Memory : How We Use it, Lose It and Can Improve it

Memory is as essential to everyday life as seeing and hearing, smelling and touching. In Memory David Samuel draws on a lifetime of scientific research to produce an informative, refreshing and wide-ranging view of the subject: what is known about memory; how it was - and is - studied, including the most sophisticated and expensive methods for studying brain function and memory; long- and short-term memory; what to remember? and is there a limit to what one can remember?; Alzheimer's disease; experiments on octopuses, rats; monkeys and students; normal loss of memory, and the effect of alcohol, drugs and anxiety; deliberate and unintentional fraud in `tricks of memory'; how to improve memory - why do diplomats, actors and doormen have such good memories?

David Samuel, the 3rd Viscount Samuel, was born in 1922 and educated at Oxford. He has been since 1987 Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute at Rehovot, Israel, having joined the Institute in 1949 and become Professor of Physical Chemistry in 1967. He has been a visiting professor in the UK and USA, including periods at Harvard and Yale. He has produced more than 300 papers, reviews and parts of collective volumes on physical chemistry, reaction mechanisms, neurochemistry, psycho-pharmacology, animal behaviour, education and the history and teaching of science. He has served on numerous public scientific bodies.