THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF MEMORY

Abstract

THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF MEMORY. Edited by E. Tulving and F. Craik .2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Price £45. Pp. 714. ISBN 0‐19512‐265‐8. The intricacies of human memory have fascinated philosophers and scholars for millennia. It is not surprising that it is so. Memory represents a key psychological process, allowing us to re‐experience events from our past which may have taken place hours, days, months or even many years ago. Memory underlies other key psychological and behavioural processes such as perception, language and movement. And memory is also crucial for our sense of consciousness: without memory we would have no real sense of self or personal identity. Because memory and learning have such a profound influence on other aspects of human existence, the scientific study of memory within experimental psychology (and the related cognitive and brain sciences) has—historically—been inseparable from the scientific study of mental life and behaviour. Moreover, not only has memory fascinated people for centuries, but—in the present day—it is one of the most active and fertile areas of contemporary psychological thought and practice. However, Tulving and Craik note that this is the first handbook of memory that has ever been published, and suggest a possible explanation: they make the point that memory research has perhaps been too successful for its own good. The case is made by Tulving and Craik that, such has been the pace of growth in the field, it has not been possible until the present day for the body of contemporary understanding in the field to be neatly encapsulated in a medium of this kind. Memory is a complex, diverse and heterogeneous entity. How does one begin to try to define its features, characteristics and organizing principles? In this volume, Tulving and Craik define memory as ‘the ability to recollect past events and …