Describe photographic memory...

[mpg]

Can someone describe photographic memory. Is it a actual picture in your head. Sometimes I feel I have photographic memory, but I just don't know. Confused.

 

[Viper GTS]

I think the basic concept is you're able to remember minute details with only minimal exposure.

Viper GTS

 

[Isla]

OK, I have a photographic memory. It comes in handy... but sometimes it is a pain if there are things you want to forget.

I can 'replay' things in my mind and 'see' them again. I can still 'see' some posts here after I read them. Everything gets processed in my memory sort of like a video camera, with sound.

edit: yeah, Viper, that is part of it. I can read something once and remember it forever.

 

[mpg]

Wow Isla, were you born with it or did it happen over time? Can someone teach themself to have photographic memory?

 

[Isla]

I think I was born this way. When I was a little kid, they thought I was some kind of genius or something, but really I just have a good memory.

The Queen of Photographic Memory is my 94 year old grandmother. She remembers everything in such freakish detail it scares the rest of the family. She really is remarkable! She can tell you what happened on her soap operas 30 years ago... remember entire seasons of Dallas... remember every conversation.... my dad can't stand her.

edit: There are exercises to improve your memeory, though.

 

[mpg]

Only 3 payments of 29.95 ? Well if anyone knows how to achieve photographic memory speak up

 

[yakko]

I used to know but I forgot.

 

[Windogg]

It's funky, if I don't forget it in 1 hour, it usually sticks in my head for quite a while. I shock my parent when I remember very small details from my youth.

Windogg

 

[Shalmanese]

photgraphic isnt really an accurate way to describe it. Studies have shown that we all store information at about the same rate (2 bits per second in case you were wondering) but different people have... well, I guess you would call it a more effecient compression algorithim so that they can stre more data in less space. Noone has true photographic memory where you can actually remember pictures as raw data but it jhas been shown that anyone can have a phenomanal memory if properly trained and willing to persevere.

People are known to memorize a pack of cards in order in one shuffle through but they do this by utilising memories already in the brain rather than just trying to store large chunks of data(13 different cards need 4 bits + four suits need 2 bits = 6 bits per card * 54 = 324 bits = ~162 seconds bout 3 mins with optimal memory storage.). Instead, they rely on predefined sequences which they store in there heads as storys so that each tail of a story can likn up with the head of the next so that they can create a logical sequence for the order of the cards.

some people also are good at guessing information which they did not take in but is based on previous expectations. This means we actually only need (and do) take in very small amounts of data from the senses and assume everything else from this data.

Hope that has been of some use to you.

 

[kranky]

For me, many things I remember are kind of "photographic". Like if I'm trying to remember something I read, I can often recall where it was on the page, and if a key word was hyphenated (split between two lines). And I'm pretty good with names, but when I'm wrong it will be because I got it mixed up with another name that is the same number of letters. When I run into someone I haven't seen in a while, in trying to think of the name I might see "(5 letters) (7 letters)" and coming up with the name is like filling in the blank. When trying to spell, I picture the word and just say the letters that are there. The words I spell incorrectly, I can't come up with a clear "picture" for.

Don't know how to explain it, it's just the way my brain works.

 

[Mday]

boy am i glad my memory is not any better =(

it'd make me legally\medically insane.

it's a real curse actually... there are some things that i can never forget... and it's pointless to remember too...

 

[DaveJ]

I used to have a photographic memory, but I ran out of film...

Dave

 

[thebestMAX]

I remember everything and I wish I didnt.