Pieces of Light: How the New Science of Memory Illuminates the Stories We Tell about Our Pasts - Softcover

Fernyhough, Charles

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006223790X ISBN 13: 9780062237903

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2014

Synopsis

Shortlisted for the 2013 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books

Leading psychologist Charles Fernyhough blends the most current science with literature and personal stories in Pieces of Light: How the New Science of Memory Illuminates the Stories We Tell About Our Pasts.

A new consensus is emerging among cognitive scientists: rather than possessing fixed, unchanging memories, they have found that we create recollections anew each time we are called upon to remember. According to psychologist Charles Fernyhough, remembering is an act of narrative imagination as much as it is the product of a neurological process.

An NPR and Psychology Today contributor, Dr. Fernyhough guides readers through the fascinating new science of autobiographical memory, covering topics such as: navigation, imagination, and the power of sense associations to cue remembering. Exquisitely written and meticulously researched, Pieces of Light brings together science and literature, the ordinary and the extraordinary, to help us better understand our powers of recall and our relationship with the past.

About this title

Review:

"A beautifully written, absorbing read -- a fascinating journey through the latest science of memory."--Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Irvine

""Pieces of Light" is utterly fascinating and superbly written. I learned more about memory from this book than any other. There are few science books around of this class.--"The Guardian"

"As absorbing as it is thought-provoking."--"Sunday Business Post"

A multidisciplinary approach to explaining memory. . . . Will be intriguing for readers interested in the borderlands where memoir, fiction and science overlap. --"Kirkus Reviews""

His examination [is] welcoming and accessible to lay readers. His analysis is wide-ranging . . . He also covers a wide swath of literary and historical ground . . . A refreshingly social take on an intensely personal experience. --"Publishers Weekly""

A thoughtful study of how we make sense of ourselves. --"Nature""

Fernyhough is a gifted writer who can turn any experience into lively prose. . . . The stories in "Pieces of Light" . . . will entertain anyone who reads them. --"Financial Times""

"Pieces of Light" is utterly fascinating and superbly written. I learned more about memory from this book than any other. There are few science books around of this class.--"The Guardian""

Outstanding. . . . Fernyhough s skills as a writer are evident both in the beautiful prose and in the way he uses literature to illustrate his argument . . . He draws on both science and art to marvelous effect. --"Observer" (UK)"

A beautifully written, absorbing read -- a fascinating journey through the latest science of memory. --Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Irvine"

Book Description:

Why we remember what we remember.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 006223790X
• ISBN 13: 9780062237903
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320