Characters claiming to have “photographic memory” on film or in television shows – or even in books – has been fairly common over the years.
It’s always been a way for writers to take a shortcut to describing a quirky character as smart or special – but are they?
The actual term for a photographic memory is eidetic memory, but professor and cognitive neuroscientist Jon Simmons says no matter what you call it, it’s not common at all.
In fact, he says it’s “not supported by scientific evidence” at all.
“Eidetic memory is the ability to vividly recall images, sounds, or objects in great detail, almost as if they’re still present. This type of memory is sometimes found in children but is relatively rare in adults.”
By “sometimes found in children,” he’s referring to just 2-10% of kids between the ages of 6-12 who might have this ability.
The research on this topic was conducted in the 1960s, culminating in a 1979 paper published by psychologist Ralph Norman Haber. His research spanned a decade and concluded that the concept was “virtually nonexistent” in adults.
The paper does include conversations with some of the kids involved, and the insight into their minds and memory is certainly interesting.
This 10-year-old boy was questioned about an image of Alice (in Wonderland) chatting to the Cheshire Cat in a tree after seeing it only briefly.
E (Experimenter): Do you see something there?
S (Subject): I see the tree, grey tree with three limbs, I see the cat with stripes around its tail.
E: Can you count those stripes?
S: Yes, there’s about sixteen.
This is after seeing the image for 30 seconds or less, so recalling that amount of detail is certainly impressive.
Research suggests that even kids who exhibit the ability tend to lose it with age, until almost no one retains it into adulthood. Scientists theorize this could be because of the fact that younger children rely on their visual memory before their verbal skills catch up, combined with the fact that they tend to think more abstractly overall.
That said, these are just theories, and not everyone agrees. The idea as a whole remains poorly researched and understood.
It’s a little baffling, then, that so many people seem to think they have one of these so-called photographic memories, right?
Simons think a lot of the phenomenon is down to Hollywood being a bit obsessed with the idea, and says that while eidetic memory isn’t something people inherently have, it is something you can strive to develop.
Something close to it, anyway.
“It is possible to train your visual memory, enhancing ability to recall visual information more vividly and accurately through deliberate practice and the use of specific techniques. An example is mnemonic strategies such as the Method of Loci (or Memory Palace) technique, which involves imagining placing information you want to remember along a familiar route or location, like rooms in a house.”
In fact, he says you can “significantly” improve your visual memory with these techniques in just a couple of weeks.
While true eidetic memory is exceedingly rare (if it exists at all), some people do have better memories than others.
“Some adults have something called Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, which allows them to remember personal experiences and events with great detail. However, this does not equate to true photographic memory because it doesn’t involve perfect recall of visual details like images or texts but rather an exceptional level of recall of life events.”
Other people might just have worked hard to hone memorization techniques.
“While true photographic memory, as depicted in media, has not been scientifically proven to exist, understanding the neurological basis of exceptional memory abilities can provide insight into why some individuals can recall information with remarkable detail. For example, a region in the middle of the brain known as the hippocampus is crucial for forming and retrieving memories, especially spatial and episodic memories. People with exceptional memory may have highly active or structurally distinct hippocampi, allowing them to form stronger and more detailed memories.”
A good example are taxi drivers in London, who always know exactly where they’re going even though there is little rhyme or reason to the way the streets in the city center are laid out. Applicants have to pass a test called The Knowledge in order to become one of those taxi drivers; the test takes an average of 3-4 years to pass.
Studies have shown that these people have actually restructured their brains by the time they pass the test.
“London taxi drivers have been found to have a larger posterior hippocampus compared to the average person.”
The study of memory is still one of the most fascinating areas of neuroscience, and researchers like Simons think there is still a whole lot we can learn.
“We’re currently running a research study to learn more about the cognitive and brain basis of exceptional memory abilities, to understand whether people who are ‘super memorizers” use particular strategies to achieve their remarkable feats of memory, and whether their brains show differences in how they are structured or how they function.”
So, the bottom line is that anyone claiming to have a truly eidetic memory is probably wrong.
But that doesn’t mean their memory isn’t something special – and with a little bit of work, yours could be, too.
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