Memory: Remembering and Forgetting in Everyday Life

Dr. Gordon explains the difference between a real memory impairment and the normal absent-mindedness that occasionally affects us all--especially as we age. Memory offers simple strategies for dealing with age-related memory loss, based on fascinating and informative research findings.

Gordon, a specialist in memory and language disorders, heads the division of cognitive neurology at Johns Hopkins. Here he presents a readable account of how we remember and forget, by weaving practical exercises and case histories into a scientific web of data, touching on subjects such as recognition, recall, memory blocks, and the effects of drugs. Unconscious memory connections create neural pathways through closeness in time and proximity in space, but meaning and purpose emerge as the most significant factors in remembering, according to the author. He points out that women remember names and faces better, whereas males recall locations in space more accurately than females. Entertaining and informative, the book, although not as poetic, compares with Philip Hilts's Memory's Ghost (LJ 7/95). Recommended.
Dennis G. Twiggs, Winston-Salem, N.C.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.