How is it that we can’t remember where we put our keys or the name of the person we just met, but we can recall in excruciating detail the embarrassing interaction we had at the grocery store ten years ago? Sometimes it seems like our memory works against us more than it does for us. But, as it turns out, this aspect of our memory is more a feature than a bug, and the key to understanding the difference may lie in our evolutionary history. Dr. Charan Ranganath, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California at Davis, joins us today to discuss his book Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold on to What Matters. Dr. Ranganath deftly guides readers through not only the “how” of memory formation but also the “why”, helping us to understand why we remember certain things and forget others. Tune in for a fascinating discussion ranging from the importance of context (like smell) in memory to the different types of memory, from decision-making to memory competitions, and so much more!
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One thought on “Special Episode: Dr. Charan Ranganath & Why We Remember”
This was a really fascinating episode.
My husband was stabbed in the heart ten years ago, and sustained an anoxic brain injury as a result. As a result, he is legally blind and has significant memory issues. His experience of sight and memory is fascination. His actual eye function works (mostly) but his brain where images are sorted is damaged. So he struggles with memories and vision crossing paths, and thinking he is “seeing” say a buss driving in front of him as he crosses the street, because he once crossed that street and saw a bus drive by.
I try really hard not to be aggravated when he is constantly insisting he told me something that KNOW FOR A FACT he did not, because I don’t want to compound what it must feel like to know that you cannot trust your own brain. But then to hear that I, with no brain injury, forget about 60% of what I take in over a day? WILD.
Great episode!
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