SEVEN SINS OF MEMORY --- HOW THE MIND FORGETS AND REMEMBERS
by Daniel L. Schacter. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001
    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (pvii-viii)

    INTRODUCTION --- a blessing bestowed by the gods (p1-11)

        We tend to think of memories as snapshots from family albums that, if stored properly, could be retrieved in precisely the same condition in which they were put away. But we now know that we do not record our experiences the way a camera records them. (p9)

        Our memories work differently. (p9)

        We extract key elements from our experiences and store them. We then recreate or reconstruct our experiences rather than retrieve copies of them. (p9)

        Sometimes, in the process of reconstructing we add on feelings, beliefs, or even knowledge we obtained after the experience. In other words, we bias our memories of the past by attributing to them emotions or knowledge we acqauired after the event. (p9)

        Why have our memory systems come to exhibit bothersome and sometimes dangerous properties? Do the seven sins of memory represent mistakes made by Mother Nature during the course of evolution? Probably not. To the contrary, each of the seven sins of memory is a by-product of otherwise desirable and adaptive features of the human mind. (p6)

        Consider by analogy the ancient seven deadly sins of pride, anger, envy, greed, gluttony, lust, and sloth, which each have great potential to get you into trouble. Yet each of the seven ancient deadly sins can be seen as an exaggeration of traits that are useful and sometimes necessary for survival. (p6)

        This book argues for a similar approach to the seven memory sins. Rather than portraying them as inherent weaknesses or flaws in system design, they provide a window on the adaptive strengths of memory. The seven sins of memory allow you to appreciate why memory works as well as it does most of the time, and why it evolved the design that it has. Although the focus of this book is on the problems that the seven sins of memory cause in everyday life, it shows why memory is mainly a reliable guide to your past and your future even though it can let you down in annoying but revealing ways. (p6)

      1) The sin of transience (p11-40)

        [1] When memory fades (p13-16)

        [2] Forgetting Monica (p16-19)

        [3] The boomers' lament (p19-22)

        [4] Witnessing the birth of a memory (p23-27)

        [5] The first seconds after perception (p27-31)

        [6] After the first few seconds (p31-34)

        [7] Reducing transcience (p34-40)

      2) The sin of absent-mindedness (p41-60)

      3) The sin of blocking (p61-87)

      4) The sin of misattribution (p88-111)

      5) The sin of suggestibility (p112-137)

      6) The sin of bias (p138-160)

      7) The sin of persistence (p161-183)

      8) The seven sins --- vices or virtues? (p184-206)

    NOTES (p207-229)

    BIBLIOGRAPHY (p230-258)

    INDEX (p259-272)

    PHOTO --- Author Daniel L. Shacter, Chairman of the Psychology Department at Harvard, with praise for earlier book, Serching for Memory (p273)
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