Who has eidetic memory?
The most convincing and unique documentation of eidetic imagery was a case study done
by Charles Stromeyer in 1970. The subject of their study, a woman named
"Elizabeth," was able to write out poetry in a foreign language years after
seeing the original text. She was also able to project her images onto a blank canvas or
over the top of other images. Moving her eyes allowed her to scan the projected image,
which remained entirely stationary. Her images would break apart instead of fading away
slowly.
Mozart's was able to create one symphonic composition after another almost
complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it, like a fine picture, but he
died in his thirties, still behaving like a juvenile.
Eidetic ability fades with age. One investigator guessed that fewer than one in a
thousand adults had it. Most eidetic ability can't summon the eidetic image once it fades from
mind, either. But there are exceptions. In 1970 Psychology Today reported on
Elizabeth, a Harvard instructor. Using her right eye, she looked for several minutes at a
100 x 100 grid of apparently random dots--10,000 dots in all. The next day, using her left
eye, she looked at a second grid of 100 x 100 dots. She then mentally merged this grid
with the remembered one into a 3-D image that most people needed a stereoscopic viewer and
both grids to see. Reportedly she could recall eidetic images of a million dots for as
much as four hours.
Even eidetikers aren't seeing a truly photographic image, psychologists believe--they
just have the ability to organize information with unusual efficiency.
Mnemonists, known for impressive feats of memory, enhance their native talent with
tricks. One famous case was S., described by the Russian psychologist A.R. Luria. Among
other things S. had an exceptional ability to retain things long after he'd originally
memorized them. Once he was read the first four lines of Dante's The Divine Comedy
in Italian, a language he did not understand. He was immediately able to recite the entire
passage--and more impressively, he could still do so on command 15 years later,
with no advance warning.
How had he done it? He associated each syllable with a mental image. The first line, Nel
mezzo del cammin di nostra vita, he rendered into images this way: Nel,
Nel'skaya, a ballerina; mezzo, she is together with (Russian vmeste) a man; del,
there is a pack of Deli cigarettes near them; cammin, a fireplace (Russian kamin)
is also close by; di, a hand is pointing toward a door (Russian dver); nos,
a man has fallen and gotten his nose (Russian nos) pinched in a doorway (Russian tra); vita, the man steps over a child, a sign of life--vitalism; and so on, for 48
syllables. It's all just a mnemonic trick, right?
Eidetic imagery has been studied for over a century and many studies have been done to
test its validity. Individuals capable of superior memory were tested and many were found
not to possess eidetic imagery. A study done by Degroot shows that some individuals are
highly skilled at organizing information- not actually reproducing the images they see. In
his study, chess players were asked to reconstruct certain arrangements of pieces on a
chessboard after looking at the arrangement for a brief period of time. It was found that
the performance level of an expert chess player would drop to that of a novice when the
pieces were arranged in a way that would never actually occur in a game. The initially high
performance level of the experts was not due to eidetic imagery; they were simply able
to better organize and therefore remember the information because the arrangements could
be associated with pre-existing knowledge of chess. Although some write off eidetic memory
as the ability to organize vast amounts of information, others have found that this
ability cannot be used to explain all the cases studied.
Eidetic memory articles
Eidetic online games
Free online games
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Eidetic memory (Photographic memory) found in 5% children. These children can
remember an entire page of writing in an unfamiliar language after only seeing
it for a short period of time. Only a few have eidetic memory in adulthood.
Games
See also on this site
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Feature Highlights |
| > By using Mnemonic game, you can improve your facilities of human mind concentration
word and digital mnemonic memory. You needn't practice sophisticate exercises; it
is just enough to study this training. Memory mnemonics are simple techniques
to help you remember what you want to remember. A mnemonic is as easy as, "One two,
buckle my shoe; three four, shut the door; five six, pick up sticks." Many people
learned that simple number rhyme before they ever even heard the word mnemonic.
It's an example of a mnemonic. |
| > Eidetic memory games can develop your memory and imaginary ability.
Eidetic games draws different pictures and you memorize them by using your eidetic memory.
Sounds easy? Well think again! The Statistics module will show your progress in this new method of memorizing. |
| > Puzzles can develop your mind and creativity. |
| > Concentration is the ability to direct one's thinking in whatever direction
one would intend. You concentrate on problem when you when you read a super novel.
While playing your guitar, piano, game. at a spellbinder of a movie.
Other times your thoughts are scattered, and your mind races from one thing to another.
It's for those times that you need to learn and practice concentration strategies.
. |
| > Mnemonic is not magic :) |
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