DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

A Guided Tour Through the Fringes of Memory Experience

Why Life Speeds Up as You Get Older: How Memory Shapes Our Past
By Douwe Draaisma. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2004. ix + 277 pp. Cloth, $28.99.

When I was training to be a cognitive psychologist, the most exciting course I took was a “wild ideas” seminar. Our charge was to propose a research project that was not linearly derived from extant research literature and paradigms but was stimulated by our personal experiences, observations, intuitions, and imagination. What made this course so unusual was that it was taught by Benton J. Underwood, one of the most conventional and highly respected memory researchers of his era. His values for traditional laboratory rigor were reflected in his popular undergraduate textbook on experimental psychology, and his laboratory research procedures set a very high standard to emulate. However, even Underwood knew that thinking outside the box was essential to keep ideas relevant and engaging. More importantly, the ultimate test of any line of research is connecting it back to its roots in real memory phenomena, and an area of research that becomes inbred is bound to see its vitality slowly dissipate. The experience of generating a few wild research ideas for this seminar instilled in me an abiding appreciation of how mining the fringe areas of cognitive experience can lead to exciting and worthwhile topics for new laboratory exploration.