exceptional memory Flashcards
give some examples of extrodinanry memory
Shereshevsky (“S”)
• Russian newspaper reporter
• S studied by Luria from 1920 to 1950
• Short-term memory span > 70 items
• Recalled lists correctly years after hearing them once
Synaesthesia
S. ‘saw’, ‘felt the weight of’, and ‘tasted’ sounds and words
• S. ‘saw’ pictures when hearing or reading (abstract) words
• “When I hear the word green, a green flowerpot appears… Even numbers remind me of images. Take the number 1. This is a proud, well-built man; 2 is a high-spirited woman; 3 a gloomy person (why, I don’t know); 6 a man with a swollen foot; 7 a man with a mustache; 8 a very stout woman – a sack within a sack. As for the number 87, what I see is a fat woman and a man twirling his moustache”
outline why exceptionanal memory can also be a curse
- Unable to read poetry or fiction easily
- Affected simple social interactions
- Interfered with ability to hold a regular job
- Made some money as a mnemonist
- S was eventually institutionalised
explain what is meant by superior autobiographical memory
“Hyperthymesia” Only a few cases discovered to date Case AJ (Parker, Cahill, & McGaugh, 2006)
Video of AJ talking about her experience
Study of AJ implicates role for executive dysfunction - Poor abstract reasoning - Lack of self-generated organisation - Poor inhibition of no-longer relevant information
give the case of HK
(Ally, Hussey, & Donahue, 2012)
- Normal intelligence and normal short- and long-term recall
- Increasingly accurate autobiographical memory
- Brain smaller than average
- But right amygdala 20% larger and increased connectivity to hippocampu
explain why forgetting can be good
Forgetting makes traumatic and unpleasant memories less salient > Forgetting helps to unclutter memory (‘pruning’)
• “With the smallest and with the greatest good fortune, happiness becomes happiness in the same way: through forgetting” (Untimely Meditations II, Nietzsche, 1874).
what is eidetic memory?
idetic memory is not uncommon in young children
• It’s not found in adults. The only (extremely rare) exceptions may be some autistic savants, like Stephen Wiltshire, “the human camera”
do chess players have eidetic memory?
Do expert chess players have eidetic memory?
• Chess masters showed 91% correct recall for chess positions, compared to 41% for less expert players (De Groot, 1965)
No! They rely on recognition of familiar patterns and chunking
• Typical chess master knows ≈ 50,000 chunks (Simon & Gilmartin, 1973)
How do chess masters do with random chess positions? • Not much better than amateurs (Chase & Simon, 1973; Gobet & Simon, 1996
Outline the case study of SF
SF was a college student with an average memory (memory span of 7 digits)
• He was trained extensively to use chunking
• This enabled him to increase his digit span to 79!
• His letter and word spans were no better than other people
In 2006, 60-year-old Akira Haraguchi recited from memory the first 100,000 decimal places of pi!
Assigns kana symbols to digits: Example: 0 can be substituted by o, ra, ri, ru, re, ro, wo, on or oh; 1 can be substituted by a, i, u, e, hi, bi, pi, an, ah, hy, hyan, bya or byan; etc.
outline the method of loci in memory
Attributed to Simonides, 5th century BC • Association of to-be-remembered items with locations on a familiar route
e.g. • 1. WINAUD • 2. Founders Reception • 3. Crosslands • 4. Quadrangle • 5. Library
digit list 4,3,2,5,4
explain why exceptional memory appears not to be innate
• Maguire, Valentine, Wilding, and Kapur (2003)
In memorists, brain areas associated with location memory/navigation found to be active during memory for non-spatial stimuli…
Maguire et al. (2003
London taxi drivers show changes in hippocampal structure (Maguire et al., 2000)
The loss of expert memory: Patient TT (Maguire et al., 2006)
damaged hippocami- limbic encephalitis
amensia
learnt route 40 years ago
couldn’t remember them
We conclude that the hippocampus in humans is necessary for facilitating navigation in places learned long ago, particularly where complex large-scale spaces are concerned, and successful navigation requires access to detailed spatial representations.
why does the method of loci work?
Forces active thought about the material = elaborative rehearsal (relatively deep processing)
• Route provides an organisational structure
• Locations along the route function as associative cues
• Associative links are also formed between items.
• Capitalises on power of imagery (engages multiple memory codes – dual coding).
• Bizarre imagery makes the to-be-remembered information more distinctive
• When two or more items are depicted as interacting in a single image, they can be chunked as a single unit.
• Re-imagining route during recall allows encoding specificity principle to be exploited.
