This paper introduces the Eidetic Memory. This essay was written as part of our Memory Unit, which involved understanding and learning about the many different components of memory, and it's faults, as well as what there is still to uncover about memory. Creating this paper involved extensive research, writing, and learning to use APA formatted citations. Eidetic Memory Photographic memory, or its technical term eidetic memory, is the ability to remember so vividly that an actual image is formed within your mind. This type of memory is extremely rare and is only seen and recorded in 2-15% of children and is even more rare in adults (American, 2007). People with eidetic memory are said to be able to remember an unlimited amount of information and be able to retain it for their entire lives (Goldstein, 2017).The question many neuroscientists and psychologists are asking now is “is eidetic memory real?”. Eidetic memory is a controversial topic as many neuroscientists don’t know whether to believe if it is real or not. James McGaugh is a neurobiologist who is working in the field of learning and memory. He is one of the world’s best scientists in the field of memory, but he has been stumped. It all started when a woman by only the name of AJ wrote a letter to McGaugh back in the year 2000. The letter contained AJ explaining her extraordinary memory and the abilities she has with it. Her memory gave her the unique ability to recall any given date going back decades and being able to tell you what happened on that day, what she was doing and in many cases what the weather was. McGaugh was stumped by the fact that AJ could remember any given date about anything and not just well known days like the day Elvis Presley died in 1977. She even remembers the day the California tax initiative passed on June 6th 1978 and a plane crash on May 25th the following year, and so on. He is unsure how she came to have this memory, if she was born with it or not, but he believes that she organizes her memories by date, however that doesn’t explain why she remembers it in such detail. He is trying to figure out if her brain is wired differently or has some disconnections that interfere with her memory bank. This type of memory has now been given a name but has yet to be understood. Hyperthymestic syndrome is AJ’s condition and McGaugh is getting closer to finding out how she remembers everything so well and so clearly but he is still a long way from doing so (News, 2006). In another case similar to AJ’s, a man known as S. walked into Moscow’s Academy of Communist Education on an April afternoon in 1929 (Johnson, 2017). He was sent there by his boss, after he attended a meeting and didn’t take a single note and his boss asked why. S. replied he could just remember the information without the need for notes. His boss then challenged him by reading a whole newspaper to S., to see if he could remember the content, and when he proved he was able to, he was sent to get his head examined. The researcher who met with S. on that day was 27 year-old Alexander Luria, who found his fame though S’s extraordinary memory. Luria then began asking S. to say back all of the numbers and words that Luria was saying to him. S. said them back remarkably fast, but was even more remarkable is that S. could repeat them again when tested more than 15 years later, it was in that moment that Luria concluded that S. has no limits to his memory. After that Luria tried testing if S. was able to forget just as easily as he could remember, he had S. write down everything he wanted to forget on slips of paper and watch them burn, seeing if that would trigger his brain and make him forget, but this had no effect on S. S. died in 1958 after being studied for nearly 3 decades. Through all the years of testing, S. kept a journal and kept notes of his sessions with Luria and could still remember his very first session exactly how it happened nearly 30 years later. Even after S. died Luria did not release any of his information, until an undergraduate encountered it in a memory lab. He found all of S’s journals and what his real name was, Solomon Shereshevsky. Luria never came to understand how Shereshevsky came to have this memory, but in Shereshevsky’s later years it was found that he could forget; through drinking. Alcoholism killed Shereshevsky who is now known as the “Man who could not forget” (Johnson, 2017). Eidetic memory is a very controversial topic to neuroscientists as there isn’t yet a way to fully understand it and definitively prove it. Although there are many cases that seem to prove that eidetic memory is real, because of the limited access we have to go into the living brain, and try to see eidetic memory working in action within the brain, we can’t prove why some people seem to have this memory while others don’t. There are scientists who do not believe it exists, although they do agree some people show extraordinary memory in certain circumstances (NeuroScience, 1997). They believe these people have simply developed specialized ways of thinking that allow them to have superior memories. As the methods of scientific testing on the living brain evolves, perhaps we can learn and discover more about memory and how we come to remember, and why some people have stronger memories than others. Eidetic memory is the extreme form of memory at the positive end of the scale. It is important to our learning about memory because until it is fully understood, scientists will continue to study this phenomenon. In understanding it they might then know whether is this something you are born with or if it can be developed through specific training, or prove that it doesn’t exist at all. Whatever the outcome, it will still lead to a greater understanding of how our memories are formed, retained and recalled. Works Cited: Goldstein, A. (2017, November 18). Goldstein, A. Retrieved March 14, 2018, from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro06/web2/agoldstein.html#1 American, S. (2007, March 12). Is there such a thing as a photographic memory? And if so, can it be learned? Retrieved March 14, 2018, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-such-a-thing-as/ News, A. (2006, March 20). Woman With Perfect Memory Baffles Scientists. Retrieved March 15, 2018, from https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1738881&page=1 Johnson, R. (2017, August 12). The Mystery of S., the Man with an Impossible Memory. Retrieved April 07, 2018, from https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-mystery-of-s-the-man-with-an-impossible-memory NeuroScience. (1997, June 19). Retrieved April 10, 2018, from http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/aug97/866819368.Ns.r.html
1 Comment
Mrs. Colpitts
4/14/2018 02:22:29 pm
Well done Samantha! I particularly like how you have described 2 related case studies in your research. You've done a great job of using in-text citations, however, remember that your Works Cited list should be in alphabetical order - see the APA Style Guide for more info. The case studies are fascinating and you've done a great job of explaining why eidetic memory is poorly understood and how it is important to the study of memory. 39/40
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