Synopses & Reviews
The scientific research literature on memory is enormous. Yet until now no single book has focused on the complex interrelationships of memory and belief. This book brings together eminent scholars from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, literature, and medicine to discuss such provocative issues as "false memories," in which people can develop vivid recollections of events that never happened; retrospective biases, in which memories of past experiences are influenced by one's current beliefs; and implicit memory, or the way in which nonconscious influences of past experience shape current beliefs.
Ranging from cognitive, neurological, and pathological perspectives on memory and belief, to relations between conscious and nonconscious mental processes, to memory and belief in autobiographical narratives, this book will be uniquely stimulating to scholars in several academic disciplines.
Review
The process of recalling things, people and events--using our memory--is something we do every day but think little about. Schacter and Scarry, editors of this collection of conference papers, seek to zero in on this ubiquitous, if ill-defined, activity by examining it from a variety of perspectives...The book's multidisciplinary approach makes for innovative insight into the subject; the writing and research is clear and well presented, accessible to the uninformed reader but still academically rigorous. David E. Valencia
Review
The process of recalling things, people and events--using our memory--is something we do every day but think little about. Schacter and Scarry, editors of this collection of conference papers, seek to zero in on this ubiquitous, if ill-defined, activity by examining it from a variety of perspectives...The book's multidisciplinary approach makes for innovative insight into the subject; the writing and research is clear and well presented, accessible to the uninformed reader but still academically rigorous.
Review
The decidedly interdisciplinary anthology brings together researchers from neuroscience, cognitive psychology, literature and medicine to discuss the nature of memory and belief...Researchers present interesting results indicating that one's own memories of the past are strongly influenced by one's present beliefs, current experience and even nonconscious influences. The picture of memory presented throughout these essays is both fascinating and disquieting...It is uncomfortable to be told that we do not know our own minds and past experiences as well as we think we do, but it makes for captivating reading...An interesting and useful contribution to the growing body of research on memory, belief, and autobiography. Library Journal
Review
The eleven chapters, and a masterful summary by Damasio, present many facets of the problem, from the paranoid delusions of the schizophrenic to experimentally provoked errors in memory. James R. Beebe - Metapsychology
About the Author
<>Daniel L. Schacteris Professor of Psychology, <>Harvard University.Elaine Scarryis Professor of English and American Literature and Language at <>Harvard University.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Daniel L. Schacter and Elaine Scarry 1. Mining the Past to Construct the Future: Memory and Belief as Forms of Knowledge
Chris Westbury and Daniel C. Dennett
PART 1: Cognitive, Neurological, and Pathological Perspectives
2. Cognitive and Brain Mechanisms of False Memories and Beliefs
Marcia K. Johnson and Carol L. Raye
3. Memory and the Brain: New Lessons from Old Syndromes
V.S. Ramachandran
4. The Role of Memory in the Delusions Associated with Schizophrenia
Chris Frith and Raymond J. Dolan
PART 2: Conscious and Nonconscious Aspects of Memory and Belief: From Social Judgments to Brain Mechanisms
5. Implicit Stereotypes and Memory: The Bounded Rationality of Social Beliefs
Mahzarin R. Banaji and R. Bhaskar
6. Belief and Knowledge as Distinct Forms of Memory
Howard Eichenbaum and J. Alexander Bodkin
7. Where in the Brain is the Awareness of One's Past?
Endel Tulving and Martin Lepage
PART 3: Memory and Belief in Autobiographical Recall and Autobiography
8. Constructing and Appraising Past Selves
Michael Ross and Anne E. Wilson
9. Memory and Belief in Development
Katherine Nelson
10. Autobiography, Identity, and the Fictions of Memory
Paul John Eakin
11. Autobiography as Moral Battleground
Sissela Bok
Thinking about Belief: Concluding Remarks
Antonio R. Damasio
Contributors
Index