Metaphors of Memory

"This is a book that should be more widely known. Draaisma is a Dutch historian of psychology and ideas who has written a couple of books about the mind that are filled with wonderfully weird anecdotes and terrific insights. Metaphors of Memory is a history of how we’ve talked about memory over time. Today, we talk about photographic memory or digital memory; we analogise our memories to the technologies of our era. That’s always been true. The Greeks talked of memory as though it were a wax tablet. In the middle of the last century, thinkers saw memory as a hologram. Draaisma writes about how these metaphors shape what we think about memory. Memory is a playground. It’s not my own metaphor; that’s what I was once told by the man who trained me to become a mental athlete. The act of making something memorable involves finding what is meaningful, significant and colourful in a piece of information or experience. The more fun you have with this, the stickier your memories will be. Yes. Let’s go back to that story about Simonides. Although it’s probably apocryphal, it’s never been forgotten because it’s a useful way of understanding mnemonic principles. I mention this again to make the point that comprehension and retention are made easier through association with stories or mere metaphors. So yes, the analogised imagery in metaphors makes ideas and information easier to recollect."