Question to those with eidetic memory

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smudge
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01 Feb 2017, 1:28 pm

What is it like? I want as much detail as possible, that's why I'm not asking any specific questions about it. That, and the only person I knew who said he had it, I'm not sure if he did.

I also realise that it covers not only visual memory, but apparently touch etc. too. Or at least, that was what I was told by this person.

Personal experiences, or the experiences of those close to you...would be very interesting to know, because not a lot of people seem to talk about this. Many thanks.


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SteveSnow
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01 Feb 2017, 3:40 pm

For me, it's like stepping back into a moment but being unable to look around freely. I can recall words spoken, the smells, background noise. It's basically a 3d picture. The only problem is that if experiences are too similar they can be hard to remember which one happened at which time. If order a meal at the same spot and it's the same food and someone asks me a question that we discussed during the meal I have to basically go through both of them to remember which time we discussed it.


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the_phoenix
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01 Feb 2017, 4:37 pm

I have some favorite roads out in the country where I used to go on vacation and take photos.
I had to stop going for awhile because every time I drove down the roads, I would see layered images of what the roads looked like in previous years, and compare them with the present.
Like a certain tree in autumn that already lost its leaves, but in a previous year, the leaves were perfect.

Or going to a restaurant where I've gone for over a year, and keep on expecting to see a certain waitress that no longer works there.

Or reminding a friend or family member of a conversation we had or something that happened years ago, and the friend can't remember at all, or the family member says, "How did you remember that? I'd forgotten ..." but I can remember what the weather was like and the exact words of the conversation or what happened, and where we were, and the feelings I had.

It helps with remembering foreign languages as well.
I can remember the first few pages of the first book I studied to teach myself Spanish at the age of seven.



SteveSnow
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01 Feb 2017, 4:55 pm

the_phoenix wrote:
I can remember the first few pages of the first book I studied to teach myself Spanish at the age of seven.


This actually makes me a little bit sad since I'll pick up a book and after a few pages I'll remember the entire thing, takes the joy away from rereading through a great story.


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leejosepho
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01 Feb 2017, 5:19 pm

With tongue-in-cheek, I used to tell people I had an undeveloped photographic memory. ;)

I have since lost much of that -- I am now entering my late 60s -- but the biggest thing for me was the ability to find things in books by simply recalling where to look on which part of a given page (left or right) near a certain point in the book. I could not have described that location well enough for someone else to find it, but I could easily spot it for myself while flipping pages.


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EclecticWarrior
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01 Feb 2017, 9:17 pm

I don't consider myself to have an eidetic memory, but sometimes I bring up stuff I remember from a long time ago and people who were involved are astonished that I remember it and they don't.


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Kuraudo7777
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01 Feb 2017, 9:18 pm

^I'm exactly the same way! That happens to me a lot! :o

I often search for new books to read because I can remember my old favourites so well. I can probably quote most of the dialogue from my favourite movies [one of them is in Japanese!]


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SaveFerris
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01 Feb 2017, 9:44 pm

My girlfriend says I have a type of photographic memory and there are a lot of variables involved on what I remember , I can remember absolutely useless things that will never leave although I have to check cooking instructons on a food product everytime I cook it. I definately don't use photographs in my mind they are videos that I can play & rewind but they are usually poor quality like bad cctv although the details that my mind latched onto would be clear ( eg numberplate of a car in that video ) , my mind definatley doesn't use HD ( it's more like betamax ). I doubt i have a very good eidetic mind but it does try.


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smudge
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02 Feb 2017, 2:30 am

:?

OK. I have a visual memory too that plays like a film in my head, and I remember some things that others don't. I remember music and a lot of the actions in some favourite cartoons, and I learn about people by repeatedly replaying the social situations, including conversation, sometimes word for word, tone of voice and their whole body language.

I was talking specifically about eidetic memory.

Though, having that in mind, this person I knew told me about his eidetic memory, and it didn't sound eidetic to me.

It seems everyone else, like me, doesn't have much of an idea of what it actually is. Can people be diagnosed with it? How does one know if they actually have it? I sure don't have it.


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leejosepho
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02 Feb 2017, 8:34 am

smudge wrote:
It seems everyone else, like me, doesn't have much of an idea of what it actually is.

Possibly so, so what are you thinking it is?

Quote:
Eidetic memory (/aɪˈdɛtɪk/; sometimes called photographic memory) is an ability to vividly recall images from memory after only a few instances of exposure, with high precision for a brief time after exposure, without using a mnemonic device.
https://www.google.com/search?q=eidetic+memory


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smudge
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02 Feb 2017, 10:07 am

leejosepho wrote:
smudge wrote:
It seems everyone else, like me, doesn't have much of an idea of what it actually is.

Possibly so, so what are you thinking it is?

Quote:
Eidetic memory (/aɪˈdɛtɪk/; sometimes called photographic memory) is an ability to vividly recall images from memory after only a few instances of exposure, with high precision for a brief time after exposure, without using a mnemonic device.
https://www.google.com/search?q=eidetic+memory


Lol, I'm more confused now, damn it.

I'm thinking when Rainman could immediately know how many matches had fallen out the matchbox, or when that English autistic man was flown over London by helicopter and knew exactly what to draw, so he drew in detail all the buildings he saw from the top.


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SteveSnow
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02 Feb 2017, 10:16 am

The rainman example would be savant syndrome, that's not a memory thing. I believe it's the same idea with the autistic man in the helicopter.


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SaveFerris
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02 Feb 2017, 11:08 am

SteveSnow wrote:
The rainman example would be savant syndrome, that's not a memory thing. I believe it's the same idea with the autistic man in the helicopter.


Although Steven Wiltshire ( helicopter man ) is a savant he does draw from memory ( well , thats what the documentary I watched on him stated ).


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SteveSnow
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02 Feb 2017, 11:33 am

Thank you, I hadn't had time to check the details on that one so I didn't want to assume. Could be a combination then, certainly sounds like it would fit the bill of eidetic if he was able to recreate the scene he had seen.


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Kuraudo7777
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02 Feb 2017, 2:00 pm

Quote:
I can remember absolutely useless things that will never leave

Me, too. It is highly annoying, especially when the useless things pop into my head all of a sudden.


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AspieUtah
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02 Feb 2017, 2:16 pm

SteveSnow wrote:
For me, it's like stepping back into a moment but being unable to look around freely. I can recall words spoken, the smells, background noise. It's basically a 3d picture. The only problem is that if experiences are too similar they can be hard to remember which one happened at which time. If order a meal at the same spot and it's the same food and someone asks me a question that we discussed during the meal I have to basically go through both of them to remember which time we discussed it.

I couldn't have described it better. For me, I remember conversations and written documents. I can relive conversations with others or read documents as if I am watching them replay the event itself. Strangely, I never see myself in the "movie." I wonder why.


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