Photographic Memory : to be real or not to be real, that is the question.

      Often times on the television, we hear about photographic memory (especially if you watch a lot of crime shows, which I might do). One show in particular: Unforgettable. This show is about a female detective who, after experiencing a traumatic event, is incapable of forgetting anything and has a photographic memory.

Is this possible?

      According to Google, Wikihow can teach you how to train your memory into becoming a photographic memory. Ha! You can also go to this website and play "the photographic memory game." I'm not sure to what degree I trust that source either.

     According to Scientific American and Dr. Barry Gordon who teaches neurology and cognitive science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, a truly photographic memory has never been shown to exist. Now, just to specify, a truly photographic memory means you are able to navigate your memory similarly to photographs; you can retrieve it from your memory whenever you want to and you can zoom in, zoom out, and  scroll around as you so desire. Although many of us think our memory may be somewhat photographic because we have a stronger ability to remember visual things, this is very common and does not actually constitute a photographic memory. My uncle, who is a detective in Cape Cod, is known for his memory. He has phenomenal recall of dates, crime scenes, evidence, criminals, etc. But outside of work his memory isn't AS strong. He does not have a photographic memory by definition, but he has an extraordinary memory for his field, especially. A phenomenal memory is not out of the question, even in the slightest, but a photographic memory seems to be impossible. What do you think?

      Akira Haraguchi was able to successfully recall the first 83, 431 decimal places of pi. I don't know about you, but I can't get past 3.1415926 without having to look it up. How does Akira not have a photographic memory? He has a phenomenal memory, but still not a photogenic one. Looking through the internet it seems virtually impossible (go ahead, even go to the second page of your Google results) to find any scientifically supported evidence of the existence and possibility of photographic memory... so I guess Wikihow and my game aren't going to be very helpful after all. Sorry about that.

       Not all hope is lost, however! It is totally possible to improve your recall abilities and to turn that average memory of yours into phenomenal. We just have to give up the hyperbole of the photographic memory and recognize it as such - a hyperbole. It is an exaggeration of how good our memories really are (and as you can see in a surplus of posts on this blog - our memory isn't always that great to begin with). I know I am far from having a phenomenal memory, but I am also yet to try out any of these techniques. I'm slightly skeptical, but perhaps one will improve my memory. As college students we could all use some improvement in that area (as could everyone else). I'll have to report back on whether or not any of these techniques work - if I remember!

Until next time, thanks for reading!


References used for this post:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=i-developed-what-appears-to-be-a-ph

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200603/the-truth-about-photographic-memory