Is Photographic or Eidetic Memory Something You Are Born With? There are people who have entered the World Memory Championships claiming to have eidetic or photographic memory…but none of those contestants have ever taken home the prize. None of the winners have ever claimed to have photographic or eidetic memory. Every year since 1993, there is an event called the World Memory Championships. Sounds cool, right? It almost sounds too cool to be true. They can read a page of the dictionary, word by word, without any error. At a moment’s notice, a person with photographic memory can recall the image with perfect accuracy.
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Photographic memory, however, the ability to see an image or a page of text and automatically store it into short-term or long-term memory with great detail. This ability only lasts for a few seconds, before the brain decides to send the image to short-term memory storage or disregard it. This image “stays” in a person’s memory without the help of mnemonic devices or other tools to help recall details or the arrangement of items in the image. What most people associate with photographic memory is often eidetic memory.Įidetic memory is the ability to see an image for only a few seconds after it’s removal and be able to recall the image and its details vividly. Photographic MemoryĮidetic memory and photographic memory are often considered to be interchangeable terms, but they describe two different abilities. While there are tales of people who have photographic memory, or perfect long-term memory, they haven’t been scientifically tested in a way that proves their abilities. This is the big question, isn’t it? The short answer is no, photographic memory is not real. (Many X-Files fans claim that Fox Mulder has a photographic memory.)īut this astounding ability seems so out of reach – because as far as the science goes, it is out of reach. Those who talk about 19 senses ( sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, balance, vestibular, pain, eidetic imagery, temperature, magnetic, ultraviolet, infrared, ionic, vomeronasal, proximal, electrical, geogravimetric, barometric ) don't seem to be very rigorous in the evidence they require to label something a sense ( in fact, they mostly seem to be interested in " holistic education " ).Are photographic memories real? People commonly believe photographic memory to be an ability to look at whatever is in front of them, close their eyes, and immediately recall every detail. " Furthermore, there is " no " scientific consensus regarding the nature, the proper definition, or even the very existence of eidetic imagery, even in children. The American cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky, in his book " The Society of Mind " ( 1988 ), considered reports of photographic memory to be an " unfounded myth. & Such a whole creation of reality cannot be completely attained by a thinker. & This difference is especially prominent in the so-called eidetic imagery of children. The other group, the thinkers, pull it apart, kill it.
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Some researchers of eidetic imagery have proposed a link between this ability and psychosis, such as in schizophrenic populations.Įidetic imagery can be so vivid as to mimic actual perception of stimuli, which can be much like a hallucination.įurthermore, this reorganization must have been implemented during early maturity and is likely responsible for eidetic imagery in some adolescents.ĭoctors are scarred by " eidetic imagery " from such events, that is, moments that are vividly recalled and readily reproducible in one's memory long after they have occurred. The frequency of eidetic imagery is low in adults and shows greatest frequency in early child development.
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Eidetic imagery would seem to have a more legitimate claim to be the connecting link.īeyond therapeutics, interest in eidetic imagery has developed within sociology, literary criticism and the creative arts.