Photographic memory is also known as eidetic or iconic memory. People with photographic memory have the gift of recalling specific details, numbers, letters, images, or names from memory as precisely as if they were looking at a photograph. While some people only remember individual objects, images, or situations, others are able to recall entire pages from books or newspapers from memory.
What is photographic memory?
People with photographic memory have the gift of recalling specific details, numbers, or images from memory as precisely as if they were looking at a photograph. In common parlance, the term photographic memory refers to the special ability of people to memorize situations, images, numbers, letters, or objects, consciously or unconsciously, without error over a long period of time. People who are said to have this gift immerse themselves in their memory as if it were a photograph, creating an exact copy of the previously sensory information. The consciously trained retentiveness that helps chess players, for example, memorize hundreds of games in order to succeed in their game is not one of them. In this case, researchers rather assume a talent for combining, remembering certain game orders and linking the meaningful piece constellations to them. Psychology speaks of an eidetic or iconic memory or phenomenon.
Function and task
Iconic memory stores accurate visual information in the sensory part of the brain over a period of several seconds. A few people are able to store this visual information for a longer period of time beyond the iconic memory and later reproduce it accurately. This part of the memory capacity is referred to in technical language as eidetic memory. Eidetic memory can answer questions and details about an image or scene and can name objects. A readily cited example is the person who flips through a book and can subsequently remember exactly which line or passage is found on which page. The fact that he is subsequently able to recall individual lines or passages of the reading with page precision does not mean that he has understood the content. Although people probably use only about a quarter of their brain capacity in a meaningful way, they do not normally have a photographic memory because the brain’s capacity to absorb information is limited. Moreover, the process of forgetting rather unimportant information, is an essential part of memory. Eidetics delve into their memory as if it were a photograph. However, this memory is not completely reproducible. From a certain age, children are often superior to adults with the memory game “Memory”. They have a special gift for remembering the images of the face-down cards and their positions. Studies show that about five to ten percent of children have an eidetic memory, but they lose it later, presumably due to the later reconstruction and reduction of the neuron connections responsible for memory. Experimental series with great apes turn out to be even more positive. Great apes are better able to remember the arrangement of pictures and digits than humans (as shown e.g. by the experiments of Inoue and Matsuzawa, 2007, Matsuzawa, 2009). Adult humans take into account the everyday life burdened with high demands and information impressions and fall into an information economy, with which they remember only the information and impressions that are important for them and forget most of the rest from their memory. The disappearance of eidetic memory from puberty onwards is associated with the phenomenon of acceleration, the acceleration of development, which has increased rapidly in the course of the second half of the last century and led to profound changes in our daily lives. The ability to accurately recall words, images, numbers, and names depends on the brain‘s neuroplasticity and its ability to repeatedly rearrange and erase connections. Scientists believe that it is impossible to remember every detail as in an “inner photograph” and recall it later.
Diseases and ailments
Medical research suggests that eidetic memory is associated with damage to the temporal lobe in the brain. This damage occurs very early with the embryonic developmental period. Most affected individuals are males, including many autistic individuals. These are known to have an extraordinary capacity to remember precise information and details and to recall this memory at any time. The limited capacity of the human brain conditions the selection of important and unconscious information. This mechanism is important because otherwise the brain would be flooded with information that it cannot process. This situation represents an increased stress level, which, if it lasts longer, can manifest itself in negative effects such as emotional overreactions and psychological illnesses. The term “photographic memory” is not used consistently in everyday life. Many people can remember almost all details of their lives and their accompanying circumstances for decades, with many impressions being merely of an accompanying or unimportant nature. This is also the case with the American Jill Price, who can remember every day of her life since 1980. In March 2006 brain researchers of the University of California dealt with the apparently phenomenal memory of the Californian and dedicated a study in the technical periodical “Neurocase” to her. Jill Price remembers not only every day of her life for 35 years now, but also accompanying circumstances that happened during that time. For example, she can name exactly what happened on a particular date, such as a plane crash on July 19, 1989, which she had watched on the news. However, she admitted to being particularly interested in this subject matter and testifies that she does not remember things that are unimportant to her, such as poems memorized as a child or historical dates. Therefore, Jill Price is more likely to have an autobiographical memory, with which the subconscious stored impressions of her life that were particularly important to her. Research into human memory in general is still not on a valid scientific footing, as no consistent findings exist to date.