Why We Forget & How to Remember | Charan Ranganath & Jim Kwik

Why do you remember some things and forget others?

When it comes to memory, your brain is programmed to forget. That’s why it’s not only important to train your memory, but understand the complex mechanism of how your brain actually records and retrieves the past. Your memories make you who you are and because of the way your brain transforms memories, you can use them to understand the present and imagine the future.

I’m excited to go on a deep dive into this topic with our guest today, Dr. Charan Ranganath. Dr. Ranganath is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, and Director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at UC Davis. For over 25 years, he’s studied the mechanisms in the brain that allows you to remember past events. He’s here to talk about his brand-new book, Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold on to What Matters.

There is extraordinary overlap in the brain between the systems that operate your memory and your imagination. You can use this overlap to make better choices that can lead to better memories, and that in turn, can open new opportunities in your life. Listen in as Dr. Ranganath goes into how the brain records and retrieves the past, and what you can do to make your memory stronger.

0:00 Intro
2:09 Charan Ranganath
3:11 The power of memory to make decisions
7:14 Experiencing Self vs Memoring Self
9:19 Why memory is not a replay of the past
11:45 Study tips for better memory
16:43 Why cramming doesn't work
20:51 Why we forget
26:15 The link between music and memory
29:40 AI and memory

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[JimKwik]

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[bashypitterman]

As someone who works in education and special education there are so many things schools should be doing differently based on brain research. When will the education system catch up the the science?

[sakshikoli]

So in simple terms, if you include your emotions in a moment they become memories. Right?

[salmasanhaji]

It’s always a pleasure to listen to Jim’s videos, I can’t get enough ! Thank you ❤

[barbaravanderkooi]

Thank you for sharing this with me 👍🙏🏻❤️

[stanleyklein]

We forget because that is the natural state of reality (the past vanishes without human effort). Memory is natural selection's trick to offset the natural state of the world. The tired "key" example, is pure fluff that all intro memory teachers (myself included -- until recently) spew absent any serious thought.

[FCCOLLEGEYT]

Please make a video on this topic soon...

I always your videos and paid for few online courses.

Autism disorder is there a way to over

Other kid I know has it...

[Shi-xh]

I'm reltively new to your content, i just happen to watch some fasting videos, and some shorts. I notice in a short you were way snappy and smooth in the way you spoke. Why is it that your more slower now?

[brianday]

Harry Lorraine- Associate the name with a distinctive feature of the face.

[jamilacharles]

God tree always young just side of rever God bless and protect .

[mhescapes]

First like. Wow
Demonstration of growth mindset ?

[stanleyklein]

Takeaway: This discussion takes a set of deep mysteries and reduces them to simplistic bromides. This is the state of contemporary academia. We very well may continue making advances in physical issues (at some level), but serious understanding is a no-go in our society.

I, along with a (very) few others, introduced the idea that episodic memory enables mental travel into the future. I regret this public demonstration of stupidity and have tried (with no success -- careerism is hard to battle) to point out the logical and empirical foolishness of this idea. Much of our mental reality is future oriented (anticipation is a key for appreciating cause/effect). Episodic memory (or memory, period) is about re-acquaintance with one's past. Other things, (knowledge, belief....) often are oriented (of evolutionary necessity) toward the "now and the next". Memory is "memory" in not being so directed.


Conclusion. Too much (far too much) of Academia is sound bite, careerist-driven nonsense (the discussion of Kahenman's (sp?) selves is painfully pure bull shit. No one has a clue what a self consists in. Using it as an explanatory construct is -- generously -- lazy "scholarship"). I like the author. But I find his recounting of Memory tropes discouraging.

[Spock]

Any advice for high functioning autism

[Road-to-an-it-role-]

Jim Kwik

you're based my friend

[SureshNaskar-xi]

to everyone scrolling, do yourself a favor and read forbidden manifestation by zara blackthorn. thank me later.

[rameshnaidu-elhq]

stop wasting your time and go read forbidden manifestation by zara blackthorn. your future self will thank you.

[krembryle]

For people with ADHD: It's testing yourself.