We Are What We Remember
Memory is an intrinsic part of our life experience. It is critical for learning, and without memories we would have no sense of self. Understanding why some memories stick better than others, as well …
Memory is an intrinsic part of our life experience. It is critical for learning, and without memories we would have no sense of self. Understanding why some memories stick better than others, as well …
We are not taught how to learn in school, we are taught how to pass tests. The spacing effect is a far more effective way to learn and retain information that works with our brain instead of against …
Our desire to justify our actions and believe we’ve always done the right thing can lead us to distort our view of reality. We prefer preserving our self-image to seeing the truth. Here’s how to let …
In 1956 George Miller, a Princeton University psychologist, set out an important principle that you’ve probably heard of in a paper titled “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two.” Miller revived …
You probably know that Gutenberg invented the printing press. You probably know it was pretty important. You may have heard some stuff about everyone being able to finally read the Bible without a …
To get smarter, we need to exercise our cognitive powers – in the same way that we strengthen our bodies by exercising our muscles. To do this, we need to put ourselves in rich and varied …
“When information goes ‘in one ear and out the other,’ it’s often because it doesn’t have anything to stick to.” — Joshua Foer *** That’s a quote from the book Moonwalking with …
(Purchase a copy of the entire 3-part series in one sexy PDF for $3.99) *** In the first two parts of our series on memory, we covered four major “sins” committed by our memories: …
(Purchase a copy of the entire 3-part series in one sexy PDF for $3.99) *** In part one, we began a conversation about the trappings of the human memory, using Daniel Schacter’s excellent The …
(Purchase a copy of the entire 3-part series in one sexy PDF for $3.99) *** Recently, we discussed some of the net advantages of our faulty, but incredibly useful, memory system. Thanks to …
[This introduction is the first of a four-part series on memory. Also see Chatper One, Two, and Three on the challenges of memory.] The Harvard psychologist Daniel Schacter has some brilliant insights …
Mike Ebersold is a neurosurgeon. In neurosurgery and indeed life there is an essential kind of learning that only comes from reflection on personal experience. In the book Make It Stick: The Science …
How can we bring our knowledge to bear on a problem? Does this resemble how we accumulate knowledge in the first place? A thoughtful passage by David Gelernter in Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software …
Software memory is increasingly doing more and more for us. Yet it lacks one important element of human memory: emotion. This thought-provoking excerpt comes from Mirror Worlds: or the Day Software …
Memories are the stories that we tell ourselves about the past. Sometimes they adjust and leave things out. In an interesting passage in Think: Why You Should Question Everything, Guy P. Harrison …
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, a book by Daniel Levitin, explores “how humans have coped with information and organization from the beginning of …