What are the "symptoms" of a "photographic" memory?
I can remember so many things with so many "odd", specific details. When I remember things, I usually see people or things exactly as they were. I never knew if I had a "photographic" memory. Share your experiences, and I’ll compare!
My daughter has one. She can read something a year or even 4 years ago and can tell you what happen on a certain of a book. She also can remember what she has seen over 5 years ago if we go there again. But never did anything about it. She even took a test when she was in kindergarden and they were even amazed at her. But said she failed the test on one answer, because she answered bear instead of lion, when they ask her what growls? Sure sounds like it to me.
If you have a photographic memory, you will be able to recall anything about everything you see or read. I have a very good memory, but nothing close to a photographic memory. The greatest percentage of people with photographic memory are those who have autism.
Is there such a thing as a photographic memory?
While one cannot completely discount the possibility of a photographic memory, since there have been some very rare individuals with truly extraordinary powers of memory, those examples of outstanding memory that have been studied have all turned out to be due to the use of powerful memory strategies.
The lesson we can draw from most examples of "photographic memory" is that there are truly effective memory strategies, and anyone who wants to put in the requisite time and energy can achieve such a powerful memory. However, the point that most so-called "memory trainers" don’t make, is that to achieve such levels of mastery requires a great deal of practice. Moreover, their accomplishments are specific to the memory task they have practiced. That is, achieving a high level of skill at remembering names doesn’t mean you’ll be any better at remembering things you’ve read, or things you have to do.
Practicing a particular strategy leads to skill at that strategy, it doesn’t lead to a "good memory". There is no such thing as a good memory, and no such thing as a bad one. You may be good at remembering some things, and poor at remembering others.
It should be noted I am only talking here of people with no brain abnormalities. It does seem that particular brain abnormalities can lead to ways of processing information that are dramatically different from the normal. However, it may well be that such a memory limits understanding.
I’ve read that people only use 10% of their brain. Is this true?
This, or variants of this, are repeated in a great many popular books about the brain and memory. Quite where this idea started I have no idea. It is not at all clear what it means, or what evidence exists for such a statement. The brain contains billions of neurons and I doubt many of them are sitting around just basking in the oxygen, waiting for you to come up with an exciting new strategy that will suddenly trigger them into action, after decades of inertness.
The brain is the most active part of our body, and its activity derives from the connections between those billions of neurons. Memory and thought are contained in patterns of activation, not in single neurons. The essence of how the brain works is that the neurons are all connected. The brain is a network. How can a network work if a significant portion of it isn’t working?
The key to improving your mental skills is in making good connections. How can anyone say your connections are only 10% of what they could be? And what on earth would that mean?
The "statistic" is meaningless. What can be said, truthfully, is that we can all improve the organization of our memories.
Will memorizing lists and speeches improve my memory?
No. Many "memory trainers" tell you memory is like a muscle, and if you exercise it it will become stronger. They tell you that memorizing things will make your memory better. However, you can memorize until you’re blue in the face, and this won’t give you a better memory. Indeed, if you set aside time each day for memorizing, you will usually find that eventually it takes you longer to memorize information (boredom probably!)1.
The value of memory "exercise" lies in what you’re doing. If you’re simply learning by rote repetition, this does nothing, because memory is not a muscle. If you’re using a memory strategy of some kind, then of course practice will improve your skill at that strategy. Hence, if you spend an hour every day on memorizing using a mnemonic strategy (say the method of loci, or the pegword strategy), you will indeed become better at using that strategy. In fact, it takes a great deal of practice before you can effectively use most of these strategies.
However, this will not "improve your memory", because memory is not a thing. What it does, is make you better at that particular strategy, and only that strategy.
I’m not personally aware of any "symptoms" associated with a photographic memory. My cousin had a photographic memory. He made straight A’s in school. He never had to take any books home to do homework. All he needed to do, was to read the chapters once and they were locked into his mind. He had that ability from the time he was in 5th grade until he graduated in his 12th grade.
I have a very "selective" photographic memory, lol. Stuff usually that make an impact on me like people who were mean to me, bad experiences, certain faces, names, places, things that are dear to me at the time, etc.
I just wish I was better at names most of the time! Like it takes a week to jog my memory=( My Dad God bless him had a photographic memory like Geography, History & people’s license plates, lol.