Eidetic memory, or
photographic memory, is the ability to
recallIn psychology, memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain, and recall information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing the memory....
imageAn image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person....
s,
soundSound is a travelling wave which is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.- Perception of sound...
s, or objects in
memoryIn psychology, memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain, and recall information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing the memory....
with extreme accuracy and in abundant volume. The word
eidetic means related to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall of visual images, and comes from the Greek word είδος (
eidos), which means "form". Eidetic memory can have a very different meaning for memory experts who use the picture elicitation method to detect it.
Eidetic memory, or
photographic memory, is the ability to
recallIn psychology, memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain, and recall information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing the memory....
imageAn image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person....
s,
soundSound is a travelling wave which is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.- Perception of sound...
s, or objects in
memoryIn psychology, memory is an organism's mental ability to store, retain, and recall information. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing the memory....
with extreme accuracy and in abundant volume. The word
eidetic means related to extraordinarily detailed and vivid recall of visual images, and comes from the Greek word είδος (
eidos), which means "form". Eidetic memory can have a very different meaning for memory experts who use the picture elicitation method to detect it. 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. Much like any other memory, the intensity of the recall may be subject to several factors such as duration and frequency of exposure to the stimulus, conscious observation, relevance to the person, etc. This fact stands in contrast to the general misinterpretation of the term which assumes a constant and total recall of all events.
Some individuals with
autismAutism is a disorder of neural development that is characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism involves many parts of the brain; how this occurs is not well understood...
display extraordinary memory, including those with
autism spectrumThe autism spectrum, also called autism spectrum disorders or autism spectrum conditions , with the word autistic sometimes replacing autism, is a spectrum of psychological conditions characterized by widespread abnormalities of social interactions and communication, as well as severely restricted...
disorders such as
Asperger syndromeAsperger syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder, and people with it therefore show significant difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and...
. 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.
SynesthesiaSynesthesia —from the Ancient Greek , "together," and , "sensation"—is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway...
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 greater detail while those with a normal memory remember daily routines rather than specific details that may have interrupted a routine. It must be noted, however, that this process is generally most evident when those with eidetic memory make an effort to remember such details.
Also, it is not uncommon that some people may experience 'sporadic eidetic memory', where they may describe some number of memories in very close detail. These sporadic occurrences of eidetic memory are not triggered consciously in most cases.
Controversy
Dr.
Marvin MinskyMarvin Lee Minsky is an American cognitive scientist in the field of artificial intelligence , co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, and author of several texts on AI and philosophy.-Biography:...
, in his book
The Society of MindThe Society of Mind is a book and theory of natural intelligence as written and developed by Marvin Minsky.- Minsky's model:In a step-by-step process, Minsky constructs a model of human intelligence which is built layer by layer from the interactions of simple parts called agents, which are...
, 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 GrootAdrianus Dingeman de Groot was a Dutch chess master and psychologist, who conducted some of the most famous chess experiments of all time in the 1940s-60...
, who conducted an experiment into the ability of
chessChess is a board game played between two players. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin...
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. 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. There are more complex figures in
Foundations of Cyclopean PerceptionFoundations of Cyclopean Perception is a book by Bela Julesz, published in 1971....
, a book on such patterns by
Bela JuleszBéla Julesz was a visual neuroscientist and experimental psychologist in the fields of visual and auditory perception.Julesz was the originator of random dot stereograms which led to the creation of autostereograms...
.
A.R. Luria wrote a famous account,
Mind of a Mnemonist, of a subject with a remarkable memory,
S. V. ShereshevskiiSolomon Veniaminovich Shereshevskii , also known simply as 'S' , was a Russian journalist and mnemonist active in the 1920s. He became famous after an anecdotal event in which he was told off for not taking any notes while attending a speech in the mid-1920s...
; 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 PeekKim Peek is a prodigious savant known as a megasavant. He has a photographic or eidetic memory, but also social developmental disabilities, possibly resulting from congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbit, played by Dustin Hoffman, in the movie...
. 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
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. Regardless, a number of individuals with extraordinary memory that have been labeled by some as eidetikers. Examples such as these, in coupling with media reinforcement, are the reason for the general misconception that all persons possessing eidetic memory are capable of miraculous feats of memory.
- Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda , born Narendranath Dutta is the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the founder of Ramakrishna Mission...
, famous IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
n philosopher and guruA guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . As a principle for the development of consciousness it leads the creation from unreality to reality, from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge...
. It was recorded in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda that he had memorized ten volumes of encyclopedia in very few days. He explains his powers as "simply by the observance of strict BrahmacharyaBrahmacharya whose literal meaning is under the tutelage of Brahma refers to a period of spiritual education in the traditional scheme of life in Hinduism that takes place during the teenage years...
(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
Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo was the first President of Indonesia. He helped the country win its independence from the Netherlands and was President from 1945 to 1967, presiding with mixed success over the country's turbulent transition to independence...
, the father of Indonesian independence and the first president of The Republic of IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, had a photographic memory, which helped him in his language learning.
- Cal Ripken, Jr.
Calvin Edwin "Cal" Ripken, Jr., , is a retired Major League Baseball shortstop and third baseman who played his entire career for the Baltimore Orioles....
and Jimmy RollinsJames Calvin "Jimmy" Rollins , nicknamed "J-Roll," is an All-Star and former MVP shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball....
can recall pitch sequences from each at bat they had, as well as opposing hitters' tendencies.
- Napoleon Bird was an English
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
barberA barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, give shaves, and trim beards. In previous times, barbers also performed surgery and dentistry. In more recent times, with the development of safety razors and the decreasing prevalence of beards, most barbers primarily cut hair...
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
Hans Guido Freiherr von Bülow was a German conductor, virtuoso pianist, and composer of the Romantic era...
was a 19th century pianist and conductor with what could be described as a perfect musical memory. He could play both BrahmsJohannes Brahms , German composer and pianist, was one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
' and BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...
's entire piano works from memory, and conducted the first performance of WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas...
's Tristan und IsoldeTristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg...
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
Stephen Wiltshire MBE, is an architectural artist who has been diagnosed with autism. Wiltshire was born in London, England, to West Indian parents. He is known for his ability to draw a landscape after seeing it just once....
, MBE, is a prodigious savant, capable of drawing the entire skyline of a city after a helicopter ride.
- Wynne Kulman, able to memorize textbooks, serial numbers, and other documents after reading them just once.
- Kim Peek
Kim Peek is a prodigious savant known as a megasavant. He has a photographic or eidetic memory, but also social developmental disabilities, possibly resulting from congenital brain abnormalities. He was the inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbit, played by Dustin Hoffman, in the movie...
, 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
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Lancashire County Council is based in Preston. However, Lancaster is still considered to be the county town...
and beat the British Olympia Telephone Exchange computer with his recall while being interviewed by Esther RantzenEsther Louise Rantzen CBE is an English journalist and television presenter who is best known for presenting That's Life! and her child protection activities as founder of the charity ChildLine. Rantzen also advocates the work of the Burma Campaign UK...
and Adrian MillsAdrian Mills is a British television presenter. He appeared on That's Life! with Esther Rantzen for 7 years until it's demise in 1994. Since then he has presented Talk show Central Weekend Live, reported for BBC viewer feedback programme Bite Back, appeared as a location reporter on Surprise,...
on the popular BBC magazine programme That's Life!That's Life! was a magazine-style television series on BBC One between 26 May 1973 and 19 June 1994, presented by Esther Rantzen throughout the entire run, with various changes of co-presenters. The show was generally recorded about an hour prior to transmission, which was originally on Saturday...
in 1993.
- Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. He is frequently cited as one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th...
- Said Nursî
Bediüzzaman Said Nursî was an Islamic thinker of Kurdish origin and the author of the Risale-i Nur Collection, a Qur'anic commentary exceeding six thousand pages...
, 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 BasraMuhammad al-Qasim ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Hariri , popularly known as al-Hariri of Basra was an Arab poet, scholar of the Arabic language and a high government official of the Seljuk Empire...
(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."
- Abbie Hoffman
Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a social and political activist in the United States who co-founded the Youth International Party...
, leader of the Yippie movement, claims to have eidetic memory in his 1968 book Revolution for the Hell of It.
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as...
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 AllegriAllegri is a surname, and may refer to:*Gregorio Allegri , Italian composer*Lorenzo Allegri , Italian composer*Antonio da Correggio , Italian Renaissance painter...
's MisereMiserere, also called "Miserere mei, Deus" by Italian composer Gregorio Allegri, is a setting of Psalm 51 composed during the reign of Pope Urban VIII, probably during the 1630s, for use in the Sistine Chapel during matins, as part of the exclusive Tenebrae service on Wednesday and Friday of Holy...
entirely from memory after hearing it only once, making only minor corrections later. Others such as Ludwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and...
have shown similar capacity, personally premiering a piano concerto and performing without the piano part.
- Rick Oliver, a known PMO expert, and facilitator of the Beijing Olympics ticketing process, has been known to memorize 50+ page documents after a single read.
- A Texas teacher, Benjamin Covington, reportedly developed the ability to recall numerous minor behavioral tendencies and physical abnormalities in people with which he could assess an individual's medical condition with nearly perfect accuracy.
- Business tycoon Charles M. Schwab
Charles Michael Schwab was an American steel magnate. Under his leadership, Bethlehem Steel became the second largest steel maker in the United States, and one of the most important heavy manufacturers in the world.-Life:Schwab was born into a German Catholic family and grew up in Loretto,...
could remember the names of 8,000 employees.
- Andriy Slyusarchuk
Andriy Tychonovych Slyusarchuk is a Ukrainian neurosurgeon, medical doctor and professor. Has set a number of world records in memorizing data, figures and performing highly complex computer speed calculations mentally. For his extraordinary abilities commonly known as Doctor...
, a Ukrainian professor from LvivLviv is a major city in western Ukraine.It is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically also for Ukraine’s neighbour Poland. The historic centre of Lviv with its old buildings and cobblestone roads has survived the Second World War and the Soviet presence...
, achieved a world record on February 28, 2006 after having memorized 5,100 numbers in two minutes. By June, 2009 he had claimed to have memorized the first 30 million places of piPi or π is a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean space; this is the same value as the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius. The symbol π was first proposed by the Welsh mathematician William Jones in 1706...
, which were printed in 20 volumes of text. 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
Sight-reading is the reading and performing of a piece of written music, specifically when the performer has not seen it before. Sight-singing is often used to describe a singer who is sight-reading.-Sight-reading:...
it just twice.
- Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-American musician, actor and television producer. He gained international renown for leading a Latino music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra...
, husband of Lucille BallLucille Désirée Ball was an American comedienne, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy...
and co-star of I Love LucyI Love Lucy is an American television sitcom, starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951 to April 1, 1960 on CBS...
was able to memorize his script after reading it through once.
- C.S. Lewis, author, never forgot anything he ever read.
- Stu Ungar
Stuart Errol Ungar was a professional poker and gin rummy player, widely considered to have been the greatest Texas hold 'em and gin rummy player of all time...
, professional gin rummy and poker player was able to enumerate and memorize 158 cards of 6 different decks of cards during a bet with a casino owner.
- Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro Gómez is an Academy Award-nominated Mexican director, producer, screenwriter and designer whose work has gained both critical acclaim and a devoted fanbase. He is mostly known for his acclaimed films, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy film franchise. He is a frequent collaborator...
, director of Pan's LabyrinthPan's Labyrinth is a 2006 Spanish language fantasy film, written and directed by Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro. It was produced and distributed by the Mexican film company Esperanto Films....
and the HellboyHellboy is a comic book character created by writer-artist Mike Mignola. He has appeared in a number of eponymous miniseries and one-shots, as well as some crossovers.The character is a demon who fights for the U.S...
film franchise, has a photographic memory.
- Stylist Rachel Zoe
Rachel Zoe is an American fashion stylist and author best known for working with celebrities, fashion houses, beauty firms, advertising agencies, and magazine editors. In 2008, the first season of her Bravo reality television series The Rachel Zoe Project debuted.-Early life:Born Rachel Zoe...
has stated on her reality show that she has a photographic memory.
- Sean Combs
Sean John Combs , known by his stage name Diddy, is an American record producer, rapper, actor, men's fashion designer, entrepreneur and dancer. He won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award.He was originally...
, a.k.a. Puff Daddy, claimed to have a photographic memory on his show, Making the Band.
- In the TV show, Criminal Minds, Dr. Spencer Reid is claimed to have an eidetic memory.
See also
- Synaptic plasticity
In neuroscience, synaptic plasticity is the ability of the connection, or synapse, between two neurons to change in strength. There are several underlying mechanisms that cooperate to achieve synaptic plasticity, including changes in the quantity of neurotransmitters released into a synapse and...
- Autistic savant
- Hyperthymesia
Hyperthymesia also known as piking or hyperthymestic syndrome is a condition where the affected individual has a superior autobiographical memory. "Thymesia" comes from the Greek word "thymesis" meaning "memory"...
- a condition where the affected individual has a superior autobiographical memory
- Mnemonic
A mnemonic device is a mind memory and/or learning aid. Commonly, mnemonics are verbal—such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something—but may be visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be...
- Absolute pitch
Absolute pitch , widely referred to as perfect pitch, is the ability of a person to identify or recreate a musical note without the benefit of an external reference.-Definition:...
(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
Ayumu is a chimpanzee currently living at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University. He is the son of chimpanzee Ai, and has been a participant since infanthood in the Ai Project, an ongoing research effort aimed at understanding chimpanzee cognition...
, a chimpanzeeChimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...
who outperforms humans in short-term memory tests
- List of people in fiction with claimed eidetic memory