The only report of such ability comes from Dr Sheldon Cooper from the TV comedy show The Big Bang Theory. In the first half of the 20th century, the Russian mnemonist Solomon Veniaminovich Shereshevsky showed himself capable of recalling strings of random words he had seen decades earlier.īut does eidetic memory exist? Definitely not in the form of the popular misinterpretation of the term that assumes total recall of all events occurring in one’s life. It’s a talent he has repeated on several occasions. In 2001 the British architectural artist Stephen Wiltshire was filmed flying over London aboard a helicopter and subsequently completing a detailed and perfectly scaled aerial illustration of a four-square-mile area of the British capital within a few hours. Such people display the ability to recall images, words or sounds with extreme precision. Nevertheless, the brain is a special and mysterious organ because there exist people with a special ability referred to as “eidetic” or “photographic” memory. This makes sense, as the brain is a part of our body. On the flip side, we can improve our memory with exercise, just as we can improve our physical abilities with exercise. That is, just as our physical abilities are tied to our bodies, our memory abilities are tied to our brains. Such a biological correlate of memory strongly suggests individual differences in memory abilities. Long- but not short-term memory involves long-lasting physical changes in neurons that ultimately result in altered levels of electrical and/or chemical communication between different neurons. Once an event forms a short- or long-term memory, we are no longer thinking about the event, but retrieval is possible hours to weeks, or months to years, following the event.īiologically, short- and long-term memories are different from each other, as indicated by the Nobel laureate Eric Kandel’s work. It is probably what happened to the police who lost their keys to the Wembley stadium during the recent Olympics.Īttention then leads to working memory, which lasts seconds to minutes. This is not due to forgetting, but is a failure in memory formation. Subsequently, at work, I cannot recall whether I have locked my door or not. I often lock the door as I am leaving my house without paying attention. First, attention is critical for the initiation of memory formation. Despite distinctions between the three, all the types of memory appear to undergo similar stages across time.
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