Views Culture
The art of remembering
If you want to strengthen your mind, a new compendium exploring the
mechanics of memory may be the place to start, finds Alex Wilkins
Book
The Complete Guide
to Memory
Richard Restak
Penguin Life
IT IS all too easy to forget how
much we rely on our memory
and how quickly things can go
south when it falters. Although
the march towards forgetfulness
is often presented as a foregone
conclusion, it doesn’t have to be
that way, writes Richard Restak
in The Complete Guide to Memory,
a short but comprehensive
compendium of everything
we know about memory and
how we might improve it.
So-called brain training has
been in vogue for decades in the
form of sudoku puzzles or apps
that promise to help you defy the
cognitive decline of ageing, but
there is little evidence for this.
Despite his book’s subtitle –
The science of strengthening your
mind – Restak’s gambit is slightly
different. He is a neuroscientist,
author of more than 20 books
on the human brain, and with
decades of experience of patients
with memory problems. Here he
argues that by performing certain
tasks to boost your memory, other
mental faculties that rely on it will
improve and you might ease the
impact of old age.
Of course, memory isn’t one
thing, but an interconnected
series of brain structures and
processes that interact with
stimuli and consciousness in
myriad ways. To understand how
to improve it, an understanding
of these processes is helpful, so
Restak devotes a sizeable chunk
of this book to teasing out the
nuances of memory.
This includes episodic, semantic
and procedural memory, how
32 | New Scientist | 11 February 2023
working and long-term memory
differ, and how these are, in turn,
formed from different stimuli,
such as internal and external
speech or visual information. It
can feel like a whirlwind tour, and
“The main way to
improve all forms of
memory is to actively
practise certain
techniques”
unless you take Restak’s advice to
be attentive and intentional about
remembering, the neuroscience
can wash over you.
But understanding how
different kinds of memories are
made and stored does help make
sense of the sections that follow,
on how our brains use memory in
Richard Restak (left) uses
case study and anecdote
to explain memory
so prime you to remember
them, could fortify you against
manipulation in the future – or
encourage you to use those same
repetitious techniques for things
you would like to remember.
The main way to improve all
forms of memory, writes Restak,
is to actively practise certain
techniques, ideally daily. Some are
as simple as attending to things
more closely to expand long-term
memory, while others are more
involved, such as exercises and
games that include memorising
sequences of cards or numbers
to boost working memory.
For all its emphasis on brain
structure, the guide can feel
GREG KAHN/GUARDIAN/EYEVINE
frustratingly unstructured.
Some curiosities, like the brain’s
tendency to more easily recall
interrupted tasks (the Zeigarnik
effect) or that you remember
things better when you see them
on large screens, seem random
daily life and what happens when and underexplored, with only a
those processes go wrong. few paragraphs devoted to each
The book is at its most enjoyable and little about how you should
when Restak blends case study incorporate them into your life.
and personal anecdote to explore Then there are its more eye-
memory and what happens when catching claims – for example,
faculties falter. This is reminiscent that memory exercises could
at times of neurologist Oliver help prevent memory decline
Sacks’s curious case studies. in Alzheimer’s disease. These
Somewhat distressingly, the rely too much on Restak’s clinical
chapter devoted to memory’s experience and suffer from a lack
malfunctions is almost five of balanced discussion, essential
times as long as the chapter that for a book that has “avoid memory
describes it working as intended – loss” on the cover and mentions
but, apart from rare brain injuries Alzheimer’s on the first page.
or traumatic events, these Despite the jury being out on
cognitive vulnerabilities are its anti-dementia credentials, I
apparently instructive. did find a few weeks of the daily
For instance, knowing memory exercises led to a small
that advertisers and political boost in my recall and made me
campaigners tend to recycle and feel more present. Whether I will
repeat the same catchphrases to still remember Restak’s advice in
evoke a sense of familiarity, and a year’s time remains to be seen. ❚