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beneficii
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21 Oct 2013, 3:07 pm

I've read somewhere that a lot of autistic people have difficulty recalling events in the order they took place. That is, they have difficulty properly sequencing past events. Does anyone have a source regarding this?



Willard
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21 Oct 2013, 3:57 pm

I've never seen that listed in any of the diagnostic criteria.



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21 Oct 2013, 4:10 pm

I haven't read that anywhere, but I know that in some people with Asperger's the exact opposite is true. Eidetic memories are relatively common in people along the autism spectrum and in Asperger's. Technically I have one, but it's nothing compared to my sister's--she can recall events from 20 years ago with better clarity than a video recording would show. Poor short term memory seems to be fairly common though (or at least I keep telling myself that). I imagine that if Asperger's effects long term memory, then it could have both negative or positive effects.

edit: now that I think about it, I know that having an auditory processing disorder can absolutely effect the order in which you remember people saying things, or more specifically, the order in which you hear them. I wonder if what you are talking about relates to sensory processing disorders that still allow for a properly sequenced memory, but the original input of information was jumbled.



DimiLouise
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25 Oct 2013, 1:02 am

i personally can recall events in order but once i try to verbalize it it just sounds like a jumble even though its clear in my head



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25 Oct 2013, 1:38 am

Man I wish I had a photographic memory. It would make studying in college so much easier and test taking a lot less painful. :lol:

Granted, I can remember events from 20 years ago and things that might seem minor to most people. I also tend to remember things that I really enjoyed as a kid and so fourth.



Last edited by RandyM on 25 Oct 2013, 1:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

Callista
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25 Oct 2013, 1:47 am

I had trouble with the "put the pictures in order to tell a story" subtest on the WAIS. The first couple of questions were easy because it was just one person doing simple things, but then once you had to figure out what the people in the pictures might be thinking or intending, it all just totally flew over my head. I could probably learn to do that task if I practiced a lot, though.


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ChameleonKeys
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25 Oct 2013, 4:08 am

PowderHound wrote:
I haven't read that anywhere, but I know that in some people with Asperger's the exact opposite is true. Eidetic memories are relatively common in people along the autism spectrum and in Asperger's. Technically I have one, but it's nothing compared to my sister's--she can recall events from 20 years ago with better clarity than a video recording would show. Poor short term memory seems to be fairly common though (or at least I keep telling myself that). I imagine that if Asperger's effects long term memory, then it could have both negative or positive effects.

edit: now that I think about it, I know that having an auditory processing disorder can absolutely effect the order in which you remember people saying things, or more specifically, the order in which you hear them. I wonder if what you are talking about relates to sensory processing disorders that still allow for a properly sequenced memory, but the original input of information was jumbled.


It seems like you may well be confusing two different concepts there.

I don't believe an absolutely faultless eidetic memory has ever been proved, but I come very close myself; particularly with things I have read, seen, or have a strong emotional connection to. For example I read the hobbit once at four (my mother noted the date she gave me the book and I read it the same day) and never looked at it since but I can still quote any part of the book (and almost everything else I've ever read) if asked. I do however have problems with sequencing events - I remember the details but not when they were unless specifically told or have some major life even to link them to. This is why I can't tell you when I had a meeting with someone specific (I'll have no idea at all)... But can tell you what they wrote down during that meeting, what the menu at the cafe we met at listed, what the newspaper article I read while waiting for them was about, the text message they sent before or after, what they were wearing, what the waitress looked like, that there were scratches on the table top and the shape and location of them, the design of the wallpaper, etc, etc, etc. It is absolutely possible to have an 'eidetic' memory and sequencing problems together. Welcome to my world! Unless I took to compulsively looking at a calendar and clock I would never have a way to link the concept of time passing with my memories.

I remember 'what' in great detail, but not 'when'.



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06 Nov 2013, 6:34 pm

Those of you with near-perfect memories are really blessed.

I am a pattern thinker. So I recall patterns and proportions in things. Which means I get the feel of all sorts of experiences and can "reduce" an entire thought system or experience into a single image and later on unfold it as need be. That's rather useful for philosophy and theology and art.

But if someone were to ask me, "Well, what did the book say?" I am at an utter loss. Very frustrating.



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06 Nov 2013, 8:52 pm

Callista wrote:
I had trouble with the "put the pictures in order to tell a story" subtest on the WAIS. The first couple of questions were easy because it was just one person doing simple things, but then once you had to figure out what the people in the pictures might be thinking or intending, it all just totally flew over my head. I could probably learn to do that task if I practiced a lot, though.


I had trouble with that too, on the WISC when I was 15. It was my lowest subtest score (which means it was separated from my highest score by fully half of the test range- yay for uneven skills). I think I was having difficulty because I wasn't always sure what I was supposed to be sequencing. For instance, I actually got the trial one wrong, which is supposed to be very easy and just give you the idea of how the subtest works (I got an odd look for that). I think it was 3 cards of a duck crossing the street or something. The problem was that I was sequencing the cards based on the colors of the cars in the pictures and their positions as they "crossed" the cards. Apparently the designers had not paid attention to the colors of the cars however, since I got the order wrong. After the solution was explained to me I realized that I was supposed to be looking at the animal crossing the road, but it wasn't obvious when I first looked at them.

That's kind of par for the course though. Generally being pretty smart, except when I do things that make people wonder (sometimes aloud) whether I have brain damage. Regarding memory, I have an awesome memory for rote information (I used to memorize lists of facts for fun when I was a kid), but terrible memory for things that have happened to me, and I get confused easily about the details I do remember. I don't know whether I have trouble sequencing them, though I do have a very poor sense of time in general, so I have trouble knowing when things happened. It goes along with the whole visual-spatial learning disability thing.


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06 Nov 2013, 11:44 pm

I have a good long term memory and can remember certain things in very specific detail, not everything, just somethings. Some stuff I don't remember at all but people are always amazed at what and how much I remember. There are times, however, when memories and emotions come to me out of sequence. Like I can feel emotions of things that happened long long ago, sometimes decades ago and feel them raw as if I were feeling them for the first time now. So those things come out of sequence a lot for me. But when I remember specific events or things like that they are in sequence.


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