What Is a Photographic Memory?

[binzing]

Binzing (post #47) says: 'I feel I have something of a photographic memory'

How do you know your memory is different from other people's memory or has a higher 'photographic' content than e.g. mine?

Where exactly do I say that I feel mine is "more" than anyone elses? (Should say, "Nowhere, I don't think" about now. Precisely.

I just know that in my memory depending on the subject I visualize much more than with other subjects.

 

[WarPhalange]

My brain is slow so I have to rely on a photographic memory.

For example when I look at a phone number, I don't immediately process and remember what those numbers are. I take a mental snapshot and then recall that picture in my brain and then I process what those numbers are by looking at them in my mind one by one. Then I immediately forget them, but might still remember the snapshot for a while.

But, for all I know, everybody else does that. How am I to know how other people think?

EDIT: I kind of do the same thing when being spoken to, like being told instructions, addresses, or phone numbers. I don't immediately process the information as its being told to me, I just remember the sounds of the words and later parse it all to understand what was said. This is only when I have to memorize something, not when I'm learning, though.

 

[DaveC426913]

Binzing (post #47) says: 'I feel I have something of a photographic memory'

How do you know your memory is different from other people's memory or has a higher 'photographic' content than e.g. mine?

Where exactly do I say that I feel mine is "more" than anyone elses? (Should say, "Nowhere, I don't think" about now. Precisely.

I just know that in my memory depending on the subject I visualize much more than with other subjects.

This sounds like the result of ambiguity in the term photographic memory. The common (though not necessarily correct) understanding of the term photographic memory is usually something more akin to total recall, whether or not the memory is visual. (Wiki even notes the confusion in these and related terms. Try googling 'wiki photographic memory').


It sounds to me like
binzing meant "visually (i.e. photographically), I have excellent recall, when compared to other types of my memory"
whereas
RWentz heard "I have a photographic memory (i.e. total recall), which is superior to the average person's memory recall".

 

[binzing]

That sounds about right Dave, thanks for clarifying. I was a little rude in that post, I'd been on edge.