Photographic Memory
Found in an extremely small portion of the population, photographic (eidetic) memories continue to amaze and inspire. This phenomenon is often found in young children, 
however, most people lose this ability by the time they reach adulthood. Some speculate that this occurs because of a shift from visual to verbal memorization techniques. Young children tend to use pictures or images they’ve seen to recall information, but as they become more adept at speaking, they begin to use actual words to memorize things. For instance, when studying for a test or giving a presentation, I simply memorize a few key words that will help me remember everything I need to know. In contrast there were monks that lived during the Middle Ages that made their memories better by envisioning images in their minds that would serve as a connection between unrelated information, and apparently this method allowed them to remember vast amounts of knowledge. In addition to being associated with children, eidetic memories can be seen in individuals who suffer from autism as well.
Photographic memories can be so exact that they allow someone to recite poetry in languages that they couldn’t even understand several years after seeing the poem in written form. Other ways that people demonstrate their memorizing capabilities is by attempting to recall the order of a randomly shuffled deck of cards or a random string of numbers that are shown for a short period of time. However, photographic memories are more than just a means of memorizing lots of irrelevant data. One person that has put his photographic memory to good use is Robert Evans, a super tight Australian astronomer who currently holds the record for visual discoveries of supernovae with 42 discoveries (nobody has even come close to his mark). Over the course of his life, he has memorized the positions of around 1500 galaxies, and he can notice changes simply by looking at the sky through his telescope. Absolutely incredible.
While having a photographic memory is extremely cool, there are a few downsides as well. People with photographic memories tend to absorb too much information, meaning that they often have to deal with a lot of irrelevant data running around in their brain. Memory really is only useful when one is able to recall information or apply it to their situation, and having to metaphorically file through thoughts and pictures in ones brain can be inefficient. Also, because people with photographic memories remember events so vividly, they may have a difficult time trying to rid their minds of undesirable thoughts or experiences. Below is the part 1/5 of a documentary from the UK called “The Boy With the Incredible Brain” about a man named Daniel Tammet who has an incredible memory.
View: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
There are many examples of people with photographic memories, but the phenomenon is still not understood very well. In fact, there continues to be a raging debate about whether photographic memory even exists. Regardless, I am constantly surprised by the capabilities of people with incredible memories. One event that comes to mind was a talent show at my high school where a student had memorized about 100 digits of pi. I was amazed by how he could do this, but he is no where close to the world record of 100,000 digits memorized by Akira Haraguchi in 2006. If you think you have superior memory capabilities, or have any interesting stories, STS would love to hear about them, so please comment below about your experiences.
March 28th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
This is why it’s so ironic (and slightly unbelievable) that Ask Marilyn’s last name is vos Savant. That aside…
I took an intelligence test in the second grade and I remember a section in which they gave me a set of symbols, each that corresponded to a number from 1 to 9 (or maybe 1 to 5, I’m not sure). Then for the next two pages it was just a long, random string of these symbols and under each symbol I was supposed to write the number each one corresponded to. I scored around 147 on this section — I sort of remember taking this test, and how the numbers just sort of lined themselves up with their symbols in my head.
Then there was another section where the proctor read out loud a random string of numbers and I was supposed to repeat it back after. Eventually the strings got longer and I was asked to repeat them backwards and forwards, tell her what the middle number was, etc. I failed this section miserably and couldn’t repeat a string of more than about five numbers.
July 10th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
I have a niece who can memorize in detail anything that she chooses to. She explained her ability to me one time by saying that its like “taking a photograph” and storing it on a page in her head. When she needs to retrieve information about something that she has seen, she simply searches for the “page” in her head and can then see in detail everything that is on the “page”. To go one step further, she also has the ability to recall digital information, and says that she can search for a numerical string in her head until she finds it (quite rapidly from what I’ve seen), and then view in detail information related to that numerical string. For example, she is able to memorize 7-digit bar code numbers corresponding to items of clothing in a store that she works at. Every day at the store she reviews the store’s inventory by taking a mental photograph of an inventory spreadsheet on the store’s computer, and then can retrieve information regarding any item of clothing by simply searching for the bar code number in her head. Employees at the store have tested her on this ability and are amazed when she retrieves the info in her mind and is never inaccurate. I’ve never heard of anyone else having both a photographic memory and this ability to store and retrieve digital information so am wondering if anyone out there has ever heard of this before and, if so, how rare is it?