The Guinness World Record for the most decimal places or pi recited by memory is held by Akira Haraguchi at 83,431 places. (Adams 2006) Her ability is self-attributed to a strong eidetic memory which is commonly known as the “photographic” memory, a proposed type of memory in which someone sees an image and recalls it with great accuracy. The question that many scientists and psychologists have raised is whether or not eidetic memory truly exists or if there are other explanations for why people can recall vast amounts of information with great accuracy based solely on images of the information they are recalling.
Various tests have been done in attempts to prove or disprove the existence of eidetic memory but thus far have remained ultimately negative towards the existence of an eidetic memory.
On the pro side is Charles Stromeyer III, a vision scientist, who published a paper about a woman with an unexplainable ability. She was shown a picture with 10,0000 random dots in only her right eye, and the next day was given another set of random dots for her left eye. She had the ability to mentally combine them to create a 3D image. (Foer 2006) His examinee, Elizabeth, also claimed to be able to recall poetry in foreign languages she did not understand. Stromeyer’s conclusion was that this woman had proven the existence of the photographic memory through her ability to create the 3D image in her mind with information gathered over two days, and through her ability to recall with accuracy the poetry. While the woman’s ability seems to prove Stromeyer’s case, no repeat testing was performed and no one else has ever been able to replicate the ability so most scientists and psychologists dismiss it as invalid.
Shass Pollaks, scholars who are able to recall accurately 5,422 pages of Talmud, claimed to have done so through photographic memory of the text and the arrangement of the words. A psychologist named George Stratton decided to test their claim by sticking pins through the Talmud text to be memorized. The Shass Pollaks were then asked to recall which words had the pins through them after studying the altered texts. (Foer 2006) Unable to do so, their ability was dismissed as being the result of extensive rehearsal of the original texts and a strong long term memory, but not the result of eidetic memory as the recall on pin placement was minimal at best.
In an issue of Scientific American, a man name Peter Gordon posed the question on whether what he believed to be his photographic memory exists. Barry Gordon, a neurology professor from John Hopkins University School of Medicine, addressed him with a response: “…most people’s memory for visual material is much better and more detailed than our recall of most other kinds of material.” “But this isn’t really a photographic memory; it just shows us the normal difference between types of memory. Even visual memories that seem to approach the photographic ideal are far from truly photographic. These memories seem to result from a combination of innate abilities, combined with zealous study and familiarity with the material, such as the Bible or fine art.” (Gordon 2012) His assertion that familiarity with the material and an overall good memory is the true reason for the photographic memory phenomenon appears to be shared by many who have conducted research on the subject.
In trials by Adriaan de Groot chess experts could recall the exact details of chess pieces on a board as they may potentially happen during a game, but could not recall them with accuracy in instances where the pieces could not have ended up that way in actual play. The ultimate and oft accepted conclusion by scientists and psychologists alike in this instance and the others listed is that eidetic memory specifically does not exist however those with extraordinary ability to memorize and recall information does exist. The psychologist Marvin Minsky supports this idea in his book, The Society of Mind, when he states “….we often hear about people with ‘photographic memories’ that enable them to quickly memorize all the fine details of a complicated picture or a page of text in a few seconds. So far as I can tell, all of these tales are unfounded myths….instead our various agencies selectively decide, unconsciously, to transfer only certain states into their long-term memory.” (Minsky 1986) The idea being that no one has been able to prove its existence in controlled experiments, and therefore the acceptable explanation is that the brain simply converts all information to the long term memory to be sorted out for recall later. Those who are experts on any given subject appear to simply be better at memorizing and recalling information related to their expertise as they have a need to recall the information. At this time the only conclusive evidence is that there is none, but it is generally believed that eidetic memory does not appear to exist for lack of verifiable proof.
References:
Adams, W. (2006, March 1). The Truth About Photographic Memory | Psychology Today. Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. Retrieved October 19, 2013, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200603/the-truth-about-photographic-memory
Foer, J. (2006, April 27). No one has a photographic memory.. Politics, Business, Technology, and the Arts. Retrieved October 19, 2013, from http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2006/04/kaavya_syndrome.html
Gordon, P. (2012, December 30). Does Photographic Memory Exist?: Scientific American. Science News, Articles and Information | Scientific American. Retrieved October 19, 2013, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=i-developed-what-appears-to-be-a-ph
Minsky, M. L. (1986). Pg 148. The society of mind. New York: Simon and Schuster.
I wanted to add a brief follow-up reply from an article I came across.
Nikola Tesla was reported to have a photographic memory. However, he also claimed that he could visualize complex processes. One article I read indicated that he would mentally design and run machines before attempting to build them. Allegedly, he could actually run each and every part and see how each fits together as complete mental pictures (Chandrasekhar 2006).
So far science has not found a person with a true photographic memory, but I wonder how accurate visualizations are. Maybe you can’t remember every detail of everything you’ve seen, but is it possible to have a complete picture of something specific?– That could be very useful
-Andrew
References
Chandrasekhar, R. Reflections on the Mind of Nikola Tesla. 27 August 2006. http://www.ee.uwa.edu.au/~chandra/Downloads/Tesla/MindOfTesla.html
Ever since I was little, I’ve often been accused of having a photographic memory because I rarely had to study–I could just glance over notes or read a chapter in a book and remember something with near-perfect recall, but I’ve never ever had the ability to do that with images or scenes. In fact, my spatial memory and abilities are fairly poor, and I often get lost easily while driving in unfamiliar areas! And I’m utterly hopeless at anything math or math-adjacent. But I love words, and I’ve been a voracious reader since I was tiny, so I think that might have a lot to do with the fact that once I’ve read something, I tend to remember it without much effort. I can often recall specific sentences in which a vocabulary term is used, or I could recite to you every line from all 8 Harry Potter movies. But this seems extremely limited–it only works for language and reading. I can’t remember what certain things looked like, what color shirt my husband was wearing as he headed out the door this morning, where I put my keys when I came home, or how long it’s been since I last changed the batteries in the TV remote.
This article in Scientific American seems to support the idea that highly effective, awesome, seemingly photographic memory tends to be confined to a single area and does not typically encompass all facets of memory and informational processing: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=i-developed-what-appears-to-be-a-ph. My own personal experience definitely supports the hypothesis that fantastic memory in one area often does not extend to others, and you can, in fact, have a great memory for dates or faces while being hopelessly lost at remembering where you parked or what you need to get at the grocery store!
Several semesters ago when I was taking some courses at a community college nearby, my lab partner always got high scores if not perfects on all of our assignments, quizzes, and exams. She claimed to have a “photographic” memory. I was so jealous because she always did better than I did. It was like the answers were just programmed into her head. She would glance through the text and class material and poof, just like that she knew it. She did not have to spend hour after hour cramming for tests or flipping through notecards like I did. Not fair, not fair at all!
Batman, Dr. Lexi Gray from Grey’s Anatomy, Dr. Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory among many others “have” eidetic memory, so it must exist. Eidetic memory, commonly called photographic memory or total recall, is the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with great precision (Wikipedia.org, 2013). This phenomenon is not common and is highly controversial. A small percentage of young children have the ability to recall images in great detail but usually this ability fades as they get older. There have been many cases of adults claiming to have eidetic memory, but very few have been documented as truly having photographic memory.
How nice it would be if we all had at least a sliver of ability to recall information in great detail, I know it would help me greatly!
List of people claimed to possess an eidetic memory. (2013, August 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia., November 1, 2013, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_people_claimed_to_possess_an_eidetic_memory&oldid=570042672
This is an interesting post on photographic memory. I’ve often thought about the topic myself. We see it on occasion in movies, and the public seems to take it’s existence as a given. I even had a psych professor who claimed her friend had one.
People have told me that I have a good memory, particularly about remembering details about people. I’ve never though had complete pictures in my mind. I’ve tried closing my eyes after entering a room and trying to remember all the details. I can’t seem to do that. I seem to be good at recalling the context of something that is told to me. This would appear to be a facet of episodic memory.
As far as people out there with it, I’ve got mixed opinion. Most people use tools to help with memory. I read about one guy who visualized walking down a road and picking up numbers to remember them. Some people use extensive mnemonics and chunking. As you said the results are inconclusive. The real question is whether or not it is physically possible. No humans can fly on there own under normal conditions. Absent finding one irrefutable example of photographic memory, it is hard to really think it exists.