I had a look at this article in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_memory
I'm not sure I'm any the wiser!
Is there any good scientific evidence that some people have exceptional memory, if not total recall?
I've always considered photographic memory an exaggeration used in fiction, but am I wrong? ???
.
John
If I remember correctly (no pun intended), eidetic memory is something that is quite common in young children. I used to have a fairly above average ability at recalling things verbatim when I was (much) younger. It's gone now..ermm..what was I saying? Oh yes......
However, I acknowledge now that other aspects such as attention and motivation may have possibly come into it.
Maybe the term 'photographic memory' is a misnomer?
Certainly, there is evidence of people with exceptional memories employing mnemonic strategies and it has been argued that savant's brains are more developed in selected areas at the expense of others.
Where's an academic when you need them?
Anecdote isn't evidence, but there was a fellow I knew in grad school who had as near total recall as I can imagine in a human being.
He was an astrophysicist by trade doing a second BA in geology because it would make him a better planetary scientist. Also good-looking with a beautiful singing voice. And really, really nice.
I remember the hit TV programme You Bet with Matthew Whossizname, they had the president of Mensa on. Must have been about 15 years ago. His challenge was as follows:
1) Lots of tennis balls were laid out randomly on the floor by audience members (I can't recally exactly how many but the number 99 is being persistent).
2) The Mensa chap sat atop a high stool blindfold during this. When the balls were in place, the blindfold was removed and he looked at the balls for a length of time (I think 3 minutes).
3) He was re-blindfolded and one more ball was placed with the others.
4) The blindfold was removed and he had to say which was the extra ball.
Now, he failed the test, but had (apparently) done this successfully in his own trials before, and he claimed that he did it by taking a mental photograph of the balls and comparing it to what was in front of him. I guess that would fit the description of a 'photographic memory' pretty accurately.
Again, purely anecdotal, but my step-brothers ex-girlfriend had a photographic memory. She could read a page of text three or four times and then she could recite it word for word, backwards, forwards, every other word, etc. She claimed that she actually had an image of the page in her head which allowed her to do this. She wasn't the smartest cookie in the jar, but she was VERY good at exams.
Shame she was such a selfish, obnoxious cow.
My memory isn't what it used to be (I blame beer and cartoons), but I can still remember photographs.
How can you tell?Originally Posted by vbloke
All I think about is sex.
I have a pornographic memory
All I think about is music
I have a phonographic memory
Everything I remember is an illusion.
I have a holographic memory!
Boy this thread is going to go off the rails big time
I think you may be lying, Teek.
You see I have...wait for it.........
a polygraphic memory
I remember things in different places with my...
...geographic memory!
By golly, there's some barrel-scraping going on now.
Ah but I know where those places are!
I have a cartographic memory
Barrel-scraping?
Tell me when we hit the dregs, Teek:D :D
I remember the surface features of places I've been....
I have a topographic memory.
Count me in for the barrel-scraping!
I can remember handwriting...
I have a calligraphic memory
(digs through bottom of barrel heading south)
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