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Memory Makes Sense: Why You Remember, Forget and Rewrite the Past
Your memory feels like a recording of the past. It isn't.
Every day, your mind remembers faces, conversations, places and experiences while quietly forgetting countless other details. Some memories remain vivid for decades. Others disappear within minutes. And sometimes the memories we feel most certain about are not quite as accurate as they seem.
Memory Makes Sense explores the fascinating psychology behind why we remember, why we forget, and why remembering is far more creative than simply pressing play on a recording.
Daniel May takes you inside the science of human memory, from attention and encoding to working memory, forgetting, eyewitness testimony, emotion, sleep, déjà vu and autobiographical memory. Along the way, you'll discover why memories can change after they are formed, why confidence does not always guarantee accuracy, how sleep influences what survives, and why forgetting is sometimes a useful feature rather than a failure.
Written for curious readers rather than specialists, Memory Makes Sense turns decades of psychological research into clear, engaging explanations of something you use every moment of your life.
Memory is fallible, flexible and constantly changing.
Once you understand why, even forgetting starts to make sense.
Every day, your mind remembers faces, conversations, places and experiences while quietly forgetting countless other details. Some memories remain vivid for decades. Others disappear within minutes. And sometimes the memories we feel most certain about are not quite as accurate as they seem.
Memory Makes Sense explores the fascinating psychology behind why we remember, why we forget, and why remembering is far more creative than simply pressing play on a recording.
Daniel May takes you inside the science of human memory, from attention and encoding to working memory, forgetting, eyewitness testimony, emotion, sleep, déjà vu and autobiographical memory. Along the way, you'll discover why memories can change after they are formed, why confidence does not always guarantee accuracy, how sleep influences what survives, and why forgetting is sometimes a useful feature rather than a failure.
Written for curious readers rather than specialists, Memory Makes Sense turns decades of psychological research into clear, engaging explanations of something you use every moment of your life.
Memory is fallible, flexible and constantly changing.
Once you understand why, even forgetting starts to make sense.
95 pages, Paperback
Published September 14, 2026
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