An illuminating look at the adaptive nature of our memories—and how their flexibility and
fallibility help us survive and thrive We tend to think of our memories as impressions of the
past that remain fully intact preserved somewhere inside our brains. In fact we construct and
reconstruct our memories every time we attempt to recall them. Memory Lane introduces readers
to the cutting-edge science of human memory revealing how our recollections of the past are
constantly adapting and changing and why a faulty memory isn’t always a bad thing. Shedding
light on what memory is and what it evolved to do Ciara Greene and Gillian Murphy discuss the
many benefits of our flexible yet fallible memory system including helping us to maintain a
coherent identity sustain social bonds and vividly imagine possible futures. But these
flexible and easily distorted memories can also result in significant harm leading us to
provide erroneous eyewitness testimony or fall victim to fake news. Greene and Murphy explain
why our flawed memories are not a failure of evolution but rather a byproduct of the perfectly
imperfect way our minds have evolved to solve problems. They also grapple with important
ethical questions surrounding the study and manipulation of memory. Blending engaging
storytelling with the latest science the authors demonstrate how our continuous reconstruction
of the past makes us who we are helps us to interpret our experiences and explains why no two
trips down memory lane are ever quite the same.
