Memory...how strong is yours?

Post Reply New Topic

I have an excellent memory. Depending on the definition I have an Eidetic Memory.
----------------------------------------
Via Websters:
marked by or involving extraordinarily accurate and vivid recall especially of visual images <an eidetic memory>

From Dictionary. com

noun

the ability to recall images with vividness bordering on actual visual perception; total recall ; also called photographic memory
Examples

Eidetic memory, to use the clinical term, is the ability to recollect an image so vividly that it appears to be real.
-------------------------------------------------

As opposed to Eidetic imagery which appears to be short term memory recall. Which I totally suck at.

But, how strong is your memory? How do they present themselves to you?

What was the question again?

Major Witty!

Mine is not as good as it used to be. It was never eidetic.

Spatially, no. I misplace things all the time and can't remember where I put them. It's great, though, when it comes to other pieces of information (phone numbers, dates, names, etc).

I never had a great memory but I have dyslexia & ADD. I get things confused & mixed up or tune out.

I'm like the absent-minded professor that people used to make all kinds of jokes about. I can remember major events or even little things from when I was a small child as if they happened a short time ago, but I go into my bedroom to get something, like my vacuum cleaner, and then forget why I went into my room and might start doing something else until I remember. Or if someone came into my apartment and cleaned and tidied up, I'd be growling for a bit because I wouldn't be able to find anything.

Sometimes I wonder if it's because I'm over 40 now and I'm supposed to be losing brain cells every second, or if it's something a lot worse, like early dementia. And yet I can remember most of the dialogue from books and TV shows and movies, which is possibly the primary reason I can communicate verbally at all. I even memorized the Jabberwocky poem and all it's bizarre words by Lewis Carrol. Of course, I wanted to do that, it was much easier and more fun than my multiplication tables in Grade 3.

I can learn and remember things extremely quickly, especially if I have an interest. I can read about a subject for a little while and recall huge amounts of detailed information.

My auditory memory is great. My auditory working memory is excellent. My visual working memory is average, and my visual memory is probably somewhat above average.

But...I can forget an entire semester's worth of lessons in just a few months. The information is still there, but hidden, and I can't access it until I give myself a reminder by reviewing it briefly.

And I misplace everything, I can't keep track of appointments or assignments, I can't remember directions, and I have trouble recalling words that I want to use and names, even though I know them very well.

So my memory is both good and bad at the same time.