Remembering Reconsidered: Ecological and Traditional Approaches to the Study of Memory

Emory Symposia in Cognition

by Ulric Neisser (Editor), Eugene Winograd (Editor)

Remembering Reconsidered, the new ecologically-oriented study of memory, makes contact with more traditional approaches. The problems considered by the authors include memory for randomly selected daily events, for folk ballads, for early childhood experiences, for thoughts, for events known secondhand, for knowledge acquired years before and subjected to "reminding" in the laboratory, and for a variety of stimuli presented with theoretical questions in mind. The theme unifying the contributions, which is developed by the editors in their separate introductory chapters, is concerned with the adaptive significance of memory in daily life together with careful analysis of the variables on which it depends.

404 pages, Hardcover

First published June 24, 1988

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's refreshing to read academic writing outside one's usual purview, because one needn't grasp every jargon-laden sentence, nor pay much attention to the statistical process. This book provided an interesting snapshot of memory research in the late 1980s. I read more pop neuroscience than cognitive psychology, so I was impressed by the variety and creativity of approaches that these scholars must use to "capture" our tricksy memories. I especially enjoyed Katherine Nelson's "The ontogeny of memory for real events," which analyzed the recorded bedtime conversations and monologues of a child named Emily from the time she was 21 months old until she was 3 years old. Infantile amnesia (not remembering much from before 3 yrs of age) is a fascinating entry point for learning more about human memory in general.

A few quotes for my own remembering. Bracketed text is mine, for clarification.

p.320-21 (Spence, "Passive Remembering") "Wollheim makes the distinction between 'the tyranny of the past and the tyranny of something that began in the past and has persisted,' and I think we may experiencce much more of the second....We may feel that we are haunted by particular moments that occur to us [in memory] over and over, but careful study of these 'repetitions' will show, I think, that there are gradual changes over time and that these changes are rule-governed."

p.345 (Larsen, "Remembering without Experiencing") "Memories of reported events are born with a shadow, so to speak; there is a duality of the original event and its personal context [of receiving the report]."