How does photographic memory work? Can you develop it?

Eidetic memory, or photographic memory seems to be innate. All memory can be improved with practice but it is unlikely that you can develop eidetic memory if you were not wired that way.

Eidetic memory is so rare that the last psychologist who tried to study it in depth only found one candidate who truly had it, although many volunteered thinking they had it.

I have known two people who have it, but it wasn’t learned. I would not think it could be.

“can you develop it?” – no pun intended, right?

I have a photographic memory, but I keep leaving the lens cap on!

I don’t envy people with photographic memory. Chunks of their brain could be replaced with a digital camera.

I have a limited eidetic memory. Instead of memorizing word-by-word, I can form an image of the text or diagram in my minds eye, and read from that. It’s something you are born with; I haven’t heard of any cases of people being able to develop the ability. My father had this ability better than I, being able to “absorb” hundreds of pages of tech manuals and recall them at will. I don’t know if this ability is somehow related to Aspergers Syndrome, but those of us in the autism spectrum tend to “think in pictures”, so eidetic memory may be more common to those of us in that spectrum. Thesis topic anyone? For me, the process seems to work like the old cameras of the 1840s; I have to stare at the page for several minutes to form a usable “image” that I can refer back to later. This I reserve only for critical information, as I normally read at about 2000 words per minute with about 80% recall.

I recall only the basic idea of what I just read in your post, @stranger_in_a_strange_land

Even the exact numbers I remember being at the end, I do not recall. I just know that you can read fast and remember well. Do I suffer for not remembering those exact numbers, (that I just accidentally re-read and will probably remember now, but you get my point.) I value keeping my memory fluid. I believe it allows for a more intuitive and thus more adaptive existence.

@zophu I agree. My type of memory leaves me with a head full of obsolete and worthless information. Computer technology has made people like me about as useful as flint-knappers in the iron age. The world has no further need for “walking encyclopedias” in an age when any i-phone can do the same thing. I probably belong in a museum exhibit.

I work in Communications Technology, and part of my job is assembling equipment at customers prems.
When I was first learning this, we had a new piece of equipment that had 7 thick manuels on it’s installation and operation. Stacked, the manuels would stands about 2½ foot tall.
My coworker was having problems with a certain card. It didn’t seem to work right, in a very odd way. We scoured the manuels trying to figure out what was causing this problem. Finally, he gave up, and suggested we call Scotty.
Scotty was a legend. People said he truly had a photographic memory.
We called him, and described our problem. Immediatly, he said “check volume 4, page 189, center of the page.” We turned to it and there it was!
Why he is working for the phone company has been the topic of many discussions at work.

@filmfann People like this Scotty often have such poor people skills that a secure, tenured type job with a large company or government agency is the only form of employment possible to them. Frequently, people like us are offered promotions based on pure merit, if we’re wise, we decline them. Better to be an eccentric genius buried in a back laboratory than to let the world see how social retarded we are.

There’s surely types of useful conclusions that only a human mind with the parts of a computer can come to. It’s not fair to say it’s an obsolete thing just yet.

@zophu If others consider you obsolete, that makes you obsolete. Fortunately, being self-employed gives me some degree of immunity from those opinions. Thirty years ago, my skill was extremely valuable; now anyone with an i-phone can access information just as fast. People no longer value judgement, all they want is some kid who understands the latest widget.

Eidetic memory can be described as “thinking in pictures” Oddly enough it is a very important part of the way autistic people learn. Temple Grandin describes her learning processes in just this way in her early book “Thinking in Pictures”—a fascinating read.
@stranger_in_a_strange_land missed your post before I wrote this.
@filmfann this may be why Scotty still works at the phone company.

For me it is having a mental link to some information that is a graphic rather than a text string, like the oft-mentioned remembering the placement of information on a page in a book, say, in the left column underneath a picture of Westminster Abbey. But sometimes I am wrong. Sometimes I mix up WHICH piece of relevant information was stored in that location—it still marked a spot, but the wrong one.