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If there were one intellectual pursuit
I considered worth pursuing at a young age it was developing a photographic
memory.
Imagine just how awesome it would be to look at a textbook
page for a minute, and then remember the image of the textbook page
like you could still see it. That means, you wouldn't even have
to read the page. You could read the textbook page by looking at the
image in your memory and reading it then. It would be amazing. That's
the dream of a photographic memory.
A photographic memory is not just a
good visual memory. It's a virtual reference folder of perfectly
remembered pictures in your brain. Despite the salesman trying to
tell you otherwise, this kind of memory has not been scientifically
proven to exist.
The Science on Photographic Memory
There have been hundreds of studies
looking for people with photographic memories as described above. The
vast majority of those studies (particularly the more scientifically
rigorous ones) have shown the traditional view of a photographic
memory being almost complete bunk. That being said, the traditional
view of photographic memory is very narrow.
Most people, do, in fact, have an
amazing ability to remember certain images. Those images just aren't
as beautifully accurate and accessible as the traditional view of a photographic memory would require.
For example, have you ever seen the
face of a person you recognize but you still can't remember their
name? That face is an image that's been stored in your brain. Despite
that facial image being stored in your brain, you can't figure out
when you stored the face and why it's being stored. You need to ask
yourself question after question like, “Where do I know this person
from?” Oftentimes, you still won't be able to figure the name out.
That's our photographic memory's poor ability to archive the
information. You can figure out the face is important but you don't
know why.
On top of that, most people that
recognize that face, still couldn't use that image of the person's
face to draw the person without the real face for reference.
Photographic memory seems to be more powerful on a subconscious level
than a conscious one.
Faces aren't the only thing that brains
are good at photographically memorizing though. Think biological
requirements to narrow it down farther.
Ever been riding around somewhere out
of town and realize you've been there before? You recognize a sign or something and it just clicks. Landmarks are also an example of the
visual memory doing it's magic while not inviting you in to watch.
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The Magic Of Childhood
The closest thing to a photographic
memory that science has actually proven is an eidetic memory. While a
photographic memory is thought to be almost perfect, an eidetic
memory is just a very good visual memory. The person may be able to
remember an image with ~90% accuracy depending on the complexity.
Some people do have an eidetic memory.
By some, I'm talking about a tiny minority of the population.
Oftentimes, people with an eidetic memory don't even know they have
it because it's that unimpressive. To them, it feels like they can
just see things in their brain clearly. That might not even be
noticeable because they never get the chance to compare their
amazing visual memory to the average persons' blurry and narrow
images.
An eidetic memory is something that
nearly 10% of the population has while they're children but as they
grow up, that eidetic memory starts to fade away. Many theorists
suggest that's because the use of language eliminates the need for
such precise images in the brain.
If we were to take that as a fact, it
could be interesting to consider this possibility. Visual memory may
actually be much less useful than the ability to memorize words. For
example, let's say you see a guy kick someone. You have two ways of
trying to remember the situation. One; you remember the image of the
guy kicking someone. That memory includes tons of colors, streaming
video, and provides very little context to the situation. Or two; you
remember “That guy is a jerk,” or “That guy fights back.”
Those are four words each and they can provide significantly more
context than photo in that situation.
Perhaps a visual memory isn't
the most awesome thing in the world? You're regular memory just might be more useful.
How To Improve Your Visual Memory
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Spending years trying to figure out how
to develop a photographic memory is awfully disappointing but it did
come with a few perks. I was absolutely miserable with my visual
memory before starting. I could barely get an image in my brain. I'm
definitely not gifted in this respect but I was able to learn a few
tricks for developing a more powerful visual memory.
First of all, focus on colors. The
hardest point of memorizing an image for most people, is not
understanding this basic formula. Colors are your vision. There is
absolutely nothing else that you take in. Most people try to memorize
an image through just closing their eyes and hoping. Instead of that,
focus on getting the colors into the right spot. As soon as you can
do that, you're on track to improve.
Developing the details over that color
is where you're likely going to plateau many times. That is painfully
difficult even for people with an eidetic memory. Don't feel bad.
The next thing you need to worry about
is conscious awareness. To remember an image, you need to consciously
try and remember it. It seems pretty obvious but it's overlooked by a
ton of people, usually, after they missed their chance to become
consciously aware of it. For example, test day comes and they think,
“Why didn't my visual memory store this?!?” while they never
actually consciously tried. They just kind of hoped. That can kill
the motivation for any practice in the future.
You can't expect to memorize pages of
textbooks using your visual memory but you can do some useful things
with it. While a full page might be overkill, it's very practical to
visually remember diagrams that are important. Instead of thinking
through a problem logically you can imagine the diagram in your head
accurately and get 90% of the way there. That 90% still, usually,
requires traditional study to get the precision. The visual memory is
more of a honing mechanism than memory system in this case.
So, I'm sorry to disappoint you but
don't expect to develop a magical photographic memory anytime soon.
While you can improve your visual memory, don't let it get in the way
of using the rest of your memory.
Do you want to know how you can get
grades like you have a photographic memory? You know what I''m
talking about: spending 10 minutes studying and still scoring high on
the test. It's possible. It's not magic but with the right tools it
can look like magic to an outsider.
Be sure to follow this blog and
check of some of the old articles to get started. (Or check out one
of my books in the sidebar to get a head start.)
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