Thursday, March 3, 2011

Book Reading #32 - Opening Skinner's Box

Chapter 9: Memory Inc.
Summary
Slater talks about Dr. Scoville's surgery on H.M. where he removes the young boy's Hippocampus. Upon completing the surgery, H.M. became unable to form new memories.
This event triggered researchers such as Eric Kandel to investigate the means by which humans are able to convert short-term events into long-term memories. Kander, owner of a pharmaceutical company, is currently investigating drugs that would enhance human's ability to remember. However, Slater also explores the negative side effects of such drug; citing the needs for human beings to forget horrible events.

Discussion
My favorite part of this chapter is when the author talks about the negative side effects of remembering everything. I have not life a horrible life per se, but it seems logical that some people would not want to remember certain events in their lives.

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