Eidetic memory is the ability to vividly recall an image after brief exposure, with high accuracy for a short time, without using a memory aid.
Photographic memory, though often used interchangeably with eidetic memory, implies the ability to recall extensive details, like entire pages of text, with high precision. Genuine photographic memory’s existence is debated and hasn’t been conclusively proven.
Key Takeaways
- Eidetic imagery is real but limited: A rare, short-lived visual ability found mainly in children, lasting seconds to minutes before fading.
- It is not a photograph: Eidetic images contain small errors, sometimes including detail that was never in the original scene.
- Photographic memory has no verified case: No healthy adult has ever been reliably shown to store and reproduce whole pages or scenes perfectly.
- The famous “proof” is disputed: The one person to pass a formal eidetic test was never re-tested, and the study had serious methodological problems.
- Real “super-memory” is something else: Mnemonists, savants, and people with highly superior autobiographical memory succeed through strategy, not a mental camera.
Eidetic memory is more common in children, with only about 2 to 15% of American children under 12 exhibiting this trait.
This ability dwindles in adulthood.
The prevalence in children might arise from their reliance on visual stimuli. Adults balance between visual and auditory cues, which may impede the formation of eidetic memories. People with eidetic memory are often termed “eidetikers.”
Conversely, there’s no conclusive evidence supporting the existence of genuine photographic memory.
Despite some individuals boasting incredible memory capabilities, the idea of instantly encoding an image into an impeccable, permanent memory has been debunked repeatedly.
Even outstanding memories, like LeBron James’ recall of basketball games, are likely due to intense focus and passion, not a so-called “photographic memory.” Some claim to possess this memory type but often utilize mnemonic techniques to enhance recall.
“Hyperthymesia,” also called highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM), is sometimes linked to photographic memory. It describes the ability to recall the events of almost every day of one’s life in extraordinary detail (Parker et al., 2006).
In essence, eidetic memory offers a vivid impression of an event, not a perfect record.
Even eidetic images contain small errors, sometimes including details that were never in the original scene. This shows the recall is reconstructive, not a true copy (Haber, 1979). While primarily visual, it can encompass other sensory facets related to the image.
Comparatively, “photographic memory” denotes the ability to recall extensive detail without the distinct visualization associated with eidetic memory.
How Eidetic Memory Works
Eidetic memory describes the ability to retain memories like photographs for a short time.
It involves recalling visual details as well as sounds and other sensations associated with the image in an exceptionally accurate manner. Unlike photographic memory, eidetic memory does not require prolonged exposure to an image and the recall is not perfect or permanent.
Eidetic memory is a transient form of short-term memory. When you visually witness something, it goes into your eidetic memory for moments before being discarded or relayed to short-term memory.
Once in short-term memory, it may be remembered for days, weeks, or months when it will be scrapped or dispatched to long-term memory.
When information passes from eidetic memory to short-term memory, it becomes ordinary data, not a precise picture you can see in your mind’s eye.
For instance, you notice your keys on the counter in passing and later assume that you probably need to locate your keys. You recall catching them on the counter, but you could not picture them as clearly as if you were looking at them.
How Photographic Memory Works
Photographic memory works considerably differently. With a photographic memory, the picture of the object is maintained in short-term or long-term memory.
Photographic memory denotes the ability to recall entire pages of text or numbers in detailed precision.
An individual who has a photographic memory can shut their eyes and see the thing in their mind’s eye. It looks just as plain as if they had taken a photograph, even days or weeks after they witnessed the object.
This type of memory is scarce and challenging to verify.
Prevalence of Eidetic Memory
Eidetic memory is typically found only in young children and is virtually absent in adults. This developmental change may follow the acquisition of language skills, which appears to disrupt eidetic imagery.
Eidetic memory has been found in about 2 to 15 percent of children aged six to twelve. It has been theorized that language acquisition and verbal skills allow older children to think more abstractly and therefore depend less on graphic memory systems.
Extensive research has failed to demonstrate consistent relationships between the presence of eidetic imagery and any emotional, neurological, intellectual, or cognitive measure.
Very few adults have had phenomenal memories (not necessarily of images), but their capacities are also detached from their intellect levels and are highly specialized. In extreme cases, like those of Kim Peek and Solomon Shereshevsky, memory skills can reportedly inhibit social skills.
Shereshevsky was a conditioned mnemonist, not an eidetic memorizer, and there are no examinations that demonstrate whether Kim Peek had a genuinely eidetic memory.
Also, according to sources, the mathematician John von Neumann could recall every book he had ever read from memory.
These “super-memory” cases actually cover several different abilities, not one photographic gift:
- Mnemonists: Use deliberate strategies, like vivid imagery or synaesthesia, to encode huge amounts of material.
- Savants: Show a prodigious memory for one specific domain, often alongside difficulties elsewhere.
- Memory athletes: Train ordinary memories to championship level using techniques like the method of loci.
- Highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM): Recall the events of almost every day of one’s own life in detail.
Can You Train Your Brain to Get a Photographic Memory?
No training method has been scientifically shown to produce genuine photographic memory. What research does support is that everyone can improve their memory overall using proven strategies, such as association and chunking.
There are also some methods for training one’s mind to take in and store those mental photographs for later use.
Improving One’s Memory Generally
One of the best things you can do to gain a photographic memory is to improve your memory generally. The most effective way to do this is to keep your mind active.
Completing things like crossword puzzles and other mind games will significantly help you train one’s mind to remember facts, figures, and, eventually, images.
Another way to enhance memory is to train the mind to connect and associate new information or pictures with previously retrieved and stored data.
These connections can help you remember almost anything for longer than a few seconds. Using associations or “chunking” can enormously improve your recall ability.
The Military Method
There is a method of obtaining a photographic memory which is called the Military Method. It is believed that the military uses this technique to train operatives to have a photographic memory.
There is no objective evidence that this method works, though some individuals report success improving their memory with it.
Before beginning the Military Method, commit fully to the exercise. It takes about a month, and you must practice daily for it to work. Missing even one day of practice can set you back at least a week.
This method requires a completely dark room, free from distractions, and a bright lamp or light that can be switched on and off.
A windowless bathroom or closet with a ceiling light works well.
Grab a sheet of paper and cut a hole in it, about the size of one paragraph on the page you are memorizing. Placed over the page, the hole should reveal only one section at a time.
Sit comfortably in the tiny windowless space one has chosen. One should be able to turn the light on and off quickly without getting up or moving around too much.
Adjust the book or document to see it quickly, and the words jump into focus when one glances at it without difficulty.
The distance can vary from person to person based on if they wear eyewear and their overall eyesight.
Place the paper over what one is trying to memorize to show just one paragraph. Please turn off the light and let one’s eyes adjust to the darkness. Then, switch the light on for just a split second, examine the paragraph, and turn the light off again.
One should have a visual imprint of the mental picture right in front of oneself or be able to view it in the mind’s eye.
When the image disappears after a bit, repeat the process.
Repeat this process until you can remember every word in the correct order. Doing this for about fifteen minutes a day, every day for a month, should help improve your memory.
If you cannot remember the entire section after a month, you should have memorized at least part of it, improving your memory overall.
Learning to Focus & Eliminating Distractions
One of the great ways to improve one’s ability to recall information and images is to focus entirely on what one is trying to memorize.
When remembering pictures or information, eliminating distractions can significantly enhance one’s ability to store that information later.
Of course, one will not always be able to eliminate distractions when one wants to memorize something. There could be many things going on and noise or people talking in the background.
To best remember information and images, one will need to genuinely hyper-focus on what one is trying to memorize. This can take some training to block out distractions when required to learn the information or images.
Practicing with Common Objects, Like a Deck of Cards
Memorizing a group of objects, like dominoes or a deck of cards, can help train your memory to remember what it sees.
Grab a deck of cards, maybe UNO cards or playing cards one has lying around, and choose three cards at random.
Memorize the cards, put them back in the deck, and shuffle. Then find the cards you memorized and put them back in order. Each day you succeed, add more cards until you can do the entire deck.
You can do the same with dominoes or similar objects.
Draw a few in a particular order, memorize that order, and try to recreate it, adding more objects each time.
Eating Foods that Stimulate Memory
Some foods can help increase one’s memory. For instance, omega-3 fatty acids have been discovered in studies to lessen memory loss. If you desire to preserve a good memory, make sure you obtain plenty of these either in a supplement or through weekly amounts of salmon.
A study by the Radiological Society of North America has revealed that coffee improves memory. Too much coffee can be harmful, but a morning cup or two can significantly enhance brain function and memory recall throughout the day. Several studies also suggest choline as a memory supporter.
You can find choline in egg yolks. Eating a daily dose of eggs can significantly help boost your short-term memory capacity.
A high-protein diet has also been linked to good memory. Ultimately, luteolin, a nutrient in celery, has improved short-term memory.
Skepticism of Eidetic Memory
Scientific skepticism about eidetic memory centers on a single case study. Around 1970, Charles Stromeyer began studying his future wife, Elizabeth. She claimed she could recall poetry written in a language she did not understand, years after seeing it only once.
She reportedly could also hold two random-dot patterns in mind well enough to mentally fuse them into a single 3D image, called a stereogram.
She is the only remaining documented person to have passed an eidetic memory test. The examination methods are questionable, though, especially given how exceptional the claims were and that the investigator later married his subject.
The tests have never been duplicated as Elizabeth has consistently refused to repeat them, which does raise further concerns.
Some psychologists believe that the reflection of eidetic memory comes from an unusually long persistence of iconic images in a few lucky people. More modern evidence brings up questions about whether any recollections are genuinely photographic.
Eidetikers’ memories are extraordinary, but they are scarcely flawless.
Their memories frequently contain tiny errors, including information not included in the original visual stimulus, so even eidetic memory often seems to be reconstructive.
Modern research reinforces this reconstructive view. A 2017 study found that volitionally taking photographs of an experience changes what people remember afterward. It improves memory for the visual details captured, but impairs memory for the accompanying sounds (Barasch et al., 2017).
American cognitive scientist, Marvin Minsky, considered reports of photographic memory to be an “unfounded myth” in his book The Society of Mind (1988).
There is also no real scientific consensus on eidetic imagery’s nature or definition, or even whether it exists in children at all.
Brian Dunning, a scientific skeptic author, reviewed the research on eidetic and photographic memory in 2016. He concluded that there is a lack of hard evidence that eidetic memory exists at all among normal adults.
There is, in fact, no evidence that even something remotely like photographic memory exists. However, a common theme runs in many research papers Brian looked at.
That is why the difference between standard memory and exceptional memory appears to be one of degree.
Sources:
Barasch, A., Diehl, K., Silverman, J., & Zauberman, G. (2017). Photographic memory: The effects of volitional photo taking on memory for visual and auditory aspects of an experience. Psychological science, 28(8), 1056-1066.
Dunning, B. (2016). Photographic memory [Audio podcast episode]. Skeptoid Media.
Feiman, G. (2017). Eidetic Memory and School Age. Journal of Russian & East European Psychology, 54(2), 130-191.
Haber, R. N. (1979). Twenty years of haunting eidetic imagery: Where’s the ghost?. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2(4), 583-594.
Martinez, M. E. (2010). Human memory: The basics. Phi Delta Kappan, 91(8), 62-65.
Minsky, M. (1988). The Society of Mind. Simon & Schuster.
Paivio, A., & Cohen, M. (1979). Eidetic imagery and cognitive abilities. Journal of Mental Imagery.
Parker, E. S., Cahill, L., & McGaugh, J. L. (2006). A case of unusual autobiographical remembering. Neurocase, 12(1), 35-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/13554790500473680
Scully, A., & Wiss, K. Photographic Memory. The Whitman Journal of Psychology 2014, 40.
Stromeyer, C. F., III, & Psotka, J. (1970). The detailed texture of eidetic images. Nature, 225(5230), 346-349. https://doi.org/10.1038/225346a0
