Memory

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When it comes to remembering things like people's faces and voices, and homework i suck. But I can memorize sick amounts of numbers and useless facts. I'm also really good at mental calculations and hate when my teacher makes me show work. Is any other aspie this high-functioning, or could I possibly have something else?

I also suck at faces and such, plus short-term rote memorization. But as a autie, I can remember the other stuff as you can. I could remember a long series of control numbers so I can tell what they represent without looking them up, so I don't need the organizational skills that bosses thought I needed. And I got in trouble in school too for "not showing your work" when I did it in my head.

I have a really good long-term memory. Short-term memory can be spotty--I tend to be forgetful at times. Speaking of which, I just remembered that I need to do something...

I can't function without post-it notes and the task manager on my Blackberry. My short-term memory is almost non-existent.

My memory for human faces and names is terrible.

One example: During my misspent youth I worked at a video store. There was this couple who came in most nights with their little shih-tzu to rent movies. I had their membership number memorized so the transaction was conducted while we discussed the dog. One night they came in without the dog -- I asked if they wanted to sign up for a membership. Fortunately they had a good sense of humor and realized that I'm a bit of a critter person.

you share a talent with everyone that has posted here so far ; it is a great skill that i find the same.

edit: added puncuation

Names, terrible. But it's numbers that kill it for me. I've lived here 5 years now but w/o a document on me, zip code unlikely and phone number is no way.

I remember a lot of facts, especially statistics. I am always telling my family things that they did not need (or want to know). I can remember statistics involving numbers, but I can't actually do maths. So if you want to know how many French people are overweight, how many people died in Auschwitz, or how many cats there are in the UK then I am your girl. If you want to know the answer to a basic maths problem, then I will be of no use to you at all. I am very bad at remembering film quotes accurately as well. I wish I was better at maths, it is more useful. Most people do not want to know about cats, or death camps, or whatever.

Yep, it's definitely Asperger's. I have the same thing; trying to remember facts from school lectures I don't care about is impossible. Tell me things I didn't know about my special interest and I'll remember it for a lifetime. We Aspies generally have excellent memories compared to most NT's, and can remember a lot of things that they forget, it just depends on the relevance of the information to us, and external factors at the time (are we under stress, tired, very excited, etc). As for the forgetting faces thing, it's a psychological phenomenon called prosopagnosia (demonstration right there of my good memory for obscure facts), more commonly referred to as face-blindness. It's more common in Aspies, and typically occurs when we encounter people we haven't seen in a while in an unfamiliar location. We know we know them, but we just don't remember where from or why. This happened to me with my boss once. I was new on the job and had only seen her once before (for several hours, but only once), and she showed up unexpectedly one day and asked to talk to me. I couldn't place her and thought she looked like one of my school counsellors. I was about to tell her I couldn't, because I was on duty, when it finally clicked and I remembered who she was!

My memory for names is absolutely horrible - there are many, many people who I have known for years, even spoken to almost daily for a large amount of that time, and I don't know their name - I don't memorize it the first time around and sometimes I just never hear it again or don't notice it being said again.

I have very good autobiographical memory - just memory of whatever I did during a day, what I was focusing on and all that. I have some calendar memory like for certain dates I know the day, week, month, year, day of the week and exact time for certain occurrences I considered important enough, or which just completely randomly got memorized. I know the weather for most of those days too.

I'm good at memorizing chains of numbers, things like that.

Bad short term memory, unless I'm very focused on whatever it is I need to remember. When I worked as a teacher aide, there were many times I was sent to do something where I didn't remember exactly what I was supposed to do (print/copy x amount of y, or tell someone something, in which case I had extreme anxiety because I always forgot either who it was, what I was supposed to tell them, or often I didn't even know who they were talking about when they said their name). In almost all situations though, I got to the location no problem, just didn't remember/know what to do/say when I got there.

I also have excellent memory with maps and directions and such - the problem is I need to have paid attention, i.e. been the one leading or going alone, in order to remember them. If I'm following someone or are a passenger in a car or something, I don't remember the directions ever. I used to (and still sometimes do) have maps as a special interest (I can place every single country on Earth on a map, or if you show me the exact shape of it I can tell you which country it is and where it goes on Earth.)

I have excellent memory for names. I just recently noticed that I call most people by their first and last name every time. However, I'm not good at remembering faces I don't see often. For most people, I look at the hair to recognize them before using the face, which causes problems when people get haircuts.

My memory for everything else is not especially good, but I have memorized certain things just by reading/seeing them repeatedly (ask me about any event in the Fullmetal Alchemist series and I can probably give you the book number and chapter, along with quotes).


I've also had problems with showing work, which probably caused my low math grades, since math teachers seem to care more about conformity than intelligence. I remember I used to solve the equations without knowing how, so I could not show the work. Now I've given in and have started showing work more often, and I can't do stuff in my head as well as I could before.

The same here. I don't always remember faces and have difficulty putting names to faces.

Math all done in my head. "You need to show your work." "But my answers are correct." GRRRRRRRRRR

I have a great memory for little known facts and details about things I like and others could care less about.

Short term memory…err, what are we talking about?

I am the same way about faces and names but I do remember them if I like them but strangers no way.
I don't really like math so I can't recall numbers over 6 digits but name twenty aircraft and I can do it with ease!
I have way better memory for anything that interests me.

I have been told I have a very good long term memory because I will spontaneously bring up something from who knows where. Plus things run like I am watching a movie. But short-term, like everyone else, I am forgetful. I used to have lists and write things down, but I stopped doing that (need to start again...but I keep forgetting to ).

I really do not mind it though since I have my own ways of remembering things. They are kind of odd, but what's new? For example, I primarily tell cars apart by their license plates. Color and size help to quickly narrow it all down, but if I do not know the license plate, I will get lost. That might go more toward distinguishing one thing from another though and not really memory. My main problem that I do not like however is that I never remember anything I verbally say, even if I rehearse it in my head multiple times (which is what I usually do before talking). I might have an idea. But once I say it - bam, gone.