Photographic Memory: The Truth behind Its Claim | MdFaisal.com

Hello Friends! Photographic memory refers to the ability to recall images in details. It is comparable to how photographs can freeze a moment in time. Many believe that those people with such ability can take and recall mental snapshots correctly.   However, his is not the way it works. Recalling images with perfect accuracy or even near to it is impossible. There is a mounting evidence to prove that.   

Instead of a photograph, we can compare memory with a jigsaw puzzle.   When we are collecting an event from the past, we put together the elements that we have remembered from that event.  Typically, there is part of what happened that we forget. Those parts can be the background picture, the exact word that we have said and wall coloring. We can form the general concept by passing the details over to someone. We can remember the gist of what had happened. This is where we are good at. However, remembering all the elements of the past scene is something that we are less good at.  We can say that this plays to our advantage as what is important for the memory is the meaning it presented as compared to the exact details. With that, having photographic memory is we want to think of it, is not possible.

There are of course people that have phenomenal memories. Great examples of these are the chess masters. Even blindfolded, they can still beat opponents multiple times. Super card sharks are another one. They have the ability to memorize a deck of cards even in a shuffled order. They do it in less than a minute. Bu these people with great memories tend to be inept with at least one specific task. For example, those that can memorize the cards without a minute to pass are in fact having difficulty with recognizing faces. Thus, we cannot consider their memory to be of photographic memory.  

Our ability to recall the past is different from one another. It largely depends on how much attention we have paid during the time that the picture was presented. The things that we already know about it also affect the extent of how we can replay the materials in our minds.

We can improve our ability to recall with some practices and tricks. Many of those with excellent memory that we mistake with photographic memory used some elaborate methods that are helping them to remember. Some of us can recall without much effort a vast amount of information that is comparable to a lifetime’s memory. These people are helping the scientists to understand and learn more about memory through letting them study them. Another subject that helps this study, is those people who have poor ones that were a result of a disease or a neurological injury.  

Many people have the ability to recall things vividly. However, there will always be an error in the image that they recall regardless of how small it is. Thus, it is safe to say, that there are no such things as photographic memory.