The Mysterious Phenomenon of Photographic Memory

[mech-eng]

Having a photographic memory is a reality or only a fiction, an urban legend? Some people are claimed to have a photographic memory like famous scientist Nicola Tesla.

Self-made

http://mentalfloss.com/article/25525/quick-10-10-people-photographic-memories

Thank you.

 

[symbolipoint]

A strongly photographic memory may be an abnormality.

Can a person develop one, or must he be born that way?

 

[mech-eng]

A strongly photographic memory may be an abnormality.

Can a person develop one, or must he be born that way?

Above would have been my question as "how to have a photographic memory"

Thank you.

 

[symbolipoint]

I did not yet look at the link.

I would imagine having a photographic memory is much like subitizing (to visually identify a whole-number quantity of items without consciously counting). You are born with what you have and you do not learn to develop it further

 

[mech-eng]

I did not yet look at the link.

I would imagine having a photographic memory is much like subitizing (to visually identify a whole-number quantity of items without consciously counting). You are born with what you have and you do not learn to develop it further

I don't think so because Chinese people are claimed to have a stronger memory because of their alphabet system and some scientists think that brain is like muscles so it can be developed, and is memory not related to brain?

Thank you.

 

[symbolipoint]

I don't think so because Chinese people are claimed to have a stronger memory because of their alphabet system and some scientists think that brain is like muscles so it can be developed, and is memory not related to brain?

Thank you.

I have a strong opinion but I do not know for sure. The comment was recalled that greater subitizing ability was correlated with talent in Mathematics, and this makes me wonder if my own limited subitizing ability is part of what made some of Mathematics difficult for me to learn.

Not having a strong photographic memory does not mean that lack of visualization ability goes along with it.

 

[Torbert]

Anecdote:

When taking some long term medications I noticed I ran out a week early one month. After eliminating the easy suspects I settled down and replayed each instance of taking a pill that month.
Turns out four times I took one early and three times I also took one late. The mind can play tricks but luckily not my memory.

This was an example, many times I have had to replay scenes from the past, at times to pull up a phone number.

For me it is quite real and for a great many years I assumed everyone did this.

 

[HankDorsett]

Having a photographic memory is a reality or only a fiction, an urban legend? Some people are claimed to have a photographic memory like famous scientist Nicola Tesla.

Self-made

http://mentalfloss.com/article/25525/quick-10-10-people-photographic-memories

Thank you.

Memory is an odd thing. I am able to remember things from my early childhood. I can also remember conversations from years ago. Even though I can remember things from my past I have problems remembering names of people that I have met. I believe the greatest scientific discovery would be understanding the human mind rather than understanding the universe.

 

[symbolipoint]

Post# 7 & 8, new after the previous few posts were very old. Remember, the original topic was about Photographic Memory.

 

[nuuskur]

There has to be some truth to the concept of photographic / some form of eidetic memory, a person is able to draw pictures from memory with remarkable accuracy of panoramas they saw.

See here

I can remember sound very well, for instance. I might not be able to remember people's faces or their names, but once I hear someone's voice (non distorted) I can recognise them quickly.

 

[JBA]

There are probably many variations of the above. For me, my strongest memories are of images, even whole settings with people, but my images have no associated texts, i.e. when once I tried to recall the name of a company I had seen frequently several years in the past I could visualize the company's building and sign in sufficient detail to recreate them, including the sign's shape ,colors, location related to the building etc, but the name on the sign is missing.

 

[JBA]

More directly on the subject of what abilities we are born with vs. acquired, from my personal experience I believe that what we remember is closely linked to what we truly feel is important and relevant even beyond our conscious realization of it and can change according to circumstances from time to time.
As an example, I have always been horrible at remembering peoples names even though I always remember their faces; however, years ago, at my companies request, I moved from my engineering position to a high level national and international sales position where remembering people's names was critical to developing interpersonal relationships; and, that requirement resulted in a complete instant reversal of my prior lack of ability to remember peoples names. So much so, that even only one contact with a person was sufficient for me to instantly recall that person's name regardless of the time passed or the unexpected circumstances where I might encounter them. On the other hand, once I returned to engineering, my true passion, I completely reverted to my prior situation of not being able to recall the names of a people even a short time after having met them.

 

[HankDorsett]

Most extreme type of photographic memory is Total Recall. If you were to ask a person in this group what happened on July 1st 2001 during lunch they would be able to tell you in detail what happened. According to what I read there have been 60 confirmed people with this level of memory.

 

[marcusl]

My son had a photographic memory from an early age. At two years old he had memorized the names, shapes and positions of the 50 states, including the names and locations of their capitals. In the days before cell phones, PDA's and smart-everythings, he was our walking Rolodex. He knew the names, phone numbers and addresses of about 50 of our friends and relatives at the age of 3! He was also reading at that age, but he didn't learn the way most of us learn to read (by phonetics and repetition). He would point to a word that he didn't know ("ladder," maybe) and, upon hearing it once and looking at it on the page, knew it--its spelling, its pronunciation and its meaning--forever. No stumbling the next time he came across it. In later years he could draw for an image of what had been on the blackboard at school that day.

Strangely, this extraordinary talent faded away on its own so that, by the 5th grade, he struggled to memorize words for the school spelling bee and was sent out several rounds before the end. His memory is now quite ordinary.