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Eidetic memory

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"Total Recall" redirects here. For other uses, see Total Recall (disambiguation).
This article is about the ability to perfectly recall images, sounds or objects. For the TV show, see Wogan's Perfect Recall. For the video game developer, see SCE Bend Studio. For the 2011 documentary film, see Photographic Memory (film). For the 1990 film, see Total Recall (1990 film).

Eidetic memory (/aɪˈdɛtɪk/), commonly referred to as photographic memory or total recall, is an inconclusively disputed ability to recall images, sounds or objects in memory with great precision, and is not acquired through mnemonics. The word eidetic comes from the Greek word εἶδος (pronounced [êːdos], eidos, "seen").[1]

Overview

The ability to recall images in great detail for several minutes is often found in early childhood (between 2% and 10% of that age group) and is unconnected with the person's intelligence level. Like other memories, they are often subject to unintended alterations. The ability usually begins to fade after the age of six years, perhaps as growing vocal skills alter the memory process.[2][3] A few adults have had phenomenal memories (not necessarily of images), but their abilities are also unconnected with their intelligence levels and tend to be highly specialized. In extreme cases, like those of Solomon Shereshevsky and Kim Peek, memory skills can actually hinder social skills.[4]

The correct name is eidetic memory. The term speed reading is often misused too. An eidetic memory is the recall of written material.

Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM)[1] can also remember things like what shoes a stranger wore on a specific date, show MRI differences, and have trouble with social skills (or, dealing with people who have inferior memories; ie: only 2 of 55 in the US have successful marriages) as well as suffer from depression/introspection.[2]

Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic savant, drew an 18' long highly detailed panorama of Manhattan after one 20 minute helicopter ride.[3]

Skeptical views

The American cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky, in his book The Society of Mind (1988), considered reports of eidetic memory to be an "unfounded myth".[5]

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.[6][7] 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)[8] 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)[9] raises further concerns.

Claims of eidetic memory

Main article: List of people claimed to possess an eidetic memory
Big Ben on a rainy evening in London, drawn entirely on the basis of memory by Stephen Wiltshire.

With the questionable exception of Elizabeth (discussed above), as of 2008, an article claims that of the people rigorously scientifically tested, no one claiming to have long-term eidetic memory has proven this ability (but see the 55 people with HSAM).[9] 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. The others, like AJ haven't been thoroughly tested.

Prodigious savants

Television characters with eidetic memories include

In Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events series, one of the three protagonists, Klaus Baudelaire, is an avid reader and amateur researcher with an eidetic memory. He remembers virtually everything that he reads from books of any kind, even learned many languages. His knowledge and resources often help his other siblings, Violet and Sunny, to escape from dangerous situations, e.g. Count Olaf, the primary antagonist of the series.

Symbologist Robert Langdon from Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol and Inferno has an eidetic memory.

In the Swedish Millennium series by Stieg Larsson (and its accompanying films), the hacker heroine Lisbeth Salander has an eidetic memory.[13]

In the movie Good Will Hunting, the main character, Will Hunting, is said to possess both an extraordinary IQ and an eidetic memory, demonstrated at the bar scene where he confronts a plagiarist. [citation needed]

Significant parts of the plot of Small Gods by Terry Pratchett depend on the hyperthymestic, eidetic memory of the novice Brutha. He remembers every moment of his life in perfect detail, down to the precise location and timing of individual footsteps. He cannot read, but he can nevertheless make perfect reproductions of documents from memory because he remembers the shapes of the letters. When he witnesses a disreputable action and is ordered to forget it, he does not understand the order as he has no concept of "forgetting". When asked what is the first thing that he can remember, he replies "There was a bright light, and then someone hit me".

The novel My Idea of Fun by author Will Self features a protagonist with a powerful eidetic memory, and this is explored extensively by Self.[14] In this novel, the eidetic capabilities of the "Eidetiker" greatly exceed those described in this article.

In keeping with their unusual style, Autechre named track 7 from Confield 'Eidetic Casein' (literally translated, meaning 'photographic milk-proteins').

In Thomas Harris's 1981 novel Red Dragon, protagonist Will Graham is explicitly identified as having an eidetic memory rivaling Hannibal Lecter's.

In the visual novels Jisei, Kansei and Yousei by SakeVisual, one of the characters, Naoki Mizutani, possesses an eidetic memory.

In the comic book series Ruse, Simon Archard, one of the primary protagonists, has an eidetic memory.

In the Mass Effect series, the Drell species possess eidetic memory as a racial trait.

In Sharon Draper's novel Out of My Mind, the character Melody has eidetic memory though she has a condition called "Cerebral Palsy".

In David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest, the character Hal Incandenza has an eidetic memory.

In Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, the character Bean has a completely flawless eidetic memory.

In Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun, the protagonist Severian has a supposedly eidetic memory.

In Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, Lasciel, Dresden's temporary mental houseguest, creates a physical persona named Sheila, who helps Dresden with some magical detective work by using her eidetic memory.

Funes the Memorious" or "Funes, His Memory." (original Spanish title: "Funes el memorioso") is a fantasy short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. First published in La Nación in June 1942, it appeared in the 1944 anthology Ficciones, part two (Artifices).

See also

  • Ayumu - a chimpanzee whose performance in short-term memory tests is higher than university students
  • Exceptional memory – scientific background to the research into exceptional memory
  • Hyperthymesia – a condition characterised by superior autobiographical memory
  • Synaptic plasticity - ability of the strength of a synapse to change

References

  1. ^ "Eidetic". American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed. 2000. Retrieved 2007-12-12.
  2. ^ Adams, William (1 March 2006). "The Truth About Photographic Memory". Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  3. ^ Searleman, Alan (12 March 2007). "Is there such a thing as a photographic memory? And if so, can it be learned?". Scientific American. Nature America. Retrieved 10 July 2013.
  4. ^ Barber, Nigel (December 22, 2010). "Remembering everything? Memory searchers suffer from amnesia!". Psychology Today. Sussex. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
  5. ^ Minsky, Marvin (1998). Society of Mind. Simon & Schuster. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-671-65713-0. ...we often hear about people with 'photographic memories' that enable them to quickly memorize all the fine details of a complicated picture or a page of text in a few seconds. So far as I can tell, all of these tales are unfounded myths, and only professional magicians or charlatans can produce such demonstrations.
  6. ^ Stromeyer, C. F., Psotka, J. (1970). "The detailed texture of eidetic images". Nature. 225 (5230): 346–349. doi:10.1038/225346a0. PMID 5411116.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Thomas, N.J.T. (2010). Other Quasi-Perceptual Phenomena. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  8. ^ Blakemore, C., Braddick, O., & Gregory, R.L. (1970). Detailed Texture of Eidetic Images: A Discussion. Nature, 226, 1267–1268.
  9. ^ a b Foer, Joshua (April 27, 2006). "Kaavya Syndrome: The accused Harvard plagiarist doesn't have a photographic memory. No one does". Slate. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
  10. ^ Treffert, Darold (1989). Extraordinary People: understanding "idiot savants". New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-015945-6. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. ^ Martin, David. Savants: Charting "islands of genius", CNN broadcast September 14, 2006
  12. ^ "Pi World Ranking List". Retrieved 12 February 2010.
  13. ^ Larsson, Stieg (2009). The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. p. 462. ISBN 978-0-307-47347-9. 'Lisbeth, you have a photographic memory,' Mikael exclaimed in surprise. 'That's why you can read a page of the investigation in ten seconds.'
  14. ^ Self, Will (1993). My Idea of Fun. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 165. ISBN 0-7475-1591-3. I went into a full-blown eidetic trance.
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