The Myth of Photographic Memory

Although many people have been said to have astonishing powers of recall, there has never been a verified case of what we call a photographic memory because your mind isn’t a camera.

Many people have been said to have astonishing powers of recall, including Ferdinand Marcos, the former dictator of the Philippines, and Arturo Toscanini, who conducted operas from memory after his eyesight became too poor to read the music. But there is no verified case of what we call a photographic memory — the ability to recall a picture, document, or scene in detail that’s as accurate and clear as a photograph.

There are two forms of non-ordinary memory, however, that hold interest for researchers — eidetic memory and extremely rare “highly superior autobiographical memory” (HSAM). These uncommon types of memories can seem detailed, but they are not perfect, and they aren’t proof of “photographic memory.” They do suggest the ability to remember accurately what we see and hear is more complex than we realize.

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What is an eidetic memory?

The phenomenon that comes closest to photographic memory is “eidetic memory.” Most people who demonstrate this type of memory are children (although some researchers claim very elderly people sometimes experience eidetic memories). About 2 percent to 10 percent of pre-adolescents are “eidetikers,” meaning they have the ability to hold onto an image in their memory longer than the rest of us.

Scientists have documented that the part of the brain called the posterior parietal cortex is where visual stimuli are processed and fragments of images of things we see are retained — normally for just for a few seconds before we forget them, or parts of what we saw are moved to another area of the brain where short-term memory is stored.

The posterior parietal cortex is believed to control eidetic memory but, for reasons not understood, eidetikers can hold on to the memory of an image in that part of the brain for a bit longer than most people — for about 30 seconds to a couple of minutes before the image is gone.

These images are not the same as an ordinary afterimage, the black dot you might see after a white camera flash. The black dot moves with your eyes. Eidetic images don’t move as you move your eyes and are in the same color as the original. They vanish if you intentionally blink, and you can’t retrieve them.

The most common way to identify eidetikers is the picture (or photo) elicitation method. The person being tested scans a picture on an easel, which is removed after 30 seconds. Eidetikers claim they can still "see" the picture. Researchers validate these claims when the eidetikers answer questions about the picture they just saw in the present tense with unusual accuracy and detail.

Eidetic images aren’t “photographic” because the accuracy of these memories doesn’t match that of a photograph, notes Alan Searleman, PhD, a professor of psychology at St. Lawrence University and co-author of the college textbook “Memory from a Broader Perspective.”

Besides being hazy on details, eidetikers sometimes invent details that were never there. In fact, one of the first scientists to test and study eidetic memory, psychologist Ralph Norman Haber, PhD, found it wasn’t unusual for eidetikers he tested to claim they remembered things that were never in the picture they originally scanned.

Why even a strange “super” memory isn’t photographic

Imagine someone asks you what you did as a child on a specific date — and, even though you are in your 30s or older, you not only remember what you did but also recall what day of the week it was. And it doesn’t have to be a special event, like a birthday.

If that sounds too bizarre or too much like science fiction to believe, it’s not. Instead, it’s very rare, but scientifically verified, highly superior autobiographical memory. HSAM is defined as the uncanny ability to link calendar dates to either personal events (which can be as mundane as what you ate on the day mentioned) or to traumatic major news stories (like the assassination of Martin Luther King or Princess Diana’s death).

James McGaugh, PhD, a University of California, Irvine, professor in neurobiology and behavior, has studied HSAM for more than two decades. But McGaugh and colleagues have not been able to document even 100 people with true HSAM.

They also don’t know exactly what is going on in the brain of people with this form of “super” memory. It does appear to be linked to obsessive compulsive disorders. Some research subjects are obsessed with orderliness or avoiding germs or even specific hobbies, McGaugh wrote in “Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference,” which has a chapter devoted to  HSAM.

Despite the accuracy of recalling what happened on certain dates, people with verified HSAM do not have a “photographic memory.” In fact, they do sometimes make mistakes.

“Their memories are much more detailed than ours, and last for a longer period of time, but they’re still not video recordings,” McGaugh explained in a Time magazine interview.

Don’t be fooled; your good memory isn’t photographic

Trusting that a vivid memory is absolutely true in every way, even a “flashbulb memory” of a dramatic event that seems seared into your consciousness, can be a mistake.

For example, on September 12, 2001, 54 students at Duke University in North Carolina recorded their immediate memories of first hearing about the event, along with memories of a recent everyday event. When they were tested 1, 6, and 36 weeks later, their memory of both September 11 and the everyday event diminished over time. They strongly believed, however, that their September 11 memory was more accurate.

Bottom line: Memories can be good, useful, and accurate, but they can also be flawed. So, it’s wise to remember there’s no magical and flawless “photographic” memory.

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