Eidetic memory

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Photographic memory, eidetic memory, or total recall, is the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with great accuracy and in seemingly unlimited volume. Eidetic comes from the greek word eidos which means "image."

It is possible that many famous artists and composers, like Claude Monet and Mozart, had eidetic memory^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}.

Controversy

Dr. Marvin Minsky, in his book The Society of Mind, was unable to verify claims of eidetic memory (see sections 15.3 & 15.6) and considered reports of eidetic memory to be an "unfounded myth".

Support for the belief that eidetic memory could be a myth was supplied by the psychologist Adriaan de Groot, who conducted an experiment into the ability of chess Grandmasters to memorise complex positions of chess pieces on a chess board. Initially it was found that these experts could recall surprising amounts of information, far more than non-experts, suggesting eidetic skills. However, when the experts were presented with arrangements of chess pieces that could never occur in an actual game, their recall was no better than the non-experts, implying that they had developed an ability to organise certain types of information, rather than possessing innate eidetic ability.

Some people attribute exceptional powers of memory to enhanced memory techniques as opposed to any kind of innate difference in the brain. However, support for the belief that eidetic memory is a real phenomenon has been supplied by several studies. Charles Stromeyer studied a woman named Elizabeth who could recall poetry written in a foreign language that she did not understand years after she had first seen the poem.

A.R. Luria wrote a famous account, Mind of a Mnemonist, of a subject with a remarkable memory, S.V. Shereshevskii; among various extraordinary feats, he could memorize lengthy lists of random words and recall them perfectly decades later. Luria believed the man had effectively unlimited recall. But with today's knowledge, it is obvious that he used memory techniques too. See his article for further information about his methods.

The Guinness Book of Records lists people with extraordinary memories. For example, on July 2 2005, Akira Haraguchi managed to recite pi's first 83,431 decimal places from memory, and the 2004 World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore memorized the order of cards in a randomly shuffled 52-card deck in 31.03 seconds. The authors of the Guinness Book of Records, Norris and Ross McWhirter, had extraordinary memory, in that they could recall any entry in the book on demand, and did so weekly in response to audience questions on the long-running television show Record Breakers. However, such results can be duplicated using mental images and the "method of loci" technique.

There have been some cases where young children have demonstrated the ability to focus on a picture and then recall it with perfect clarity minutes later. However, these skills are usually lost as they grow older.

Some autistics display extraordinary memory, as well as those with similar conditions like Asperger's syndrome. Autistic savants are a rarity but they, in particular, show signs of spectacular memory. Synaesthesia has also been credited as an enhancement of memory, but only for information that triggers a synaesthetic reaction.

Eidetic memory in fiction

In many books of the fiction genre, characters have extraordinary memories, usually eidetic in nature. For example Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code can recall the details of a crime scene several days after the event. Even comic book heroes, such as Bart Allen, the current Kid Flash, has displayed eidetic memory while reading at super speed.

The 2006 USA series Psych follows private investigator Shawn Spencer, who successfully parlays his photographic memory into a facetious "private psychic detective" agency.

Other characters with eidetic memory include:

In the Ray Bradbury novel Fahrenheit 451 it is said that anyone can have an eidetic memory with training (so as to perfectly recall the banned books.)
Simon Illyan, Chief of Barrayaran Imperial Security in the Vorkosigan Saga
False Memory, a novel by Dean Koontz. Dusty Rhodes has eidetic memory which he uses against the antagonist.
Deucalion, a novel by Brian Caswell. (Jane Sukoma-Williams). Jane has a photographic memory until she develops a disease which causes total amnesia.
"Funes the Memorious", a short story written by Jorge Luis Borges (Ireneo Funes)
Starman Jones, a novel written by Robert A. Heinlein (Max Jones)
Beyond This Horizon, a novel written by Robert A. Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land, a novel written by Robert A. Heinlein (Valentine Michael Smith, as well as Fair Witnesses Anne (no last name) and James Cavendish).
The Templar Legacy, a novel written by Steve Berry (Cotton Malone)
The Dark Crusader, a novel written by Alistair MacLean (John Bentall)
Digital Fortress, a novel written by Dan Brown (David Becker)
Doctor Who, created by Sydney Newman (Zoe Heriot)
The Book of the New Sun, a series of novels written by Gene Wolfe (Severian)
My Idea of Fun, a novel written by Will Self
The Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout - Archie Goodwin possesses a virtually perfect memory
For Kings and Planets, a novel written by Ethan Canin
Angel, television series by Joss Whedon (Angel)
Small Gods, a novel written by Terry Pratchett (Brutha)
Red Dragon, a novel written by Thomas Harris (Will Graham)
Quantum Leap, a television program created by Donald Bellisario (Sam Beckett)
Star Wars, created by George Lucas (Winter Expanded Universe character) Note that due to Star Wars technology, the ability is referred to as a "Holographic Memory"
The X-Files, a television program created by Chris Carter (Fox Mulder)
Season Six of Stargate SG-1, includes the apparently eidetic Jonas Quinn; he prefers to describe his ability as simply being a "quick study".
Rain Man, a film based on the autistic savant Kim Peek (Raymond Babbitt)
Good Will Hunting, a film directed by Gus Van Sant (Will Hunting)
Palace and The Eyes of God, novels written by Katharine Kerr and Mark Kreighbaum (Vida L'Var)
The Chosen, a novel written by Chaim Potok (Daniel Saunders)
Fillmore!, a Disney cartoon show. (Ingrid Third)
', a novel written by Arthur C. Clarke (Dr. Silvasubramanian Chandrasegarampilai). Note that in the film ' this skill of Dr. Chandra is not presented in a clear manner as it is presented in the book.
Seven Days, a science fiction television series produced by UPN based around the premise of time travel. (Lt. Frank B. Parker, USN SEALs, Chrononaut.)
Malcolm in the Middle, a television series centered around a gifted teenager, Malcolm (played by Frankie Muniz), and his dysfunctional family. During season 5, in the episode "Block Party," Malcolm admits to having a photographic memory, after being confronted for accidentally helping a thief, and attempting to recall what was stolen.
Monk, a television series about Adrian Monk, a homicide detective who is able to use his oustanding memory to recount crime scenes with detail and use it to solve seemingly absurd homicides and murders. He once happens to watch a play and is after able to repeat it integraly.
The Ukiah Oregon series of novels by Wen Spencer. Ukiah Oregon is a private investigator who is revealed to be of part-alien ancestry.
The Cam Jansen Mysteries, a series of novels for children authored by David A. Adler. (Cam Jansen)
SpaceCamp, a 1986 movie based on a book by Patrick Bailey and Larry B. Williams. (Tish Ambrose)
Babylon 5, a television show by J. Michael Straczynski. (Susan Ivanova)
Sundiver, a book by David Brin. (Jacob Demwa)
Arabesk trilogy, by Jon Courtenay Grimwood. (Ashraf Bey)
Joan of Arcadia, a television series produced by CBS about a girl who talked to God. Adam Rove, one of Joan's friends, had an eidetic memory.
Detective Academy Q (Tantei Gakuen Q), a Japanese manga (illustrated by Fumiya Sato) and anime series about a detective school called DDS that educates potential students to become great detectives. Megumi Minami, one of the students in this school and the lead female character, is known to have a photographic memory that helps her solve cases.
The Crystal Singer trilogy, a trilogy by Anne McCaffrey. (Crystal singers) are required to have eidetic memories, including the main character, (Killashandra Ree).
The Talents series by Anne McCaffrey. Many of the most powerful (prime) talents -- people with psychic gifts -- have eidetic memories. Both the psychic talent and the memory run in families and they are linked.
Golden Witchbreed, a book by Mary Gentle. (The Hexenmeister and his successor)
Fullmetal Alchemist, an anime and manga series. (Scieszka, who can recall any book she's ever read perfectly)
Joe Gould's Secret, a 2000 movie. The main character claims to have "total recall".
Lest We Remember, a sci-fi tale written by Isaac Asimov in his Robot Dreams compilation. The main character, John Heath, went through an experimental treatment that gave him absolute eidetic memory, able to recall every event he has ever known, witnessed or heard about, even if not paying any attention, the most extreme memory prodigy that ever appeared in fiction.
, in this novel, Batman (Bruce Wayne) uses an obscure technique that he has learned to quickly memorize pages to his memory as fast as an assistant can turn them.
Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl, has photographic memory, which aids her efforts as the superhero information broker Oracle. This skill does have a drawback: she vividly remembers every detail of being shot by the Joker in .
Loser Takes All, a film by Laurent Benegui starring Thierry Lhermitte
"The God Project", a political/Sci-fi thriller by Stan Lee, in which the protagonist can remember documents perfectly. The president uses him to remember things, and thus avoid leaving a paper trail.
La Femme Nikita, a Canadian television series loosely based on the movie of the same name. (Faulkner)
Hackers (movie) (Lord Nikon)
Edgar Stiles, an Intelligence Analyst at Counter Terrorist Unit Los Angeles from TV show 24, claims to have photographic memory.
The 39 Steps (1935), a film by Alfred Hitchcock (Mr. Memory)
In an episode of Malcolm in the Middle, the title character is able to recall the entire contents of a car.
The Man Who Never Forgot science fiction short story by Robert Silverberg.
The Delphi Bureau (1972) TV-movie and 1972-1973 TV series, created by Sam Rolfe (Glenn Garth Gregory)
Alias, a television series created by J.J. Abrams. (Marshall Flinkman)
Monster, a manga series by Naoki Urasawa and anime adaptation. (Inspector Lunge of the BKA)
Ghost, a novel by Piers Anthony where the protagonist does things like memorize entire books.
character Kes.
In the TV movie "Thoughtcrimes," Agent Brendan Dean claims to have an eidetic memory, and can describe faces in detail after only a brief glance.
Infinite Jest, a novel by David Foster Wallace (Hal Incandenza). In one instance, Hal amuses his classmates by reciting a dictionary entry from a given numbered page.
Criminal Minds, Dr. Spencer Reid is able to memorize massive amounts of information and in one episode states that he has an eidetic memory.
Taskmaster, a supervillain of Marvel Comics fame can utilize his memory for such amazing feats like mastering many martial arts disciplines and different languages by just watching demonstrations on videotape or hearing it on audio cassette only ONCE, respectively.
Sherlock Holmes - one of the greatest detectives
Phantom, by Susan Kay. The title character, Erik (the "Phantom of the Opera"), tells Christine as he rants that "[...]I remember everything, /everything/...I was cursed with these extraordinary powers of recall, you see...sometimes I would have given anything simply to be able to forget, as other people do."
The Kathleen Mallory novel series by Carol O'Connell: The character of Charles Butler has eidetic memory.
Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars - In these novels by Kim Stanley Robinson, a major character, Saxifrage Russell, has eidetic memory. Ironically, late in the series, many of the characters are confronted with memory loss issues due to advanced age.
One Hand Clapping, a novel by Anthony Burgess. The main character has Eidetic memory to such an extreme that it has a deteriorating effect on his sanity.
Various characters in the popular Naruto series that possess the Uchiha bloodline limit, Sharingan
Ender's Shadow, written by Orson Scott Card. Bean, the main character, has an almost perfect Eidetic memory. He is able to store, manipulate, and put to use everything he reads, sees, or hears with amazing speed and complexity.
TV series Spooks aka MI-5. A petty criminal is recruited, in the episode entitled “Clean Skin” in Series 2, to complete a dangerous mission because he has the ability to memorize numeric and alphabetic combinations at a glance. He briefly observes a random page from the book Moby Dick and then is able to type what he has seen from memory, claiming to not even understand what it is that he is replicating, but able to visually picture the passage.

Eidetic memory

Controversy

Eidetic memory in fiction

See also