Eidetic memory

Eidetic memory, photographic memory, or total recall is the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme accuracy and in abundant volume. The word eidetic (pronounced /аɪˈdɛtɪk/) means related to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall of visual images, and comes from the Greek word είδος (eidos), which means "form".^[1] Eidetic memory can have a very different meaning for memory experts who use the picture elicitation method to detect it^{[vague][citation needed]}. Eidetic memory as observed in children is typified by the ability of an individual to study an image for approximately 30 seconds, and maintain a nearly perfect photographic memory of that image for a short time once it has been removed—indeed such eidetikers claim to "see" the image on the blank canvas as vividly and in as perfect detail as if it were still there.

Some individuals with autism display extraordinary memory, including those with related conditions such as Asperger's syndrome. Autistic savants are a rarity but they, in particular, show signs of spectacular memory. However, most individuals with a diagnosis of autism do not possess eidetic memory.

Synesthesia has also been credited as an enhancement of auditory memory, but only for information that triggers a synesthetic reaction. However, some synesthetes have been found to have a more acute than normal "perfect color" sense with which they are able to match color shades nearly perfectly after extended periods of time, without the accompanying synesthetic reaction.

Many people who generally have a good memory claim to have eidetic memory. However, there are distinct differences in the manner in which information is processed. People who have a generally capable memory often use mnemonic devices to retain information while those with eidetic memory remember very specific details, such as where a person was standing, what the person was wearing, etc. They may recall an event with great detail while those with a normal memory remember daily routines rather than specific details that may have interrupted a routine.

Also, it is not uncommon that some people may experience 'sporadic eidetic memory', where they may describe a rather limited number of memories in very close detail. These sporadic occurrences of eidetic memory are not triggered consciously in most cases.

Controversy

Dr. Marvin Minsky, in his book The Society of Mind, was unable to verify claims of eidetic memory and considered reports of eidetic memory to be an "unfounded myth."

Support for the belief that eidetic memory could be a myth was supplied by the psychologist Adriaan de Groot, who conducted an experiment 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, implying that they had developed an ability to organise certain types of information, rather than possessing innate eidetic ability.

Some people attribute exceptional powers of memory to enhanced memory techniques as opposed to any kind of innate difference in the brain. However, support for the belief that eidetic memory is a real phenomenon has been supplied by some studies. Charles Stromeyer studied his future wife Elizabeth who could recall poetry written in a foreign language that she did not understand years after she had first seen the poem. She also could recall random dot patterns with such fidelity as to combine two patterns into a stereoscopic image.^[2] She remains the only person to have passed such a test. However, the credibility of the findings about Elizabeth are highly questionable seeing as the researcher married his subject, and the tests have never been repeated. Elizabeth refuses to repeat them.^[3] There are more complex figures in Foundations of Cyclopean Perception, a book on such patterns by Bela Julesz.^[4]

A.R. Luria wrote a famous account, Mind of a Mnemonist, of a subject with a remarkable memory, S. V. Shereshevskii; among various extraordinary feats, he could memorize lengthy lists of random words and recall them perfectly decades later. Luria believed the man had effectively unlimited recall; Shereshevskii is believed by some to be a prodigious savant like Kim Peek. He used memorisation techniques where he "arranged" objects along a specific stretch of Gorky Road and went back and "picked" them up one by one. He missed an egg once because he claims he placed it by a white picket fence and did not see it when he went back for it. This is an example of a trained memory rather than an eidetic or photographic memory.

People claimed to possess an eidetic memory

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A number of people claim to have eidetic memory, but until 2008, nearly no one had been tested and documented as having a memory that is truly photographic in a literal sense.^[5] Regardless, a number of individuals with extraordinary memory that have been labeled by some as eidetikers.^[6]

• Swami Vivekananda, famous Indian philosopher and guru. It was recorded in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda that he had memorized ten volumes of encyclopedia in very few days.^[7] He explains his powers as "simply by the observance of strict Brahmacharya (continence) all learning can be mastered in a very short time -- one has an unfailing memory of what one hears or knows but once".
• Sukarno, the father of Indonesian independence and the first president of The Republic of Indonesia, had a photographic memory, which helped him in his languages learning.^[8]
• Luke Mason, a British male able to memorize large pieces of texts, such as text books and strings of numbers after reading them once and recalling with perfect accuracy. Luke also has a gift for natural languages and he experiences synaesthesia.
• Cal Ripken, Jr. and Jimmy Rollins can recall pitch sequences from each at bat they had, as well as opposing hitters tendencies.^[9]
• Napoleon Bird was an English barber in the 19th century. According to The Oxford Companion to Music (6th edition, 1945), he showed a massive feat of memory by "...publicly playing for forty-four hours without repeating a composition; from 11pm to 3am he played dance music for hundreds of couples, and, during the subsequent forty hours, whenever any vocalist or instrumentalist appeared and asked to be accompanied, the mere statement of the piece and the key required were sufficient."
• Hans von Bülow was a 19th century pianist and conductor with what could be described as a perfect musical memory. He could play both Brahms' and Beethoven's entire piano works from memory, and conducted the first performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde without the score, having never heard it before but studying the score pre-emptively, which was enough for him to memorise a work — he did not need to hear it.
• Stephen Wiltshire, MBE, is a prodigious savant,^[10] capable of drawing the entire skyline of a city after a helicopter ride.^[11]
• Wynne Kulman, able to memorize textbooks, serial numbers, and other documents after reading them just once.
• Erin Freedman, able to memorize long streams of numbers after hearing them just once.
• Kim Peek, prodigious savant and inspiration for the character Raymond Babbit, played by Dustin Hoffmann, in the film Rain Man.
• Tom Morton, a taxi driver, knew over 16,000 telephone numbers in Lancashire and beat the British Olympia Telephone Exchange computer with his recall while being interviewed by Esther Rantzen and Adrian Mills on the popular BBC magazine programme That's Life! in 1993.^[12]
• Nikola Tesla^[13]
• Said Nursî, a Turkish Islamic scholar who was able to recite many books from memory. For instance "... So then he [Molla Fethullah] decided to test his memory and handed him a copy of the work by Al-Hariri of Basra (1054-1122) — also famous for his intelligence and power of memory — called Maqamat al-Hariri. Molla Said read one page once, memorized it, then repeated it by heart. Molla Fethullah expressed his amazement." ^[14]
• Abbie Hoffman, leader of the Yippie movement, claims to have eidetic memory in his 1968 book Revolution for the Hell of It.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart appeared to have a perfect musical memory (whether this is related to eidetic memory remains to be argued). As a young adolescent, he wrote down Allegri's Misere entirely from memory after hearing it only once, making only minor corrections later. Others such as Ludwig van Beethoven have shown similar capacity, personally premiering a piano concerto and performing without the piano part.^{[citation needed]}
• Business tycoon Charles M. Schwab could remember the names of 8,000 employees.^{[citation needed]}
• Andriy Slyusarchuk, a Ukrainian professor from Lviv,^[15] achieved a world record on February 28, 2006 after having memorized 5,100 numbers in two minutes.^[16][17] By June, 2009 he had claimed to have memorized the first 30 million places of pi, which were printed in 20 volumes of text ^[18] Although he did not recite the entire 30 million digits that he claims to have memorized, it is reported that he was able to recite randomly selected sequences from the printed text of the 30 million digits.
• Sergei Rachmaninov, one of Russia's most famous composers and pianists, is said to have been able to perfectly recall any musical score after sight reading it just twice.^{[citation needed]}
• Desi Arnaz, husband of Lucille Ball and co-star of I Love Lucy was able to memorize his script after reading it through once.^{[citation needed]}
• Islamic Scholars, numerous Islamic scholars had phenomenal memories. Indeed, until very recently, major islamic scholars not only memorized the whole qur'an, but also hadith with the chain of narrators and biographies of those narrators. Imam Shafiyi, Imam Bukhari, Imam Nawawi and recently Imam Ahmed Raza Khan had memorized texts.^{[citation needed]}
• Hu Jintao, current President of the People's Republic of China.^{[citation needed]}

See also

Advanced Memory

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Category:Mnemonics

• synaptic plasticity
• autistic savant
• hyperthymesia - a condition where the affected individual has a superior autobiographical memory
• mnemonic
• absolute pitch (perfect pitch) - the ability to differentiate pitches, recall tones in the exact note without aid, and name a certain note played in an instant
• Ayumu, a chimpanzee who outperforms humans in short-term memory tests
• List of people in fiction with claimed eidetic memory

Notes