From: langston@memstvx1.memst.edu (Mark C. Langston)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.science
Subject: Re: Photographic Memory
Date: 11 Nov 92 23:48:53 -0600
Distribution: alt
Organization: Memphis State University

In article <nkjrm.19@taxus.uib.no>, nkjrm@taxus.uib.no (Rolf Manne) writes:
> In article <7135@pharaoh.cyborg.bt.co.uk> ian@pharaoh.cyborg.bt.co.uk (Speed Freak) writes:
> 
>>Is there such a thing as a photographic memory ?  Has it ever been proven in
>>an individual ?  Does the person have to read a page, or study a diagram in
>>detail; or can they just look at the page/diagram for a few moments and then
>>read it back ?
>>Ian.
> 
> I am not an expert but will still try to answer.

Neither am I, but I work with a few...

> 
> I once met a person who demonstrated this ability, and I have discussed it
> with a professor of psychiatry who told about a famous chess player he once
> had as a patient and who also had this ability. The person I met is a 
> teacher. I met him at a party where he read a long poem which he had 
> memorized "as a picture" some years earlier. He said he had found it in 
> an old newspaper in the city library. He did not remember exactly where. My 
> wife and I said that he should write it down, and he said this would be quite
> some work. I have no information about the time required for memorizing.
> 

  Well, a 'photographic' memory would assume a one-time sight-reading of the
information, coupled with perfect recall and no decay in retention over time.
I'm not aware of any research proving such a beastie exists.
  However, it is not unusual to meet people who can recite entire books from
memory... that is no supernatural memory property, it is just a superhuman
effort to develop an accurate mnemonic system... the ancient greeks used to
remember entire plays (e.g., Oedipus Rex) by using spatial cues to remember
small sections of text.  The technique involves creating a detailed mental
picture, or model, of a structure, usi\ually a building or dwelling.  The
person then mentally walks him/herself through the building, assigning short
pieces of information to particular rooms and items within these rooms.  A
good book with an example of this technique is _In_The_Palaces_of_memory_
by...(damn...off to the bookshelves...be right back. ) by, Johnson or 
somesuch...my back just started giving me excruciating pain, and I'm not
getting out of bed again to check...I have research that doesn't include
hospitilization in the time-table.  Anyway, the recall involved simply a
mental walk through the house, remembering each snippet... I sometimes
do the same thing, but use spatial recall of pages and sections of the
text I am reading, and mentally walk through the book again...It seems to
work, but I'm no introspectionist.  :)

> Photographic memory is not only a good thing to have. It appears 
> sometimes to be coupled with mental aberrations such as autism.

This could be accurate...I don't know.  I'm gonna crawl away in pain now.

> 
> Rolf Manne
> Department of Chemistry, University of Bergen, Norway
> e-mail Rolf.Manne@uib.no
-- 
+--------8<------Cut Here------8<------Cut Here------8<------Cut Here---------+
  Mark C. Langston   |  "Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny."                 
  Psychology Dept.   |  "Always listen to experts.  They'll tell you what can't
  Memphis State U.   |     be done, and why.  Then do it."                      
      "Pftph!"       |           -From the notebooks of Lazarus Long         
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