Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2009

Thank you everyone!  I just wonder it it is possible to think that
there are two kinds of meanings for the verb "remember" used in the
passage; one is "to retain" and the other is "to recall".  The
metaphor the author cites describes the situation where we can rather
easily retain the places of the holes in the fields, while "retaining"
numbers is very difficult.

Why is it so difficult to learn and ***remember=retain*** new
information and
to __remember=recall___ it accurately?  One reason is that our brains
were
not built to ***remember=retain*** the kinds of things we must learn
in a modern
world.  My own favorite metaphor to explain this truth comes from my
experience of cutting the grass in the fields at my hilly home in
Sharon, Vermont.  Every year I get out the tractor and go to work,
driving over the knee-high grass, up and down the fields.  Now, there
is danger lurking under the grass, some deep, hidden holes that put
the tractor and me at risk.  Yet, after the first exploratory effort
some eight years ago, I learned where every one of these holes is,
and
eight years later, I stop at each and slowly navigate around the
danger.  The point is, the brain is built to ***remember=retain***
where real harm
can come to you in real physical space.  If someone had stopped me at
each of those holes during the first year and said, "We now want you
to ***remember=retain*** this phone number," I would never have
retained that
information unless I practiced and practiced it.  Our brains don't
like learning modern-day information.  No wonder they make mistakes
--
and lots of them.

LP