it when necessary, etc. I found he resorted to a few too many anecdotes instead of actual research. Then his last chapter puts forward a 'not-so-groundbreaking' idea that these supposed sins may be either needed or useful from an evolutionary standpoint. The 'sins' he chooses to acknowledge are transience (the fact that we forget over time), absent-mindedness (forgetting due to a failure of attention [often attributed to WM overload, the absent-minded professor], blocking(forgetting of the 'just out of reach type' *G*, misattribution, suggestibility, bias and persistence (that damn tune!).

Unfortunately, Schacter can't seem to decide on the raison d'etre for this book. Is it a self-help guide, a review of recent literature, a medium for advancing a theory? This indecision results in a book that does none of these particularly well. All of the pleasant writing you can fit in 206pgs doesn't leave you feeling like you have a much better understanding of the field.

What annoyed me was the subtitle. With a subtitle like 'How the mind forgets and remembers', I'm afraid I have to conclude that this book does an injustice to the vast field of memory research.

Final word? What does Schacter accomplish?
He points out a few well-known memory problems that everyone can relate to and talks loosely about what researchers think about them. Keep that in mind, and it's worth a looksy at the paperback.