The Seven Sins Of Memory Updated Edition: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers

by Daniel L. Schacter

By one of the world’s foremost psychologists, a groundbreaking and award-winning study updated for the 20th anniversary with new research that delves into the complex behavior of memory
 

Twenty years ago, The Seven Sins of Memory offered the first framework that explained common memory vices—and their surprising virtues. Now, in this updated edition, Daniel L. Schacter revisits his groundbreaking research with the twenty-first century’s cultural trends and scientific discoveries. How does our ever-increasing reliance on Google, Instagram, and other websites harm our mind’s ability to store and retrieve memories? How has repeated exposure to “fake news” and other false statements increased our bias and made it easier for us to think these statements are true? Exploring the memory miscues that occur in everyday life—absentmindedness, transience, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence—Schacter delves into the striking scientific research, giving us a glimpse of the fascinating neurology of memory. Together, the stories and the scientific results provide a new look at our brains and at what we more generally think of as our minds.

 

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Neuroscience, Brain, Self Help, Health

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Daniel L. Schacter is Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. His research has focused on psychological and biological aspects of human memory and amnesia, with a particular emphasis on the distinction between conscious and nonconscious forms of memory and, more recently, on brain mechanisms of memory distortion. He received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1974, M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1977 and 1981 respectively. His Ph.D. thesis was supervised by Endel Tulving. In 1978, he was a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford's Department of Experimental Psychology. He has also studied the effects of aging on memory. His research uses both cognitive testing and brain imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Schacter has written three books, edited seven volumes, and published over 200 scientific articles and chapters. Schacter publishes regularly in scientific journals. Among the topics that Schacter has investigated are: Alzheimer's Disease, the neuroscience of memory, age-related memory effects, and issues related to false memory. He is widely known for his integrative reviews, including his seminal review of implicit memory in 1987.

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting - if a bit academic, at times - read that was written by Harvard Psychology Department Chair. Since I'm sure you're dying to know, the 7 sins are:
1. Transience (loss of memory over time)
2. Absent-mindedness (forgetting where your car keys are - due to the info never being properly encoded in your memory because you weren't really paying attention)
3. Blocking (inability to retrieve known information such as someone's name, name of a song, etc.)
4. Misattribution (assigning a memory to the wrong source)
5. Suggestibility (implanted memories due to leading questions, comments, or suggestions)
6. Bias (how we unknowingly change our memory of the past to be more consistent with our current beliefs)
7. Persistence (repeated recall of disturbing info or events you would prefer to forget)

Schacter explains how these common foibles can be frustrating and dives into the science of why they happen. While we've all disparaged our memories at one point or another, the 7 sins are a small price to pay for the many times our minds do get it right. Considering the staggering amount of data our minds process every day, it's actually amazing it works as well as it does.

I found the tip of the tongue phenomenon (#3) particularly interesting because you can usually tell another person everything about the thing you're trying to name except its name. The science (phonological vs. lexical cues) was totally new to me and just fascinating. A few other factoids:
* Concerning the sin of misattribution and the unreliability of eyewitness testimony, according to estimates made in the late 1980s, each year in the US more than 75k criminal trials were decided on the basis of eyewitness testimony. A recent analysis of 40 cases in which DNA evidence established the innocence of wrongly imprisoned persons revealed that 36 of them (90%) involved mistaken eyewitness identification.
* Regarding the sin of peristence , propranlol (beta-blockers) can block the usual memory-enhancing effects of emotional arousal that is experienced in traumatic situations. Might we one day see these used for first-responders, military people, emergency workers, etc.
* Women are often regarded as having superior spatial location abilities (i.e. always telling men where they left their keys, where the mustard is in the refrigerator, etc.). Some researchers think this may be due to the fact that during the hunter-gatherer period, when human cognition evolved, women primarily foraged for food while men primarily hunted. Women needed to remember the various food locations they frequented, often embedded with complex vegetations. Men used and developed other spatial skills, but apparently not the ability to see things they're looking for that always right in front of their face (or perhaps that's just my husband!).

Overall, this was a very interesting read - 3.5 stars.

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was much looking forward to reading this, since the concept and workings of memory particularly intrigue me. I had already taken a few courses on the subject, so I had a very basic understanding of the workings of memory and some of the pitfalls/biases. Nothing too much in depth, however, which is why I thought this book might be good both to tie together what I had learned and to find out something new!

Here I was slightly disappointed, however. Although much (much!) research is covered, I felt like it just never hit the kind of depth I was looking for. A friend asked me, just after I read the book, 'what it was about' and I was able to describe to him the 7 sins and the general theme Schacter places them in with little difficulty. This, I think, is both the strength and weakness of the book. It's a very coherent, neat story, and if you haven't studied memory before (like my friend) it is definitely a good start. I applaud the book for this. And, despite the fact that the author's high esteem of himself, Harvard, and other prestigious universities throughly irritated me at times, I would be willing to give it 3 stars.

What robbed the book of that 3rd star, however, was the last chapter - the one beyond the 7 sins - the one attempting to exculpate memory's sins by adopting an evolutionary approach. I'm sorry, but in my maybe-not-so-humble opinion this chapter just should not have been in the book. Schacter should have left it at the neat 7 sin story.

The reason is this: to end the book, which was pretty much complete after the 7th sin for its particular purpose, with an afterthought on evolution as a principle to explain the discrepancy between its apparent positive and negative effects, is a task much too heavy for a small concluding chapter. If Schacter had announced this framework from the beginning of the book, it would have been clearer since the reader could then actively try to integrate the notions within an evolutionary perspective. Now one is left to make sense of it all retrospectively, which is made difficult by the brevity of the chapter and the obvious redundancy of repeating the previous chapters for the sake of relating it to evolutionary theory.

That last chapter is by far the shallowest, at least if you relate it to the prolific debate on evolution. This, while the last chapter is supposed to be overarching and in that sense the most significant, is a letdown. I mean, we're explaining why one of our most prized possessions - memory - which essentially gives us our sense of selfhood, also seems to fail us systematically. Maybe I was expecting some sort of colossal conclusion, in which case my own expectations and desire let me down in part.

I do also think, though, that that last chapter came off as a slightly cheap attempt to latch the book onto the evolutionary debate. The question, "can evolution explain the differential effectiveness of memory in humans" is intriguing and absolutely fundamental to our lives; by reducing it to an afterthought Schacter's book in fact covers 8 sins.

[John Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

We refer to this as one of the "tippingpointblinkfreakanomicsbrainisakludge" books -- one of those books that makes you feel like your brain is filling up -- that gives you insight into how the mind works and -- even better! -- an endless supply of "get outta here" facts that you can share with people. Summarizes classic and state of the art experiments demonstrating the complete and total unreliability of memory! One thing I _think_ learned from this is not to argue about memories -- because memory is so completely unreliable. That alone is worth the price of the book (which is, btw, 88 cents at Goodwill.)

[Satyajeet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schacter approaches his task like a teacher. He focuses on seven problems with memory that have undoubtedly been experienced by the average reader:

1. Transience - Our memories weaken over time.
2. Absent-mindedness - We don't focus on what we need to remember.
3. Blocking - It's in our memory somewhere, but we can't find it.
4. Misattribution - We are wrong about where we learned something.
5. Suggestibility - Other people can "plant" false memories in us.
6. Bias - We rewrite the past with the pen of present beliefs.
7. Persistence - We keep remembering things we'd like to forget.

For each of these problems, he gives understandable examples. In the final chapter, the problems are discussed as a group, and the author states the opinion that these problems are a small price to pay for a memory capability that performs extraordinarily well.

In the early part of the book, there are references to specific functions of the various lobes of the brain and how those lobes may affect the processes of memory. As the discussion moves on to the rest of the “sins”, there are fewer references to objective scientific data, and more references to hypotheses and activity testing of various types. Professor Schacter does a thorough job of referencing the works of other psychologists, and summarizing their opinions.

An informative book, intended for non-technical people who want an overview of the field and a basic understanding of academic progress.

[Isis Cruz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited when I started reading the book, I was looking for something like this. The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers, is a great introductory book for memory concepts. The book has a lot of examples for each “sin”, these allow the reader to understand with common issues anything that may seem like specialized language. But if you are looking for deep and technical explanations about memory and some of its components that can be known as errors, perhaps this is not the right book for you. I see it as a book for people who are introducing themselves to the subject, such as psychology students or anyone who is interested on the topic.

The seven sins, (Transience, Absent-Mindedness, Blocking, Misattribution, Suggestibility, Bias and Persistence) are components of our daily life, like when we forget our keys or when we cannot recall the name of an old classmate. And I think that this feature, that we can all easily identify the 7 sins with multiple examples in our past, makes this book interesting.

On the other hand, the last chapter, for me, has no reason to be. Why? Well, the author tries to introduce an evolutionary discussion in the last moment, and I think it only impoverishes the whole perspective of the book. But there is a part in this chapter that I like and it was when Schacter tried to put the seven sins like virtues and not vices, and I find his perspective very interesting. Schacter highlights: “The seven sins are not merely nuisances to minimize or avoid. They also illuminate how memory draws on the past to inform the present, preserves elements of present experience for future reference, and allow us to revisit the past at will”.

[Adam Irving · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the book can read as slightly outdated due to some of the references (twenty years past) and some of the case references running a little onerous, the book does an excellent job of breaking down and examining different facets and failings of human memory in a very relatable way, while also throwing out the lifeline that maybe these things we think of as failings are maybe there to help us too. A great way to look at the internal workings of the mind, if you're interested.

[Eman Said · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is rated 5 simply because it has valuable information in a very easy and interesting way. You do not get lost in science; on the contrary, you fully understand how the memory works.

[Zeni Perez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t remember any actual helpful information about memory because most of this read like a researcher trying to crack jokes and personal stories

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was pure curiosity that led me to pick up Daniel L. Schacter’s The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers. The title itself was intriguing enough. How can there possibly be seven such sins? Of course, I had fallen into the easy trap of thinking that memory has a binary quality: it is either good at remembering things or it is bad. And “bad” in my simplistic classification scheme lumped everything under the huge umbrella of “forgetfulness.”

Not so, argues Schacter, and proceeds to hook readers with a deep dive into each of the seven sins of memory. He assigns three to sins of omission and the remaining four to sins of commission. Under the first category are transience, absent-mindedness, and blocking; and sins of commission include misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence.

Each sin is thoroughly covered in its own chapter, and it is testimony to Schacter’s writing talent that readers can expect to sail smoothly through the entire book without any disruptive waves or literary hurdles to clear. Even through some of the more complicated explanations of the workings of memory, Schacter does a tactful and sufficient job of hand-holding to enable readers to comfortably navigate the text.

As I read the detail of each sin, I found myself nodding with silent guilt (and shame) at every type of memory failure. The sin of transience, for example, is forgetting with the passing of time. “Perhaps the most pervasive of memory’s sins,” says Schacter, “transience operates silently but continually: the past inexorably recedes with the occurrence of new experiences.” The sin of absent-mindedness, which Schacter says is “both amusing and frightening,” is related to attention and encoding processes at the time of an event. Encoding is vitally important, but if one’s attention is divided among many things (and whose isn’t these days?), absent-mindedness will result.

The sin of blocking quickly became my personal favorite (surely this is a forgivable context in which to admit to a “favorite sin”?) mostly because it renders one into the “tip-of-the-tongue” state, in which a torturous struggle ensues to remember something. Success brings massive relief and elation; failure is accompanied with shame and embarrassment. Schacter says that “blocking often results from a weakened connection between conceptual representations (things you know about a person or object) and phonological representations (the sound of a word or name).

By the end of this deeply absorbing book, I was ready to offer myself to Schacter as a poster child for all seven sins of memory failure. However, in his final chapter, “The Seven Sins: Vices or Virtues?” the author rescues me from that dubious commercial by making a persuasive case for “memory failures” to be reframed as “evolutionary adaptations” (there are also “exaptations” and “spandrels,” but please read the book to learn about these!). In fact, in one way, I’m bold enough to own my memory failures with pride, for without them I feel sure I would mentally implode.

This is a captivating and thought-provoking book, saturated with impressive results of Schacter’s own experimental research, and that of numerous psychologists and neuroscientists over the last century. The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers is yet another fine example of fusing together an important subject with excellent writing, producing a book of twofold value: first, for academicians and practitioners in related disciplines; and second, for satisfying the general public’s appetite for very consumable popular science.

[Sid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertainment value (3 out of 5):
The book mostly held my interest. Many examples that I could relate to, including Men and Women and how they recall memories. Men seem to remember the gist, while women the details.
Knowledge (5 out of 5):
There were a lot of nuggets of wisdom. Repeat to remember. Mnemonic reminders are helpful during encoding information. Proper names are harder to remember because a name has no association to the person.
Writing Style (3 out of 5):
I think the psychological and brain sections of the book were too technical for me. The author could've included more everyday examples to make the novel more entertaining.
Final Takeaway (3.5 out of 5):
The human memory is susceptible to many forms of failure. While Daniel contends there are 7 types of memory vices, he also shows how these can be virtues. Once we are aware of our memory system's shortcomings, we can look to address them one at a time.

[Michal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I forgot to mark this as read.

[Monica Willyard Moen · Rating 4 out of 5]

We tend to see our memories as constant, reliable, and true. In this book, the author asks us to dig deeper to see how our memory actually works.

[Ariana Plummer · Rating 5 out of 5]

super interesting foundational work on memory. not impossible to understand though which was nice

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I skimmed this as it's rather basic for someone with a PhD that focused on memory. It was exciting to see things my work was based on being explained for a lay audience though.

An excellent gen pop book on memory. Of course it's 20 years out of date now, but a large majority of the information is still accurate/relevant. I will definitely be recommending this to anyone who is interested.

[Mehwish · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable insight into how memory works.

According to Schacter, these are the seven sins:
- The sin of Transcience
- The sin of Absent-mindedness
- The sin of Blocking
- The sin of Misattribution
- The sin of Suggestibility
- The sin of Bias
- The sin of Persistence

The first three are irritating and can be combated with straightforward techniques. The next three are problematic, especially in law and can be overcome by being more aware. The last one is the worst one, there is no easy solution to it.

In the last chapter, he situates these sins in evolutionary perspective and suggests that all these memory "glitches" have adaptive value.

I loved the book because there were so many "ahh", "right", "oh! that is why" moments. I was the reader and I was also the subject of the book. I will highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know why we forget names, how we stereotype, why we leave the soap in the fridge and the butter in the soap dish and why the ugly memories are so persistent.

[Moa Sakhay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jag gillar upplägget, det är lätt att få överblick och förstå vad som skiljer dom olika ”minnessynderna” åt. Varje minnesfel har ett eget kapitel där det grundligt beskrivs och sedan styrks av många intressanta studier. Schacter skriver på ett ganska lättsamt sätt och lättar upp texten med olika populärkulturella referenser. Han håller sig dock på rätt sida av fluffet.

En lekman kanske inte har alltför stort intresse av minutiösa beskrivningar av vetenskapliga studier. Om man bara är måttligt intresserad av att lära sig allmänt om minnet så finns det mer lättillgängliga böcker.

[Selen · Rating 5 out of 5]

PROF SCHACTER <3 huge privilege to learn from him and discuss with him!!

[Ravindra Kondekar · Rating 4 out of 5]

My curiosity about this book was sparked by a question rooted in personal productivity: how does memory influence what we manage to accomplish—or fall short on? From forgetting critical tasks to missing meetings or deadlines, memory lapses can quietly sabotage our effectiveness. Reading The Seven Sins of Memory was a rewarding experience. Daniel Schacter presents a clear framework for understanding memory's pitfalls by organizing them into two broad categories: sins of omission and sins of commission. This structure alone makes the book worth reading.

The sins of omission—transience, absentmindedness, and blocking—are particularly relevant to those of us seeking to improve our personal productivity. These sins describe memory failures where information is lost or inaccessible. The sins of commission—misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence—highlight how we can remember things incorrectly, or recall things that never actually happened.

One of Schacter’s most powerful insights is that these “sins” are not flaws in the system—they’re byproducts of memory's adaptive nature. Our brains evolved to remember what’s most useful, not everything. These memory imperfections are trade-offs, side effects of a mind that prioritizes speed, relevance, and flexibility.

Each chapter explores a specific sin with a rich blend of scientific explanation, memorable real-life stories, and practical suggestions. What I found especially fascinating is how each type of memory failure originates in different brain systems—something we often overlook when we lump all “memory problems” together.

The book distinguishes between retrospective memory failures (like forgetting a fact) and prospective ones (like missing a meeting). The former makes us seem forgetful, the latter makes us seem unreliable. To prevent prospective failures, Schacter advises that our reminders should meet two key criteria: they must be informative and available at the time we need them. A vague note like "Call him" may seem obvious in the moment, but becomes useless once the context has faded. Transferring rich detail from working memory into written reminders is essential.

One particularly relevant concept is the sin of blocking. This isn’t simple forgetting—it’s when a memory is there, encoded and stored, but just out of reach. For example, struggling to recall a name even when you can picture the person perfectly. Schacter explains the difference in retrieval paths for common names versus proper names, and how certain mental nodes fail to link up under pressure.

Schacter's writing is scientific yet highly accessible. He doesn’t just diagnose the problems—he offers perspective and strategies. The real value of this book lies in how it redefines the way we think about memory failures—not as signs of problems, but as clues about how our brain prioritizes, stores, and retrieves information.

In short, this book gives you a vocabulary and introduces you to several models to understand the usual memory-related problems around us. This book is for you if you are curious about this unique faculty, which we call memory, that is bestowed upon us, homo sapiens.

[Rory Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently 1 in 6 questions asked in a selection of reviewed Police interviews was potentially ‘suggestive,’ and thus contaminating the memories of witnesses (42%). And apparently teenagers experience (on average) about two incidents per week of having information on the tip of their tongue, which they can’t quite access; while the elderly experience about 4 such incidents per week (26%).

If you are interested in general facts about memory and forgetfulness, as well as a systematic study of the ways in which memory can be unreliable, then this is a book which you will definitely enjoy.

The book focuses upon seven types of memory problems: memory transience, absent mindedness, blocking, mis-attribution, suggestibility, bias and persistence. Each type of memory problem is explained with real world examples and references to cases and incidents. Around 25% of the book consists of footnotes with further information about the issues. This means that each chapter is informative in its own focus, and together they provide a rounded account of what people typically experience as forgetfulness.

There is even an eight chapter which explains that memory faults are not necessarily faults at all, but they may be just unintended side effects of features which help memory to function better. After all, a certain amount of forgetfulness is arguably useful to humans, and if searching memory involved trying to review every event that had happened in your life, it would take a long time. To be practically useful, memory needs to be a set of summaries and indexes, but that kind of abbreviation inevitably involves selectivity of information, and that selectivity is what we typically experience as forgetfulness.

The content of the book is interesting, but I think it was a mistake to try and force the book’s content into a framework of memory ‘sins.’ Sins are deliberate actions which people are morally responsible for. Memory faults are not typically deliberate, and they are not issues of moral responsibility. So, how or why forgetfulness could be framed as a type of sin, is unclear. It risks just implying a misunderstanding of both forgetfulness and sin. To the extent that the book’s content has been forced into a constraint of seven sins, it also inevitably raises questions for the reader about whether issues of forgetfulness have been oversimplified or misconstrued, by forcing everything into that arbitrary framework of seven-ness.

Overall, an interesting read which does not presuppose any prior experience or expertise in the subject matter.

[Susanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This was much more academic than I was expecting—lots of mice studies and MRIs and memorizing random lists of words. So apart from a few interesting facts, it was boring.

Interesting tidbits:
-Sin of Transcience: Kids who test well on repeating nonsense words (a measure of the phonological loop) have an easier time learning new vocabulary than kids who test poorly.
-Sin of Misattribution: Convictions overturned by DNA evidence often relied on eyewitness reports—a common theme is eyewitnesses saying they are uncertain about a lineup pick at first, undergoing further questioning, and becoming more confident they’ve picked the right person.
-Sin of suggestibility: There is no evidence earliest memories can form before 2 years old; most people’s are from ages 3-5. Young children are very suggestible when questioned about events. When asked open-ended questions or when they spontaneously offer information, it’s much more likely to be true. When answering specific questions, they are highly likely to give false answers.
-Sin of Bias: People usually don’t have clear memories of their opinions from years and decades earlier, instead assuming they thought similarly then how they think now. People with strong racial biases can remember the attributes of someone that accord with racial stereotypes better than neutral attributes. “This tendency can create a self-perpetuating cycle in which a stereotype biases recall of congruent incidents, which in turn strengthens the stereotypical bias.”
-Sin of Persistence: Trying not to think about distressing memories only causes more intrusive thoughts and rumination as time goes on.

I read the e-book but skimmed some in the middle of the book and skimmed a lot in the last two chapters.

[YHC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite an interesting book to categorize our memory into 7 types.

1. Transience : loss of memory (just happens to everyone, old people more)
2. Absent-mindedness : didn't pay attention to your action. (can't find my glasses ..on my head)
3. Blocking (TOT: Tip of tongue): unable to remember the info you have already known. (what's your name?)
4. Misattribution : assigning a memory to the wrong source. (Ufo kidnap but actually family abuse)
5. Suggestibility : memories twisted because of leading questions, comments, or suggestions. (hypnosis, police forcing suspect to confess )
6. Bias : Our current beliefs changed our past memories. (dislike this person now affects my impression of past even though i could like him/her before)
7. Persistence : can not get rid of certain memories that you intentionally want to forget. (a song keeps playing in my head)


After i read this book with many examples to explain, I finally can distinguish each of my memory behavior into right places. Brain is an organ that we yet know the least, it has such mystery like universe. With the technology, we start to know which part in charge of what function. Left side in charge of language, logic; while right side in charge of image and creativity. Amygdaloid will store the traumas that we encountered, PTSD treatment needs to target that part.

An fairly interesting and informative book, also entertaining to learn more about our brain.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and useful book that looks at memory and cognition problems in terms of the seven deadly sins. People who have a good background in psychology and memory studies will see a lot of review of ideas here, which is a good thing, it helps groove the ideas in your brain.

As for the “seven sins of memory, here they are:
1) Transience (the forgetting curve, natural loss of declarative memory over time)
2) Absent-mindedness (divided attention, or unmindfully deviating from your normal habits)
3) Blocking (tip-of-the-tongue states)
4) Misattribution (conflating sources of memories)
5) Suggestibility (it’s easy to implant memories with leading questions, esp with children)
6) Bias (making our past “consistent” with our current self image, stereotyping, etc.)
7) Persistence (PTSD, amygdala-based memories)

What’s interesting is that these memory sins are features, not bugs... we have these traits because they serve an evolutionary purpose, but at the same time we have the cognition to be “meta” about our memories, and therefore can choose to do things (heh, or not) to counteract our blind spots (just like I know in 10 years I’ll remember next to nothing about this book, thus I’m leaving my book notes at Goodreads about it to help groove my memory of the book now, as well as give it a good hard shake in the future when I reread this review). Helpful book.

[Brad Bevers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read on the problems - and why they may exist - of memory. I've read a lot of books on memory, and this one is interesting because of how broad it is, tackling really all of the issues with memory in one book. The seven sins are absent-mindedness, transience, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence.

If you haven't read much on memory, this book is a really good starting point. The part of memory that is most fascinating to me is blocking, misattribution, and suggestibility. Do humans often forget or block important memories? How reliable are our memories? Is it easy to misattribute them? And, can memories be created through suggestibility and poor psychological/interview techniques? I agreed with the author's take on all of these things, and even though the coverage is brief I think its worth a read. If you are new to the subject of memory and interested in the above questions, I would suggest reading Mark Pendergrast's Memory Warp, Lawrence Wright's Remembering Satan, and Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice first.

[Lilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book a whopping 22 years after it’s published, so understandably there has been numerous advances since then. However, I think it’s still worth reading because the core ideas — the 7 sins of memory — remain relevant even till this day.

Overall, the author explored the 7 types of flaws (or sins) our memory exhibits — transience, absentmindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias and persistence — through intriguing research, case studies and anecdotes. Some examples were relatable (e.g. blocking on the name of an acquaintance when I most need it), while others were eye-opening (e.g. the prevalence of false eye witnesses due to suggestive questioning).

While there are many ways our memory can fail us, these flaws are mostly unintended consequences of incredible features of our brain. All in all, this book illuminates the curious ways our memory works, something I never fully appreciated until now.

(c/f Lisa Barrett’s ‘How Emotions are Made’, which introduced me to this book via the theory of construction)

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I struggle in deciding on a rating for this book. A solid 3.5 might be the best in my view. The book has fascinating information about the seven major flaws in our ability to remember information. Schacter shares a lot of examples how these flaws play out in our lives. He also provides some scientific references and discussions on how our brains work. And he has some very interesting stories about individuals who exhibit extreme examples of memory flaws. It's all excellent information. But, the book lacks a comfortable flow of information. There were times I had to force myself to continue reading. Then, pages later, I would be glad I did. A final critique - the title - calling our major, common, memory issues 'sins' doesn't seem quite right. It feels like more of an attempt to have a catchy title that will sell well.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nonfiction>science, human brain, memory
I read this with a work book club--turned out to be a little dense and uninteresting for some, but I did enjoy it. This is certainly and textbook nonfiction read--be prepared to either geek out and want to look up recent research or have your eyes glaze over bc you don't usually pick up books like this. Any title about the brain or human condition I generally feel all humans should read bc it's a good thing to have a solid understanding of our own bodies. If this is your only foray into biology, memory, physiophychology, etc then I might recommend you start with another title. Good book, just not as accessible as some others. These references were also a little dated when read right now--Clinton testimony, resurfaced childhood Satanic cult memories, the OJ Simpson trial, etc.

[Fatima Sarder · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Memory's malfunctions can be divided into seven fundamental transgressions or "sins," which I call transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence.”
― Daniel L. Schacter

As the saying goes: 'Memory is a fickle thing,' and this book (extensively) explains why.

The chapters are centered around a single sin -flaw- of memory; how it maybe caused, studies related to it and how a person can [somewhat] work around it. The book is detailed and academic and at times bogged down by statistics.

The updated version contains new research in memory studies and their current relevance. Most memory mishaps for normal people are caused by a failure of proper encoding. Different ares of the brain correspond to different functions of memory.

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book presents findings about the ways in which memory is inaccurate. The seven sins are: transience, absentmindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence.

Transience refers to the basic feature of memory that enables us to remember more of recent events and less as time goes on. It can be somewhat alleviated by making an effort to fix an item in memory, or associating it with something already known. Talking about something also helps.

Absentmindedness is usually caused by paying attention to something other than the object that needs to be remembered. It often occurs during routine activities when people are operating "on automatic". People can fail to notice even dramatic changes in an environment if they are attending to some other aspect. Event-based prospective memory failures are probably caused by not having a strong association between the event and the action to be performed.

Blocking is what happens when you have something "on the tip of your tongue." It's more likely to occur with names and other information that has few prior meanings. People can often remember characteristics of the forgotten word such as its initial letter or how many syllables. Thinking of similar words prolongs a TOT state.
focusing on certain details of a memory can cause others to be droped.
Another type is repressed memory. Mechanism not completely understood.

Misattribution. Sometimes people conflate two things into one memory. People remember things they've only imagined or read about. Familiar things are more likely to be taken as remembered. Sometimes people have an idea that really is something they heard elsewhere.

Suggestibility makes me people think they remember something because of misleading questions. It's a problem in lineups.

Bias induces people to remember the way they felt in the past in a way that fits the story they are currently telling themselves. People forget changing their opinion or think they knew something all along.

Persistence is when a person cannot forget something, obsesses over it. It mainly has to do with how we evaluate what has happened. Ruminating is harmful. Disclosing can be helpful. Depressed patients have overgeneral memories. Trying not to think about a traumatic event can cause it to get stuck.

the book also describes how each of these shows up in the physical brain.

[Wes F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly interesting book overall on the subject of the vagaries of human memory--with lessons learned from animal memories as well--though it wasn't the most engaging book. Had to push my way through it and there was quite a bit of technical jargon along the way. Insightful, though, and bottom-line: our memories' strengths & weaknesses all end up serving us in multiple ways, connecting us to others and to our time-space context, helping us to negotiate our way through complex lives. Though not stated, our minds & their connected memories are an amazing testimony to the intricacies & complexities of our creation by a Creator who leaves nothing to chance.

[Blueglass · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am interested in the study of memory for personal reasons, but I am a layperson. I liked the everyday examples that the author included and wished that there were more to illustrate his points. At times, his writing was very technical and academic which could be a bit on the dull side. I liked how he broke down the different facets of memory, since it is not as simple as just not having a good memory. What really bogged this down for me was the last chapter and I did not see how that fit in with the flow of the book. But I definitely gained some new insights overall from reading this book.