The long-anticipated revision of Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference  recently published, and it is the most authoritative set of volumes ever produced on learning and memory. It is available in both print and online via ScienceDirect.

The four volumes in this second edition of Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference contain approximately 35 chapters per volume and cover a wide range of intellectual territory. Each editor provided a comprehensive overview of his or her respective volume so that readers may more easily navigate the terrain and locate particular topics of interest in the desired context. We are pleased to offer a sample chapter from each of the four volumes.

Volume 1 – Learning Behavior and Theory
Chapter 1.09 – Selective Attention in Vision, Audition, and Touch, by Sandra Murphy, Polly Dalton, and Charles Spence

Given that our perceptual capacity is limited, it is important that we are able to focus our attention selectively on certain stimuli at the expense of others to behave effectively in a world filled with sensory information. Here, we review evidence from behavioral and neuroscientific studies of this process of selective attention in vision, hearing, and touch. Our particular focus in this chapter is on the enduring debate over the stage of processing at which unattended information is excluded from further processing. This chapter describes the origins of this debate and highlights some of the most important empirical and theoretical work that have emerged from studies of this issue in recent years. Read more below.

Chapter Download: Selective Attention in Vision, Audition, and Touch

Volume 2 – Cognitive Psychology of Memory
Chapter 2.08 – Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, by James L. McGaugh

Recent research has identified individuals who have highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM). These subjects can readily and accurately recall many public events and personal experiences and the dates and days of the week on which they occurred. However, the richness and accuracy of the details of their experiences decline over time and HSAM subjects, like controls, are susceptible to suggestions that lead to misremembering. The HSAM ability involves knowledge of the calendar, but only for dates within the subjects’ lifetime. MRI and fMRI findings of HSAM subjects indicate that some brain regions differ in structure and activity from those of control subjects. Understanding the neurobiological systems that enable HSAM may provide new insights in the neural substrates of memory. Read more below.

Chapter Download: Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory

Volume 3 –  Memory Systems
Chapter 3.26 – Episodic Memory Decline and Healthy Aging, by Wei-Chun Wang, Sander M. Daselaar, and Roberto Cabeza.

One of the cognitive functions most affected by the aging process is our memory for personally experienced past events or episodic memory (EM). The advent of functional neuroimaging has greatly advanced our knowledge of the neural basis of EM and its decline with age. The current chapter reviews prominent hypotheses of EM decline in healthy aging and relates them to recent structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies that implicate medial temporal and prefrontal regions in age-related memory decline. Intriguingly, recent findings indicate that aging is not exclusively associated with decline. In fact, some older adults seem to cope with brain decline by shifting to alternative brain resources that can compensate for their EM deficits. Read more below.

 Chapter Download: Episodic Memory Decline and Healthy Aging

Volume 4 – Mechanisms of Memory
Chapter 4.19 – Genetic Mechanisms of Memory Disorders, by Garrett A. Kaas, Kimberly E. Hawkins, and John David Sweatt

In this chapter we consider human disorders of memory and their possible underlying genetic and molecular mechanisms. The genetic and molecular basis of Neurofibromatosis type I and other RASopathies, Angelman syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, Williams–Beuren syndrome, Down syndrome, Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, and Rett syndrome will be discussed. An overview of current research into suitable models of disease and treatment will provide insight into the value of basic scientific research in understanding human memory disorders and intellectual disabilities. Read more below.

Chapter Download: Genetic Mechanisms of Memory Disorders

Editor-in-Chief John H. Byrne

John H. Byrne, PhD, is the June and Virgil Waggoner Chair and Chairman of the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). He also serves as director of the Neuroscience Research Center at UTHealth. He holds positions as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas in Austin and in the departments of Psychology and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University. Read entire biography here.

Reference Module in Neuroscience and Behavioral Psychology

As well as being a standalone reference work, Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, Second Edition is also be part of the Reference Module in Neuroscience and Behavioral Psychology. Hosted on ScienceDirect, the visionary Reference Module combines thousands of comprehensive and encyclopedic articles from Elsevier’s Reference Works into one interdisciplinary resource. Every Month the content is reviewed, updated and new articles are commissioned where needed to ensure the latest developments and discoveries are included.