Much of what we observe is filtered out by the time we get to the remembering, condensed like a JPEG file on a computer. Our memory is more highlights reel than vivid recording – a rush of emotion and sensory impressions, the ghost of the experience. What was the name of your neighbour’s pet turtle again – Sherlock or Sheldon?īut then some memories never really make it in to begin with. Others are lost in the neural jungle of our brains. Some memories can be dug out easily – that electric moment you saw your partner for the first time, perhaps, or where you were when images of the twin towers falling in the 9/11 attack flashed across news bulletins. If you remember even what day of the week it was, well done. So how does superior memory work? What’s it like to have one? And is photographic memory real?Ĭlose your eyes and picture what you wore yesterday, what you ate, who you met, what they said. She can tell you what she did 20 years ago as if it happened yesterday. That includes Australian Rebecca Sharrock. He and colleagues have since found about 60 others deemed to have this particular kind of super memory, which they named highly superior autobiographical memory, or HSAM. “I didn’t think that was possible at first,” says the now-retired McGaugh. After attempts to replicate the study and find others like her failed, talk of photographic memory faded in scientific circles.īut another surprise came 30 years later, when renowned US neurobiologist James McGaugh met a woman who seemed to remember every day of her life. Stromeyer had married her – and she refused to be tested again. But just as excitement broke out in the scientific community over “Elizabeth”, there came a fitting Hollywood twist. This sounded like Hollywood’s idea of a photographic memory – memories stored in crystal-clear detail, like photographs perfect recall.
According to scientist Charles Stromeyer, she could stare at a random 10,000-dot pattern with her left eye then mentally fuse it with another she’d seen the day earlier through her right, naming the 3D letter that appeared in her mind – a magic eye puzzle it shouldn’t have been possible to solve. It was 1970 and testing had decided this young Harvard teacher (and talented painter) possessed what had never been truly diagnosed before: A photographic memory.Īlthough savants down the years had displayed remarkable feats of memory, recalling books word for word or recreating accurate portraits from glances, Elizabeth was different. See all 20 stories.Įlizabeth wasn’t her real name, but it would soon become famous in the halls of neuroscience. Journey to the far reaches of the universe and satisfy your curiosity along the way. Our Explainers dive deep into life’s mysteries.
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