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Fully functional adults with perfect ("endless") memory

cbsnews.com

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Re: Fully functional adults with perfect ("endless") memory

#31

Post by VMG »

ipince wrote: post #23
ndl wrote: post #18

What surprises me (and makes me most skeptical) is that they can remember days by date. Did these people actually know what the date was every year of their lives? This implies to me that it is not just a camcorder-like memory that these people possess, but an efficient, numerical search ability on those memories. It makes me wonder how much one could duplicate this ability by purposefully associating numbers with da…

I agree.. Why did they keep saying "it was a Monday" or whatever? Seemed pretty random/uncalled for. Makes me think of they way things are organized in their brains. I also wonder how they're not very high-performing and successful individuals. It seems to me an "endless" memory could be hugely beneficial, beyond the many (unethical) scheme they can exploit.

I also wondered if they see some historical patterns invisible to us normal people.

Re: Fully functional adults with perfect ("endless") memory

#32

Post by nerfhammer »

thesz wrote: post #6
petervandijck wrote: post #2

In short: it turns out there are (few) people that have almost perfect memory, even 20 years back. And that this type of memory is totally new to science.

Nope. It was known that some could have perfect memory. I read in my childhood about man who remember everything. He worked as a reporter and never wrote down any tasks editor gave him. That man told the editor that he won't forget and he did not forget anything, really. So editor send that man to psychologist who discover that he had perfect memory. )the story was about 60-s or so) The perfect rememberer had a mild…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Shereshevskii

Re: Fully functional adults with perfect ("endless") memory

#33

Post by JoeAltmaier »

I'm unconvinced - what verifiable memory feats are presented? If asked "what were you doing on such and such a date 20 years ago", they can say anything and who can contradict them?

Perhaps they simply are good storeytellers. Which is a feat in itself.

Re: Fully functional adults with perfect ("endless") memory

#34

Post by lanolin »

This article skips a very important aspect of these subjects: can they choose a topic and learn it inside and out and not forget it? For example, if they were interested in, say, botany, could they use their fantastic memory to remember detailed characteristics of every plant species they study?

All they seem to remember is what the did on a given day, or who won a sporting event or the weather.

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