| Details | | Publication Date: | 1998-01-01 |
| Size | | Length: | 331 pages | | Height: | 8.8 in | | Width: | 6.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 18.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
Fascinating science blends with engaging prose in this highly entertaining exploration of how memory works-- and how to make it work better.In this extraordinary book, scientist Rebecca Rupp explains how and why memory works the way it does. What are the chemical processes that occur in the brain when we remember--and how do they account for the "absentminded" or "steel trap" qualities in an individual? Rupp also tackles topics that have been the subject of intense public debate. She examines the concepts of repressed and fantasized memories, such as ones of alien abduction: are they the result of horrifying experiences that have been shunted off into the depths of the unconscious? Or are they fantastic constructs of the human mind? Memory decays with awful rapidity, and a vital aspect of the study of memory is its loss. Why does memory change as we grow older? How can we improve our ability to remember, and how can we keep forgetfulness at bay? Committed to Memory features useful memory-improving techniques and tricks to remember essential information. Learn to defeat that common bugbear of memory, the forgetting of proper names; pick up a quick trick for remembering telephone numbers; and find out how to enrich your mind (and impress your friends and colleagues) by memorizing lengthy poems. Tips like these lend a practical edge to this illuminating voyage through a largely uncharted realm.HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED . . . Why you can remember your first date but not what you had for lunch last Tuesday? What slugs, bugs, and squirrels have to tell us about human memory? Why we cant remember people's names? How the smell of pine trees or buttered popcorn can help you remember? Why dieting may make you forget? Why practice makes perfect? How a spell of the moody blues can affect your memory? Why dreaming may help us to remember?
In this book, scientist Rebecca Rupp explains how and why memory works the way it does. What are the chemical processes that occur in the brain when we remember - and how do they account for the "absentminded" or "steel trap" qualities in an individual? Rupp also tackles topics that have been the subject of intense public debate. She examines the concepts of repressed and fantasized memories, such as ones of alien abduction: are they the result of horrifying experiences that have been shunted off into the depths of the unconscious? Or are they fantastic constructs of the human mind? Memory decays with awful rapidity, and a vital aspect of the study of memory is its loss. Why does memory change as we grow older? How can we improve our ability to remember, and how can we keep forgetfulness at bay? Committed to Memory features useful memory-improving techniques and tricks to remember essential information.
Industry Reviews
An ant's brain is smaller than a grain of salt, but ants have superb memories that permit them to recognize each other by body odor; elephants do, indeed, seldom forget; and the French surgeon Paul Broca attempted to demonstrate that the brains of Frenchmen are larger than those of Germans (owing, he thought, to the Germans' proclivity for beer versus the French taste for wine) although the implications of this were uncertain for its effect on memory. In this collection of brief essays on memory and the brain, scientist-writer Rupp (Everything You Never Learned About Birds) offers a sprightly m?lange of entertaining, easily digested bites of science, legend, myth, jokes and stories of little-known and famous political, literary, religious, scientific and otherwise historic figures. Her many quotations from Homer and Shakespeare to Toscanini are collectors' items. "Through memory," writes Rupp, "we shape our characters, build our careers, forge our relationships and write our mental autobiographies, the unique and irreplaceable histories of ourselves." Her explanations of the scientific history of brain studies are lucid, and she makes an exciting story of the functions and malfunctions of memory. (Jan.)
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