In a new book, neuroscientist Charan Ranganath argues that false memories and lost memory are components of a flexible mind. David Robson asked why this was happening. In his book Why We Remember, neuroscientist Charan Ranganath says, «Memory is much more than an archive of the past; it is the prism through which we see ourselves, others, and the world».

Ranganath has been a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis for the past three decades, researching the processes in the brain that are responsible for our ability to remember, remember, and forget. He claims that many people misperceive their memory. Its most important functions create the cognitive flexibility that has been vital to our survival, which is often the cause of its notable shortcomings. He got to talk to David Robson, a science writer, about his advanced understanding of the brain and the methods by which we can make better use of our imperfect minds.

The book you wrote contains many ideas that at first glance seem incomprehensible. Let's start with the concept of «error-based learning». When we allow ourselves to make mistakes, why do we gain the most knowledge?

Changes in the strength of connections between neurons lead to the formation of memories. Although some of these connections will not be the best, others will be stronger and more effective. When you try to remember something, your memories will always be somewhat wrong, according to the principle of learning from mistakes.In this way, bad associations can be discarded and good ones strengthened as your brain tries to find these memories and compare them with real information.It goes without saying that the best way to better learn the material you want to learn is to reproduce it. This is because it brings out the weak points of the material and allows your brain to optimize those memories. Active learning, such as walking the streets on your own, rather than just looking up directions on Google, or performing in a play, rather than re-reading the script over and over again, is so effective.

Many of us are frustrated when we can't remember details, but you believe that forgetting is often helpful. How so?

I like to use this analogy: imagine I walked into your house and asked, why isn't everything stocked? Why don't you keep everything? If we didn't forget anything, we would accumulate memories and never be able to get what we want when we need it. I'm staying at a hotel now and two weeks from now it just doesn't make sense for me to remember that room number. Think about everyone you see on the street. Do you have to remember each of their faces?

Why do we become more forgetful over time?

The problem with memory as we age is not that we stop remembering, but that we stop focusing on what we need to remember. We become more inattentive and distracted from the important things that interest us. And so we can't find the information we're looking for when we try to recall those memories.

What techniques can we use to prevent this and improve our memories? There are three main principles.

One of them is the distinction. Our memories compete with each other, so be better if you can single out one. Vivid memories associated with unique visual images, sounds and sensations will remain. So we can remember more by focusing on sensory details.

Encourage yourself to better organize your memories to make them more meaningful is the second strategy. In the book, I mention the "memory palace" method, which involves connecting the information you want to learn with the information you already have.

Third, we have the ability to create evidence. In-memory lookups are very complex and error-prone. It is better if the memories just appear in our minds. Creating prompts can help with this. For example, we know that songs can trigger memories of certain times in your life. In addition, you have tons of other daily tips that you can use. If I'm trying to remember to take out the trash on garbage day, I imagine walking to the door and looking at the dumpster before I go to it. That way, when I go to the door in real life, it will mean I have to take out the trash.