The Memory Illusion

Why You May Not Be Who You Think You Are

By: Julia Shaw

Narrated by: Siri Steinmo

Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Think you have a good memory? Think again.

Memories are our most cherished possessions. We rely on them every day of our lives. They make us who we are. And yet the truth is they are far from being the accurate records of the past we like to think they are. True, we can all admit to having suffered occasional memory lapses, such as entering a room and immediately forgetting why or suddenly being unable to recall the name of someone we've met dozens of times. But what if we have the potential for more profound errors of memory, even verging on outright fabrication and self-deception?

In The Memory Illusion, forensic psychologist and memory expert Dr Julia Shaw uses the latest research to show the astonishing variety of ways in which our brains can indeed be led astray. She shows why we can sometimes misappropriate other people's memories, subsequently believing them to be our own. She explains how police officers can imprison an innocent man for life on the basis of 300 denials and just one confession. She demonstrates the way radically false memories can be deliberately implanted, leading people to believe that they brutally murdered a loved one or were abducted by aliens. And she reveals how, in spite of all this, we can improve our memory through simple awareness of its fallibility.

Fascinating and unnerving in equal measure, The Memory Illusion offers a unique insight into the human brain, challenging you to question how much you can ever truly know about yourself.

Dr Julia Shaw is a psychology lecturer and memory researcher at the University of Bedfordshire and is one of only a handful of experts in the world who actively conduct research on complex memory errors related to emotional personal events - so-called 'false memories'. Dr Shaw has published research articles in various international academic journals, written textbook chapters, and presented at many international conferences. She is also heavily involved in teaching classes on memory at the undergraduate and graduate levels, for which she has won two teaching excellence awards.

Besides her teaching and research, she has delivered general business and police-training workshops, has given guest lectures at universities around the world, has evaluated offender diversion programs and works with the UK police to advise on historical sexual and physical abuse cases. She has also been featured as an expert on TV and radio and in UK and international newspapers.

©2016 Julia Shaw (P)2016 Audible, Ltd

I forgot what I wanted to say...

Oh yeah, if you have not previously read about scientific research concerning memory, this is a good overview of the extant research. If you are familiar with the research, this adds nothing new.

As to her goal to make me doubt my existence as I recall it, I wasn’t convinced. Especially since I can and have documented key memories and have friends, family and acquaintances that have helped verify my recollections. Those memories which I can’t document I regard as suspect, but they are not critical to my day to day existence.

On the other hand, she makes many good points about the unreliability of undocumented, unsubstantiated memories. I too have implanted memories in people’s minds and manipulated their cognitive biases and think everyone could benefit from knowing how this can happen and that it can and does happen to them.

The narrator mispronounces several common scientific words or, is an American accent pronouncing British pronunciations, not sure. I got over it as the book wore on.

Better than syfi.

fascinating , amusing, and frightening. understandable for my puny brain; i think ? a must listen.

As Mark Twain Said ...

Mark Twain said ... "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." (I "remember" a variation of this. Ha.)

Loved this updated book on memory which validates and amazes at the same time. A tad long and scientific in some parts, but overall excellent. Although the narrator was also upbeat and easy to listen to I cringed every time (and there were many) when she pronounced "process" with the 2nd variation and a long "o." Must be the Canadian / UK influence, though I did not detect any other words that didn't sound middle America. Ethnocentric, I know.

As an aside, if you are British and reading this you will probably think I've placed the period after the quotes above in the wrong place -- but not so in American English.

Very compelling

As a devote listener to the You Are Not So Smart podcast, I have heard about a lot of the concepts discussed here. Despite this I truly enjoyed Julie Shaw exploring these things in a clear and compelling way, without feeling too basic. She continously summarizes the concepts which I am grateful for, since it doesn't really matter if I catch myself not paying attention. I can be sure the writer will use more than one analogy or that she'll summarize the conclusion of the research she's currently talking about. The reason for my 4/5 rating is that I would like Shaw to delve deeper into the memory illusions in the justice system as this is where false memories have the most serious consequences. And sometimes it feels like she's just stacking interesting research relating to memory science without a coherent story. But overall, I highly recommend it!

Don't take your own memories at face value

Would you consider the audio edition of The Memory Illusion to be better than the print version?

I did not read this book, I only listened to it, twice in fact. I enjoyed it fully both times. Dr. Julia Shaw's scientific research does prove that you can't trust your own memories. Which makes some sides completed one sided during criminal investigations...

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Memory Illusion?

Everything with self examples.

Have you listened to any of Siri Steinmo’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Yes, I was moved by the fact that you can't blindly trust your own memories, or trust those that tell you that they know your memories, or what happened to you during a certain time or moment in life. Even their memories of that situation can be completely skewed which will in turn skew yours. Just like it most lines of business, you should document everything with proof.

Very useful book

Fascinating facts from memory science and their interpretation by Julia Shaw just makes sense. the knowledge I learned from this book is useful in my everyday life right away. thanks!

Enlightening and Thought Provoking

This deep dive into the neuroscience of memory and our overestimation of its solidity and veracity is very well-written and accessible. Even the chapter isolated as “science heavy” so the reader can skip it, is pretty straightforward in regards to terminology and understandability. Additionally, Dr. Shaw usually makes a point of highlighting topics that are new or do not have as much solid research behind them as other major elements covered in the book, which I appreciated.

As with some pop science books I have read, there may have been some overstatement of the “groundbreaking/revolutionary” or “definitive” nature of a few studies, but that only makes me curious enough to look them up and learn more, which I think a good pop science book should do.

Definitely an enlightening and thought provoking exploration of memory—a concept we place so much value and faith in that we stake people’s lives, reputations and freedom on it, but which can be regularly unreliable and easily manipulated.

Great Book!

If you interact with people, you need this book. While rooted in academia, it is fully of information useful for anyone.

Too much lying for me

I've listened to several of the recent crop of popularized neuropsychology books, but this is the last one I plan to buy. All of them, including this one, are a catalog of human experiments in which the psychologists lie, and trick, and lie some more to their subjects, manipulating them and making fools of them mercilessly. There is a serious moral issue against this sort of research. The psychologists pretend it is all to advance "knowledge," but it is actually to advance the psychologists' careers and incomes and tenure by misusing and deceiving people who trust them. I realized about chapter 6 that I would not care to know anyone who lies for a living in this way, so enough of reading the books they write.

Interesting

I was intrigued by the author's work and how memories work. It was fascinating/frightening to realize how inaccurate memories can be, especially in light of how they are used to convict people.