Memories come in many different forms and vary substantially in strength; some, such as where you put your car keys, can be brief, while others remain in the mind forever. James McGaugh, a leading neurobiologist, provides an accessible and thought-provoking look at how we remember and why we forget. Beginning with the first scientific studies of learning and ending with the latest cutting-edge research, he explores how memories are made and preserved; why some experiences fade and disappear with time; how stress hormones effect the consolidation of memory; whether drugs would improve our ability to learn; and what studies of extraordinary memories and disorders tell us about the workings of the brain systems involved in memory formation.

And lastly, why is remembering a creative act that can, and often does, produce faulty memories of our experiences?"--BOOK JACKET.

This important volume defines the state of the art in the field of emotion and memory by offering a blend of research review, unpublished findings, and theory on topics related to its study. As the first contemporary reference source in this area, it summarizes findings on implicit and explicit aspects of emotion and memory, addresses conceptual and methodological difficulties associated with different paradigms and current procedures, and presents broad theoretical perspectives to guide further research. This volume articulates the accomplishments of the field and the points of disagreement, and gives the brain, clinical, and cognitive sciences an invaluable resource for 21st-century researchers. Citing and analyzing the results of experiments as well as field and case studies, the chapters are organized around methodological approaches, biological-evolutionary perspectives, and clinical perspectives, and bring together experts in neuroscience, and both cognitive and clinical psychology. Questions addressed include: * What is the nature of emotional events and what do we retain from them? * Is there something about emotional events that causes them to be processed differently in memory? * Do emotional memories have special characteristics that differ from those produced by "ordinary" memory mechanisms or systems? * Do people with emotional disturbances remember differently than normal people? * Which factors play the most crucial role in functional amnesia?

This book deals primarily with the role of emotions in the mechanisms of memory. It is a compilation of the lectures given at a course conducted at the International School of Biocybernetics.

Museums, Emotion, and Memory Culture examines the politics of emotion in history museums, combining approaches and concerns from museum, heritage and memory studies, anthropology and studies of emotion. Exploring the meanings and politics of memory contests in Turkey, a site for complex negotiations of identity, the book asks what it means for museums to charge the past with political agendas through spectacular, emotive representations. Providing an in-depth examination of emotional practice in two Turkish museums that present contrasting representations of the national past, the book analyses relationships between memory, governmentality, identity, and emotion. The museums discussed celebrate Ottoman and Early Republican pasts, linking to geo- and party politics, people’s senses of who they are, popular memory culture, and competing national stories and identities vis-à-vis Europe and the wider world. Both museums use dramatic, emotive panoramas as key displays and the research at the heart of this book explores this seemingly anachronistic choice, and how it links with memory cultures to prompt visitors to engage imaginatively, socially, politically and morally with a particular version of the past. Although the book focuses on museums in Turkey, it uses this as a platform to address broader questions about memory culture, emotion, and identity. As such, Museums and Memory Culture should be of great interest to academics and students around the world who are engaged in the study of museums, heritage, culture, history, politics, anthropology, sociology, and the psychology of emotion.

A comprehensive, multidisciplinary review, Neural Plasticity and Memory: From Genes to Brain Imaging provides an in-depth, up-to-date analysis of the study of the neurobiology of memory. Leading specialists share their scientific experience in the field, covering a wide range of topics where molecular, genetic, behavioral, and brain imaging techniq

Out of all of the information that we experience, only a subset will become part of our memories. Attentional processes, engaged during an event's unfolding, are essential for allowing us to transform an experience into a memory, and emotion can critically modulate those attentional processes, increasing the likelihood that an emotional experience becomes part of our memory stores. This book reviews behavioural and neuroimaging evidence that has revealed effects of emotion on memory and attention in individuals with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).