Difficulty with verbal recall of information

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If you've ever seen a special on the Discovery channel that features Kim Peek recalling from his gargantuan memory the four cabinet members of the Thomas Jefferson presidency almost immediately, then you know the amazing power that people with autism have to store large amounts of information.

But as someone who is considering that he has Asperger's, a form of autism, I find it very difficult to recall tremendous amounts of information. My short term memory, unlike that of many autistics, does not seem to be as impaired as my occasional inability to remember what I had a test on the day before or even what I ate for lunch!

I've also lost my keys twice, my wallet twice, and sometimes struggle to remember the names of my friends.

Does anyone else have problems with their LONG-TERM MEMORY?

I have the exact same problem.

Just recently I started forgetting the names of people at my job.

I often forget many "unimportant" things like names or what I did in school today, but I can easily remember "proper" facts (e.g the only cube that is one less than a square is 8.)

Actually, the Human memory is much like the memory of a computer made to store LOTS of info with little need for quick storage. It works like this:

1. CACHE (hippocampus) SHORT TERM/FAST/VOLATILE
2. DISK STORAGE(main cortex) LONG TERM/SLOW/MAY LAST FOREVER
3. INDEXED(main cortex) LONG TERM/FAST/MAY LAST FOREVER

THIS is why:

I had such a hard time learning HALDI(HINDI TUMERIC) but will possibly ALWAYS know vidva(HINDI WIDOW) even though I saw it ONCE! It is like witwe(GERMAN WIDOW) which I knew! When it went to #2, SURPRISE! FAST TRACK! The index was THERE!

I ALSO learned affald(DANISH GARBAGE) because it was so similar to abfall(GERMAN)

If only I could do this with every word. I would be fluent in 10 languages in a few hours!

SO, it looks like nearly everyone has a perfect memory, once it gets past the hippocampus. The problem is that stupid index! This is ALSO why you may struggle for something, fear you have forgotten it, and then find you knew it ALL!

Steve

ok, a little help to improve things:

Losing keys and wallet - place these things in the same spot. I have my security badge, wallet, cell phone, and keys ALL in the EXACT same spot beside the door. I NEVER put them anywhere but these spots - guess what happens in the fluke times I do? I cant find them!

Remembering names is extremely difficult and something a lot of people have trouble with - association association association! For example, if someone told you there name was John MacDonald, think of 'Mcdonalds' restaurants and place the persons image with the restaurant (as soon as you hear their name, associate it with something you DO remember). Then, repeat their name during the interaction:

Suzie: Hi my name is 'Suzie' (start singing 'Suzie Q' and think of her)
You: Hi, SUZIE, my name is ____

For me, when I cant remember something it was because it was irrelevant or contained within irrelevant information (listening to social chit chat for 5 minutes to hear 1 thing)

I often forget my age and the date - year included. When I said hi on the "introduce yourself" forum here two days ago I had to go another website to confirm my age - couldn't remember it. And my head is like a sieve when it comes to numbers. Speaking as a programmer, its almost like my brain stores all values as strings, including numbers, meaning I often remember "1" as the sound "wun", and not as the concept of a single entity. This makes remembering phone numbers particularly difficult for me(I have to remember them as sounds or "words" instead of a numeric sequence). Funny enough, when I was a kid I used to play a mind game where I easily memorized hundreds of birthdates (often of completely arbitrary people I didn't know) using an overlapping system of western astrology and chinese numerology, but when I removed that system, I ended up forgetting all dates, including my own.

Yep I have No long-term memory. I can't remember a conversation long enough to go repeat it to someone. I'll go in and see my psychologist and when I come out, my mom will ask me what we talked about and I won't remember. I also have a Central Auditory Processing disability.

Aspergers doesn't affect memory adversly. HECK, my short term memory was EXCELLENT and is now better than most. My long term memory is so good that it is doubtful many peoples could be better. MY GOD! I reconstructed much of the major events of over 40 years of my life through trying to remember a few days!

BTW the long term memory is the last to be built, and the last to go. It is also the hardest to conciously get to. You guys are probably all referring to the SHORT term memory.(FIRST to be built, FIRST to go, and EASIEST to get to. The short term memory is ALSO the first one to be ravaged by alzheimers) Ever see 50 first dates? MOST people have the SAME problem 10 second tom had! The EXACT same problem! I do also. Perhaps everyone on wrong planet does. OK, ours might be minutes, and we have a chance at storing that in better memory to last DECADES but otherwise, it is IDENTICAL! If something doesn't happen to move it, you could lose it in minutes. If new info comes in too fast, you could lose it in seconds.

And Kim Peeks talents are impressive, but he DOES have a lot of problems also. Don't look to him as a model, but rather to realize your goals could be higher.

Steve