Can anybody tell me for certain if there's such a thing as a true photographic memory?
Is the term "photographic memory" truly accurate? People talk about such a thing, but I thought I’d read somewhere that it is a myth. No jokes, please. I seriously would like to know!
Yes, indeed there is.
Cognitive psychologists have pondered this question on and off for many years. The psychological term for photographic memory is ‘eidectic memory’, and it has been quite controversial.
There are some rare individuals who are known as eidetikers who possess a genuinely ‘photographic memory, where ‘photographic’ means registering visual images in great detail so that they can later be inspected like photographs.
An example of such a person is provided in Neisser’s Memory Observed collection. Elizabeth, an artist and the wife of visual scientist Charles Stromeyer, can inspect a random pattern of 1000s of black and white dots then compare it with the same pattern altered by shifting some of the dots horizontally, and detect the shape of the shifted dot pattern. In other words, she can perform stereopsis between a remembered and present visual image. This is an astonishing feat of visual memory.
Eidectic memory is thought to be more common in childhood, which makes Elizabeth’s stereoscopic feat even more remarkable. Haber (1979) provided an extensive review of the literature, and that is the place to start if you want to delve more deeply into this subject matter.
In an Investigating Minds seminar held in1997 one of the students, Sally Jane, prepared a web site about photographic memory that has useful material like definitions, history, and references. Check out Sally Jane’s Peach Puff Domain.
Some Research Sources:
Gray, C.R., and Gummerman, K. (1975). The enigmatic eidetic image: A critical examination of methods, data, and theories. Psychological Bulletin 82, 383-407.
Haber, R.N. (1979). Twenty years of haunting eidetic imagery: Where’s the ghost? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2, 583-629.
Haber, R.N., and Haber, L.R. (1988). The Characteristics of Eidetic Imagery. In Fein, D. and Obler, L.K. (Eds.) The Exceptional Brain. New York, London: The Guilford Press, 218-241.
Paivio, A., and Cohen, M. (1979). Eidetic imagery and coginitive abilities. Journal of Mental Imagery 3, 53-64.
Stromeyer, C.F. (1982). An Adult Eidetiker. In Ulric Neisser (ed). Memory Observed. New York:W.H. Freeman and Company. p.399-404.
yeah i kind of have it i can remember a face for years just not the name of the person
True Phpotgraphic memory has to be a myth.
If I flash every page of a 1000 page book in front of a person. 1 page per second, there is no human on earth that will be able to recite it back to me.
BP
I think some people do have photographic memory. Only because my friend may have that because he can remember things really well even if i cant. He can remember almost every detail of something hes looked at. So yes I think there is such a thing as photographic memory.
Yes its real, I had a Friend who had one when I was growing up. He had a speech impairment and people thought he was an idiot when he talked. But he could tell you almost anything from memory.
I know there are people who are very skilled and talented in remembering details of events that can be described to the point that it is almost like describing a scene in a picture. This is where the "photographic memory " term comes from. These are people that can glance at a license plate and remember the numbers three weeks later. Just better memories function than the norm.
If there is I’m mad I wasn’t born with it!!!
There is no such this as a photographic memory (well except maybe elizbeth?)
Cheack out this site.
http://www.slate.com/id/2140685/?nav=navoa
If you really really want to know more cheack out this one to!
http://cognews.com/1065163951/index_html
I think there is such a thing. I have have read articles on this. I have not ever met an actual person but it sure would be a great thing to have.
There is. My mom told me of a friend i had six years ago. Upon the mention of her name, I had a visual image of her face in my mind:) I met her yesterday, and despite the six year change in her face, I instantly recognized her. Also, what do you think dreams are?