Photographic memory

Does anyone have this talent? What is it like?

• It's convenient.

• A friend of mine has a photographic memory and it's almost eerie. He can recount a conversation we had, word-for-word, that took place 15 years ago and even tell me what I was wearing at the time.

• I remember a lot of things like that, R2. I freak one friend out in particular with memories of meals we've eaten, who was wearing what, but... I can't remember the lyrics to songs on albums I've listened to a zillion times.

• I'm good at remembering scripts, but can't add two columns of numbers in my head without losing the carried-over numbers.

• I think it'd be very handy to have for a test-taking students, card counters/memorizers, and actors. For everyone else, not so much. I think one's life goes so much better if one can forget some things like horrors, humiliations, hard times, etc.

• I had an amazing photographic memory as a child. It has worn off with age, although I can still recall events from the distant past by what people were wearing, their facial expressions, the way scenery looked, etc.

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• How are you with song lyrics, and lines from movies and plays, R6?

• I remember verbatim everything YOU said. I just don't remember everything I said.

• R7, I'm OK with lines from movies, as long as I can remember the appearance of the character or background scene. I'm not so good with song lyrics anymore...although I do remember the words to the theme song from "F Troop." Go figure.

  R6

• I thought the definition of a photographic memory was that you could look at the print on a page and remember it like you were looking at a photograph. None of this shit is consistent with a photographic memory.

• Start with kindergarten and name all of your grade school teachers. I've done it, and can still visualize what each looked like. My total recall is uneven, however, and has both advantages and disadvantages in my life. Fabulous if you ever have to go to Small Claims Court but demonstrations do freak out employers.

• That's easy R11, I can't imagine somebody not being able to do that. Hell, I remember my sister's teachers, grade by grade.

• I have it. When I was 18 I sat down and went through and remembered nearly month by month nearly everything that happened to me from age 4 to 18. I thought everyone could do this. In middle school, I could speed read and I memorized the math books and took the test after each chapter. It's kinds weird to remember a lot. I can remember when, where, age and circumstances when I heard a certain piece of music.

• [quote]He can recount a conversation we had, word-for-word, that took place 15 years ago I can remember fragments of conversations for years, though rarely the whole thing. I first realized this was a bit different in junior high when I amazed someone by remembering a conversation from two months back. [quote]and even tell me what I was wearing at the time I cannot do that. I don't have a strong visual memory.

• Somebody asked this same exact question on Oct 14th, 2007.

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• Have great visual memory but not great with names. Can never remember lyrics or funny lines from shows.

• I remember settings, dates and details that don't register with others. But, at the same time, it's frustrating because I remember unimportant details far better than the important ones.

• Marilu remembers everything. Except for our one night of passion.

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• I used to have a photographic memory, but it has fallen off.

• What R10 said.

• I have a legit photographic memory and, yes, it was always very helpful during tests in high school. I could literally pull up a page in a text book inside my head and "look at it" in my mind. I'm a fiction writer in my spare time, and in my dreams (in that weird state between sleep and wake), I can often write whole pages of prose, wake up, "look" at what I had written in my head, and then type it out on the computer. For years, I thought everyone could do stuff like this. About ten years ago I printed out sheets from imdb.com for who had been nominated and won in every single acting category for the Oscars, Best Picture and Best Director. As a party trick, people pick a category and I can rattle each nominee and, finally, the winner. Helped during the Jeopardy! test I took a couple of weeks ago!

• I think remembering dates and what people say is idetic memory

• It was photographic, not idetic.