
What Is It Like To Have a Photographic Memory? - erinbryce
http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/07/18/what_is_it_like_to_have_a_photographic_memory.html
======
patio11
I had a somewhat atypical memory through early high school. Long story short:
I was really, really good at memorizing books without trying to, and could
recall them word-for-word, with essentially random access inside the book if
you spotted me two sentences to work off of.

This also extended to remembering events/conversations/etc in my own life, and
they often became "intrusive thoughts." Was anybody hear ever picked on in 3rd
grade? Imagine reliving that incident, in photographic detail, for _no darned
good reason_ during an 8th grade field trip.

I was honestly happy/sad when I "grew out of it." Happy for the obvious
reason, a little sad that I can no longer recite the entire Hobbit as a party
trick. (It took me longer than you would think to figure out that this was not
actually as effective as a party trick as I thought it was.)

My understanding is that there's many, many flavors of atypical memories. I
have a friend from high school who also has one, also (like myself) in
solution with a few other issues which will get you referred to a school
counselor. He can still quote my drivers license number, which he saw for five
seconds 15 years ago.

~~~
fsck--off
> I was really, really good at memorizing books without trying to, and could
> recall them word-for-word, with essentially random access inside the book if
> you spotted me two sentences to work off of.

That's interesting. When you recite a book passage, do you remember where the
text was on the page, the dimensions of the book, how the book felt in your
hand, where you read the book, and how good the lighting was? When I have
strong recall of a text passage, I find that I'm usually able to recall those
little extraneous contextual details. For this reason, I find that I remember
things I read on physical paper better than things I read on a computer
monitor.

~~~
patio11
Where the text was on the page, certainly. I'd know that I was "a subjectively
short space from the bottom of the page, left hand side of the book, somewhere
in the middle." I never had any external associations with books -- probably
because a bomb could have gone off when I was reading and I wouldn't have
noticed. (Something which my wife reliably reports has not changed.)

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zobzu
I've a photographic memory and it's not like that.

This person is a super hero :)

Having an ultra detailed memory of every 5min event of all your life (which is
what TFA basically says) sounds like a super hero, or well, you know, just
plain lies and heavy embellishment... whichever.. that's ok if its a genius,
too :)

(same thing for persons knowing all words of all the books they read, by
earth. And that's also probably not photographic memory, unless you picture
the words, anyways)

\--

A photographic memory simply mean its easier for you to remember images than,
say, sounds, text, etc.

The author suggests that photographic memory is about remembering something
with the upmost perfection (like a "picture" represents details with the
upmost perfection), regardless of this being a sound, image, text, etc...

I generally ask those ego-driven people to tell me what I showed on the screen
5min ago and they've no idea. "oh i was distracted this time" or "it doesn't
work like that".

I still have to meet a true memory-genius. I'm sure they exist, but its not a
very high % of the population, contrarily to what story tellers seems to say.

~~~
wmboy
> A photographic memory simply mean its easier for you to remember images
> than, say, sounds, text, etc.

I think you're mistaken
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidetic_memory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidetic_memory)

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johnvschmitt
There is no such thing as "Photographic Memory", as we do not even have
"Photographic site"

All we have for sight is: A few degrees of focus (~3-5) that we quickly jump
around to get an idea of a scene, & then we (very importantly) MAP this data
to an internal model.

So, when someone says, they can fill in all the details, they are doing that
from an internal model, which was only partially supported by earlier sight.
Much of their memory can be wrong.

More importantly, it's a huge misrepresentation to think that the human eye
works like a CCD array/sensor/camera.

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XenithShade
There's a higher level of photographic memory that very few people are capable
of. Those that can call on demand images of the past at will. I've met one,
and knew of a teacher who knew one. Like the author of this article stated. It
can be a curse, nightmares and things they don't want to remember stick with
them. Forever.

Although a lot of people also have really great memory, which can arguably
said to be "somewhat photographic" as the author said. In which case, I do as
well. I cannot agree that being able to walk through a previous scene with a
bird's eye view is part of being photographic memory though. I think that as
just powerful spatial visualization combined with good memory.

~~~
regal
Agreed. I'm 30 years old and I can still visualize everything about my grade
school schoolyard from a "bird's eye view" quite easily (can even do this with
the apartment I moved out of and never saw again after 3.5 years old, and the
grounds outside it) - never been accused of having photographic memory.

The author seems to be discussing more a "very good" memory mixed with a
fixation on the past - e.g., feeling hurt that others don't remember what you
remember means the past has some special importance for him/her. I recall
plenty of things that happen that other people soon forget, but it never
bothers me. I realized as a child I had to pretend to forget things, otherwise
people would think it was bizarre I remembered so much about them that they'd
forgotten ever telling me.

As I've gotten older and had less free time to think / worked crazier hours
and ruminated on people and the past less, this tendency to remember lots of
small details has receded (though still much stronger than other people's I
meet). I'm pretty sure if I started thinking about the past often enough again
though, it'd make a quick return to being as proficient at recalling numerous
tiny details from the deep past as it was before.

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mwc
If you follow through to the Quora link, there's a link to one Marilu Henner
who, apparently, can remember each day of her life as if it happened
yesterday.[1] Fascinating.

[1]
[http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20026088-10391709.htm...](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-20026088-10391709.html)

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AndrewKemendo
Like the author, I have the same, scattered detailed images of
places/things/people from all over - but it is not sequential and it is not a
searchable database.

I would definitely echo the: "Now here's a random very specific memory to take
up all your working memory and distract you from your actual task" type of
daily interruption such a memory has.

I would trade this "skill" any day for the ability to remember people's names
the first time.

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confluence
It should be noted that almost all the people that claim to have eidetic
memory are full of shit. People who claim that they have eidetic memory, when
scientifically tested, are in fact shown to be either lying (simple fraud),
using memory techniques (Chess masters can only memorize legal chess boards,
they can't chunk random ones) or idiot savants who specialise in specific
memory tricks (drawing a skyline/memorizing books).

> _A number of people claim to have eidetic memory, but only two people have
> been tested and documented as having a memory that is truly photographic.
> Most people showing amazing memory abilities use mnemonic strategies._

Source:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_posse...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_claimed_to_possess_an_eidetic_memory)

> _An example of extraordinary memory abilities being ascribed to eidetic
> memory comes from the popular interpretations of Adriaan de Groot 's classic
> experiments into the ability of chess Grandmasters to memorize complex
> positions of chess pieces on a chess board. Initially it was found that
> these experts could recall surprising amounts of information, far more than
> non-experts, suggesting eidetic skills. However, when the experts were
> presented with arrangements of chess pieces that could never occur in a
> game, their recall was no better than the non-experts, suggesting that they
> had developed an ability to organize certain types of information, rather
> than possessing innate eidetic ability.

Scientific skepticism about the existence of eidetic memory was fueled around
1970 by Charles Stromeyer who studied his future wife Elizabeth, who claimed
that she could recall poetry written in a foreign language that she did not
understand years after she had first seen the poem. She also could,
apparently, recall random dot patterns with such fidelity as to combine two
patterns into a stereoscopic image. She remains the only person documented to
have passed such a test. However, the methodology of the testing procedures
used is questionable (especially given the extraordinary nature of the claims
being made) as is the fact that the researcher married his subject, and that
the tests have never been repeated (Elizabeth has consistently refused to
repeat them) raises further concerns._

> _With the questionable exception of Elizabeth (discussed above), as of 2008,
> no one claiming to have long-term eidetic memory has been able to prove this
> in scientific tests. There are a number of individuals with extraordinary
> memory who have been labeled eidetickers, but many use mnemonics and other,
> non-eidetic memory enhancing exercises._

Source:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidetic_memory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidetic_memory)

~~~
Afforess
If you read the article, in the first line:

> _I do not think I fall into the "eidetic memory" category, although I have a
> superb photographic memory._

~~~
confluence
If you bothered to read my source:

> _Eidetic memory commonly referred to as photographic memory or total recall,
> is the ability to recall images, sounds or objects in memory with great
> precision, and is not acquired through mnemonics._

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prostoalex
"Moonwalking with Einstein" is a great book on memory and memory competitions,
and actually featured an overview of people who have "photographic" memory,
people who can memorize the longest sequence of numbers, and a person whose
temporal memory is only 15 minutes.

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lotharbot
This reminds me a bit of the way telepathy was presented on the TV show
"Babylon 5". Untrained telepaths found themselves awash in a sea of confusing,
poorly organized thoughts that they couldn't control (the "broadcast" thoughts
of others.) With training, they could block out others' thoughts, or focus and
read specific thoughts from specific people. Star Trek:TNG showed a similar
contrast in the episode "Tin Man", between normal Betazoids and Tam Elbrun,
who couldn't shut off his mind-reading ability and therefore found being near
people excessively stressful.

The same ability could be either a curse or a blessing, depending on how well
it was organized and controlled.

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wallflower
I remember reading in Reader's Digest a couple decades ago about a gambler who
had a photographic memory. He was very successful at this and smart enough to
not be black listed by the casino. Unfortunately, one day, he was caught in a
casino fire - several people perished, he barely survived. After that, he was
unable to ever enter a casino again - because he would be flooded with exact
images of the mayhem and carnage and death that he had seen that fateful day.

There is always a flip side to superpowers like photographic memory.

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ekianjo
Two follow up questions: 1) Would it then be safe to conclude that Mozart
probably had photographic memory, since he could remember a whole song just by
listening to it once ? 2) Do people with photographic memory feel isolated,
and if yes, do they suffer from it ? The author hinted at that, but I wonder
if there is any kind of general trait there.

~~~
stygianguest
The ability to remember music is more like chessmasters being able to remember
configurations of the chess board who can remember any chess board
configuration but suddenly become like any of us when trying to memorize an
impossible configuration. It is, for example, unlikely that Mozard would have
had instant recall for Indian music that has many rhythms, 22 tones in an
octave and some very different harmonic constructions. Essentially a well
trained ear can remember the music, but not the sound.

~~~
mechanical_fish
I suspect Mozart would have been helped by the fact that he grew up in the
heart of the classical era and the concert music of the day was quite
formalized. There were certain things that always happened in a piece of
concert music, and certain things that never happened.

It may go without saying, but part of the reason why such relatively strict
musical forms were popular in the 18th century is that they made the music
easier for amateurs to memorize and perform. There was a big boom in middle-
class amateur musicianship at the time.

Modern musicians operate at a handicap relative to Mozart because modern
music, even if we restrict ourselves to Western concert music, is
stylistically and formally all over the place.

~~~
ekianjo
Well I was referring to Allegri' Miserere in particular which is not a
classical piece of Music, yet Mozart was able to transcribe it from memory
after hearing it only once. Its all a capella as well.

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skarayan
It is interesting. He is intelligent and has a very good grasp on reality, but
does not seem to know himself very well. (e.g. not being able to control his
thoughts and visualizations/memories)

It would be tremendous to master the self as well as reality -- then one could
control his emotions and visuals, as well as channel it according to their
will.

------
idaniboy
While having a good memory is important for cognition, it is just as important
to be able to forget memories. There are probably limits to how efficiently
our brains can scan memories for information relevant to a given situation and
having more memories decreases the efficiency of this process. Also, when you
can find almost all knowledge about anything on Google in just a heartbeat,
it's inefficient to try to memorize most things. As Einstein said, "Never
memorize what you can look up in books."

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Kiro
The thing with people claiming to have photographic memory is that they have
nothing to compare to. What they describe is a complete normal memory and for
some reason they think everyone else remembers things in a different way.

I'm not saying the author doesn't have photographic memory, it's just that
it's often simply not the case.

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bcgraham
Borges had a great short story about the logical extreme of this:
[http://www.srs-pr.com/literature/borges-funes.pdf](http://www.srs-
pr.com/literature/borges-funes.pdf) .

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celias
reminds me of this RadioLab episode about Mr. S
[http://www.radiolab.org/2010/apr/05/limits-of-the-
mind/](http://www.radiolab.org/2010/apr/05/limits-of-the-mind/)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Shereshevsky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Shereshevsky)

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eperturk
Not sure I sympathize. But I didn't know photographic memories included
sounds. Are smells included?

~~~
AndrewKemendo
At least for me I would say yes. I know I can think of my grandmother's house
and immediately smell it.

~~~
nrmn
Isnt this normal? Being able to recall smells/sounds/etc from places you've
been?

~~~
lostlogin
I have the opposite - the smell of burnt diesel and brewing (beer I assume)
reminds me instantly of Edinburgh. I have lots of things that I can instantly
remember the exact spot I first smelled them, but no smell memory or whatever
you would call it.

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jgeerts
I think it's horrible, what has been seen cannot be unseen.

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shire
For years I was convinced Photographic Memory was Impossible.

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adnam
Oh dear, Quora is leaking out.

