Many religions and cultures have rituals structured around remembrance, a fact that suggests how central the ability to remember is to our sense of self, both as individuals and as communities. But how accurate are our memories, and in what ways do they truly shape us? And why does some of what we remember come to us easily, while other things remain maddeningly just out of reach?  Charan Ranganath, our core book author and a leading memory researcher, writes: “The mechanisms of memory were not cobbled together to help us remember the name of that guy we met at that thing.”

Rather than viewing forgetting as a failure, we come to understand it as an essential function that helps us prioritize relevant information and adapt to new situations. We learn that forgetting can even facilitate learning by clearing out irrelevant details.

We will study and discuss the science behind memory formation, the interplay between remembering and forgetting, and practical applications for improving memory function.  

Finally, in the last two weeks, armed with all we have learned, we will read and discuss insightful essays dealing with memory.

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