Is There Such A Factor As A Photographic Memory

De Transcription | Bibliothèque patrimoniale numérique Mines ParisTech
Révision datée du 28 novembre 2025 à 23:38 par AlyceInman1602 (discussion | contributions) (Page créée avec « <br>Is there such a factor as a photographic memory? And if so, can it be realized? Alan Searleman, a professor of psychology at St. Lawrence College and co-writer of the... »)
(diff) ← Version précédente | Voir la version actuelle (diff) | Version suivante → (diff)
Aller à : navigation, rechercher


Is there such a factor as a photographic memory? And if so, can it be realized? Alan Searleman, a professor of psychology at St. Lawrence College and co-writer of the faculty textbook Memory from a Broader Perspective, MemoryWave Community explains. Within the scientific literature, the time period eidetic imagery comes closest to what is popularly known as photographic memory. The most typical solution to establish eidetikers (as folks with eidetic imagery are sometimes called) is by the picture Elicitation Methodology. In it, MemoryWave Community an unfamiliar image is positioned on an easel and an individual fastidiously scans your entire scene. After 30 seconds have elapsed, the image is faraway from view, and the person is requested to proceed to look at the easel and to report anything that they will observe. Individuals possessing eidetic imagery will confidently declare to nonetheless "see" the image. In addition, they can scan it and study completely different elements of it simply as if the image have been nonetheless physically current.



Consequently, one of many hallmarks of eidetic imagery is that eidetikers use the current tense when answering questions concerning the missing picture, and they will report in extraordinary element what it contained. Eidetic photographs differ from different types of visual imagery in a number of necessary methods. First, an eidetic image isn't simply a long afterimage, since afterimages transfer round when you move your eyes and are normally a unique color than the original image. In contrast, a true eidetic image doesn¿t transfer as you progress your eyes, and it's in the identical coloration as the unique picture. Second, a standard visible image that we are able to all create from memory (corresponding to a picture of a bedroom) doesn't have the characteristics of most eidetic photographs, which nearly all the time fade away involuntarily and part by part. Also, it isn't attainable to control which elements of an eidetic picture fade and which stay seen. Not like common visual images created from memory, most eidetic pictures final between about half a minute to several minutes only, and it is possible to voluntarily destroy an eidetic picture perpetually by the straightforward act of blinking intentionally.



Furthermore, as soon as gone from view, rarely can an eidetic image ever be retrieved. If you are enjoying this text, consider supporting our award-successful journalism by subscribing. By buying a subscription you might be helping to ensure the future of impactful stories concerning the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. You may count on that a person who claims to still see a picture after it has been removed would be capable of have an ideal memory of the unique picture. In spite of everything, a perfect memory is what's usually implied by the commonly used phrase "photographic memory." As it seems, nonetheless, the accuracy of many eidetic photographs is removed from excellent. In actual fact, moreover usually being sketchy on some particulars, it isn't unusual for eidetikers to change visual details and even to invent some that had been never in the unique. This means that eidetic pictures are certainly not photographic in nature however as an alternative are reconstructed from memory and might be influenced like other memories (both visible and nonvisual) by cognitive biases and expectations.



The overwhelming majority of the individuals who've been recognized as possessing eidetic imagery are youngsters. The prevalence estimates of the power among preadolescents vary from about 2 p.c to 10 %. And it's an equal-opportunity phenomenon--there¿s no gender difference in who is prone to be an eidetiker. Though it's actually controversial, some researchers additionally believe that eidetic imagery happens extra continuously in certain populations of the mentally retarded (specifically, in individuals whose retardation most likely stems from biological, quite than environmental, causes) and in addition among geriatric populations. With just a few notable exceptions, nevertheless, most analysis has shown that virtually no adults seem to possess the flexibility to kind eidetic pictures. Why should this be so? No one really is aware of, though part of the answer may be related to a relatively obscure truth about the development of such pictures. Analysis has shown that if an individual verbalizes throughout the time he or she is scanning the original picture, this interferes with eidetic image formation.