From "The Complete Guide to Memory: The Science of Strengthening Your Mind" by Richard Restak.
Here's the memory exercise (which is easy for those of us with hyperphantasia and hard if we've got hypophantasia):
On a table or desk, arrange ten items in any configuration.... For this I recommend you include several familiar or even prized objects.... Study the items carefully for three minutes. Now close your eyes and practice picturing them in their specific arrangement. Can you do that? If not, start with five objects. The key is to see them as unique, easily distinguishable from one another, and yet placed in a specific arrangement. When you can do that, study them in depth, one at a time. In this exercise I selected a pen, which I helped design with the Italian luxury company Montegrappa.... Now the pen stands out in enhanced clarity compared to the other objects.... When you perform this exercise, you will notice that you use a kind of high-power mental lens to visualize the details by zooming in and out.... The clearer you can see the object in your mind’s eye, the easier it is to remember.... [C]larity and detail in mental imagery is directly related to the quality of your memory....
Here's the Wikipedia article on hyperphantasia. It sounds enjoyable and useful, but I'm not going to feel bad about not having it, because I see that it is "correlated to several mood disorders, particularly anxiety, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder, and having hyperphantasia may exacerbate symptoms of such disorders by subserving ruminating thoughts as well as acting as an 'emotional amplifier.' For example, vivid ‘flash forwards’ to suicidal acts may increase occurrences of suicide." It may also aggravate PTSD, schizophrenia, and Parkinson's disease.
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22 comments:
Endowed??
It sounds like a symptom that may not exist except in the mentally ill.
I recognize that, that's Kim's Game.
Don’t know what I’ve got but here’s my strange memory skill:
I can watch a rerun of an old (read 1950s) TV show — one I don’t seem to remember at all — and suddenly predict what’s going to happen next. I did this with an old Ozzie and Harriet episode, a Patty Duke episode, and a Pinkie Lee episode. I would have been a mere 3 years old when that Pinkie Lee episode aired.
It’s not precise memory, it’s fuzzy, but the predictions are unknowable if I wasn’t grabbing them from somewhere deep in my brain. For instance, in the Ozzie and Harriet show I announced to my wife all the sudden, “There’s going to be a horse statue coming up and they’ll all be standing at the bottom of the stairs.” And that’s what happened.
I’m thinking at this point in my 69-year-old life I’ve always had a touch of autism. Nothing anyone noticed throughout the years but looking back an intense ability to deeply observe TV shows and such. I remember the words and tunes of almost every commercial of my youth. There was a character in Poisonwood Bible that had this same skill so I’m sure I’m not alone.
Whatever it is, it’s amazing to me that my brain can hold images from 60 years ago, images I barely thought of at the time.
"study them in depth, one at a time. In this exercise I selected a pen, which I helped design with the Italian luxury company Montegrappa...."
That second bit seemed like a gratuitous brag - those pens run from about $1000 - $5000 dollars ("hey, look at me!") and the fact that he "helped design it" (the company allows you to select the options that you want, they did not single him out to provide design assistance) doesn't seem relevant to the point being made.
Old bon mot that dates me, and anyone who "gets" it:
"When I was a kid I had a photographic memory---but I never developed it."
@ M Jordan - Years ago, I drove with my girlfriend past the local mall and sang the jingles for 8 of the stores as we passed. She married me anyway.
This guy seems to be saying we cannot trust eyewitness testimony. Or your own observances.
Seems pretty gaslighty.
I always cut through the bookstore on my way to the library to check out interesting titles, but forget what they are before I get to the library. I've tried making up a jingle or chant and visualizing the covers but that doesn't work either.
I can watch a movie and then a week later I don't remember anything about it. Unless I have watched it 20 times or more like The Godfather or Out Of Africa. On the other hand, I frequently tour former homes in my mind and I remember everything with extreme clarity.
"I can watch a rerun of an old (read 1950s) TV show — one I don’t seem to remember at all — and suddenly predict what’s going to happen next."
I do this all the time, but I think it's because there are tropes or conventions that writers in certain genres use.
In comedy the story follows one arc. In murder mysteries another. I can almost always guess who the killer is even if I don't know the motive.
Maybe this is a men/women thing, but I played golf yesterday, and can describe to you every single shot I hit. My wife plays as well and can't remember any of hers...
"It’s not precise memory, it’s fuzzy, but the predictions are unknowable if I wasn’t grabbing them from somewhere deep in my brain." M Jordan
My version is of lyrics. I've thought A LOT about this -- and I've coined the phrase "memory of heard words". It is most common upon waking to start the day. I will have vaguely "heard" words on my mind -- seemingly coming from somewhere way in the distance. If I struggle a bit and catch one or two words, then I can do a computer search and come up with the name of the song. In many cases the songs are from a good 60 years ago -- songs about which I have had no conscious recollection.
Some years back, I was writing a book that focused on lyrics (I'd never done that before), and I found that while writing a sentence about one song my brain seemed about to search some vast unknown computer data-base in my brain to find songs with related lyrics. Very strange -- but useful.
All this began after my doctor doubled the dose of a medicine I already had been taking for about 9 years. It was if the increased dose opened up some previously closed part of my brain.
None of this bothers me. I treat these odd "memories" like dreams -- that there is some specific reason why THAT song started my day. Clearly my brain has been "working" during my sleep, trying to solve some question.
I guess that all this might be related to some kind of super-powered intuition -- an access to knowledge not consciously known to be in the brain.
Omaha1 said... [hush][hide comment]
"... I frequently tour former homes in my mind and I remember everything with extreme clarity."
Search the addresses. Might find one for sale with all the realtors interior shots. Or, if a tract home.one similar.
Also, with google maps, fun to pick your house, and travel down the old neighborhood streets.
effinayright ... Allow me, "Try The Veal".
In this exercise I selected a pen, which I helped design with the Italian luxury company Montegrappa.... Now the pen stands out in enhanced clarity compared to the other objects....
Nice. If I had designed a pen for an Italian luxury company I would remember it too, but I doubt that's the answer to my memory problems.
I have a good memory for where I've seen things, but I don't feel that I "visualize" it. I can't close my eyes and see an image of something. It's closer to having a narration that I can recall and use to remember where I saw something, although it's not like I'm thinking the narration as I go about my day.
And, while I am an excellent finder, I'm also a very good hider. Occasionally I'll put something away in a safe place that I'm sure to remember and it's always those that I can't remember and have to do searches for. This has mostly taught me not to put things away.
I have been blessed with a pornographic memory. (I'm surprised nobody beat me to it.)
My memory for details of past events in my life is prodigious in its clarity and comprehensiveness. The only trouble is, others seldom remember what I do the way I do, even if they were there too.
While walking, I spend at least part of my time recalling and sometimes vocalizing songs, poetry, sometimes prose passages.
"It's closer to having a narration that I can recall and use to remember where I saw something" Mary Beth
That is closer to what I was trying to describe -- that it is memory of "heard words" -- of sort of a connection between internal words and external words -- sort of a "discussion" between the world inside the brain and the world outside the brain.
I remember all the tits. What’s that called?
Ah jeez, Narr actually named it.
tommyesq,
Come now, Montegrappa doesn't sell anywhere like $5K. At Fahrney's (a pen store that I know b/c my dad was once obsessed with Mont Blanc), the highest price was under $1K. Mostly $300-$500 range. Not that that's cheap!
"Occasionally I'll put something away in a safe place that I'm sure to remember and it's always those that I can't remember and have to do searches for."
Everything my late mother misplaced was said to be in a safe place.
When asked to spell a word, I pull up the image of the word and can see how it is spelled. Pretty handy. There are still a few that stymie me every time (one r or two?). In calculus class many years ago, we were doing integration of volumes of shapes. A girl in the class drew a perfect intersection of a cone and cylinder (dotted lines for hidden parts) but could not "see" it. For those who cannot visualize (5% of pop?) I wonder how they drive a car, give directions or take directions.
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