Eidetic Memory

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Eidetic memory is often referred to as photographic memory. Memory experts, however, disagree if such a thing as photographic memory actually exists. The famous Kim Peek who inspired the movie and the character played by Dustin Hoffman in the film “Rain Man” certainly had a photographic memory. He could read a book in about an hour and remember the entire thing. In all he read and remembered the content of some 12,000 books. If that is not a photographic memory, what is?

Eidetic memory is said to be more common in children than in adults, and it has been estimated that only about one in one thousand adults has some level of eidetic memory. Children or adults with eidetic memory can be shown a detailed picture and asked to observe it for about 30 seconds or so. The picture is then taken away, and the subject can look at and describe the picture as if it were still in view. The colors observed are apparently the actual colors of the image, not an after-image because for after-images the colors observed are complementary colors. In other words what was previously red would be seen as the complement of red, which is green. The children describe the image in the present tense, often saying “I see…” as if the image was still there.

Some skeptics wondered if at least some of the people being tested were cheating. A test was devised such that an image was broken down into two pieces, and neither of these made any sense by itself. Subjects were asked to look at the first image for a while, and then this was taken away. The other image was then shown, and the sense of the images could only be seen if the first image was still there. For the subjects with true eidetic memory that was the case, and they could accurately describe the total image with both parts seen together. This provided proof that eidetic memory does in fact exist.

Many people who had some level of eidetic memory as children seem to lose this ability when they reach adulthood. The supposition is that children have a lot less “memory clutter” than do adults who have seen a lot more.

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