Memory and timeline issues

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I was wondering if this is typically ASD or if it's just me:

My memory acts kinda weird, both my short-term and long-term memory. For example, when I just finished reading a book or seen a film, you can ask me what I just read or saw and often I will have troubles just repeating the main storyline! When I try really hard, it usually comes back to me. Same happens when I try to recall what happened during the day; often I will even forget major things that have happened.

It's not just bad memory, though. For example, I can sometimes remember some of the tiniest details very well. If I tell people, they just have to trust me because they can't remember themselves, even if they were present at the event we're recalling. They keep looking at me strange, though

At work I continually surprise people because I keep telling them how bad my memory is, but quite often I know exactly how a piece of program code works and even very precisely where an error is located, when I'm shown a particular manifestation of a bug. Other times, I read back a piece of code I wrote with my own hands, but don't even remember writing. If you tell me it was written by someone else, I'd believe it.

My memory also has a way of imposing continuity. Example: At work, when I have to recall something I was working on on friday but it's now monday, I often refer to it as "yesterday, I was doing this and that", and as soon as I say it I catch myself and say "friday". It's like I view "work-time" as a distinctly different timeline from realtime in which there's a weekend in between. If I refer back to the weekend, it takes me some effort to relate back the day to the weekday we're in now. I also have trouble remembering on sundays that stores are closed, which others tend to find amusing

I'm not sure if I really experience time differently from other people, or if it's just my memory warping my sense of time.

I dunno if it's an ASD thing, but I have similar issues with time and memory.

i have same problem with memory.i think it does have something to do with ASD.

I have the same problem with memory, also sometimes I feel like I know something, but can't express it in words.

Hmm, I don't think that's happened to me. Sometimes I have to search my mind for a bit, but I can almost always explain or express my thoughts & ideas well.

I remember a lot of details, but I have more difficulty remembering the order in which they occurred.

Wow, I have that exact same problem... I didn't realize it might be an Aspie thing. Granted, I smoke a lot of weed, too, but I've only been doing that for the last few years and my memory has always been like that. And, based on discussions with non-Aspie smoker's, weed seems to have a different effect on me than the average person. My thought processes become more focused and I am far less vulnerable to distraction from a given task. I have actually tested this theory using Guitar Hero (lol). I play better high.

Sorry...Aspie tangent...

Anyway, yes, I also have this problem with memory and ordering of events. And alias123, I also have trouble putting thoughts into words, even if the idea is perfectly clear to me in my head. That, though, I'm sure is an Aspie thing. But as with all symptoms, not every Aspie will have that particular issue.

Ditto. My memory is all over the place, I can never decide whether it's ridicuolusly bad or ridiculously good. Often when I first attempt recall, my mind just goes blank, but get me talking about whatever it was, and it's surprising how frequently I find it's all there.

I suspect that stress has something to do with it - if somebody puts me on the spot and I feel under duress to answer quickly, I clam up and become confused, and expect them to laugh at me or conclude I'm a half-wit. But if I'm calm, it's a lot easier to recall stuff. For example, there was once a thread here asking people what things became clear to them when they realised they may have AS - I posted a long list of stuff without having to strain myself at all. But if I go to see my GP and ask for a referral for an AS diagnosis, and he scowls and asks me what experiences I have had that make me believe a diagnosis is a good idea, I think I could easily clam up and be incapable of recalling a single thing off that list.

Also it's easy to blame the memory for recall problems that are actually due to inadequate attention. I have to focus properly on a thing before I stand a chance of retaining it.

And understanding - if a thing doesn't easily map onto what I already know, or just doesn't make sense (often because it's not been explained clearly), I'm unlikely to retain it.

Some kinds of information just seem so boring or arbitrary that they don't go in. Numbers are like that - I can't recall my son's age without doing a calculation (I subtract 30 from my own age). As for birthdays and anniversaries, forget it (literally!). My mind frequently feels that it doesn't want to clutter itself up with stuff that would be better off committed to paper rather than memory. If the only reason to learn a thing is that it's "on the syllabus," it's realy hard to absorb it. It's as if my own common sense cries "No! Life is too short!" and insists on overriding the arbitrary decisions of the exams board. I find the better designed courses (such as Nuffield stuff) focus on understanding rather than rote learning, and I think that a lot of courses are unnecessarily padded out with superfluous material - for example, I know of catering courses that include quite a heavy dose of biochemistry, and while I see the merit of something of the kind, I'm sure it's not impossible to be a good cook without having to digest set books on biochemistry.

I believe that learning is in essence an emotional experience and I think that the failure to grasp that is at the heart of a lot of the undue expectations that people put on the memory powers of themselves and others. They treat the mind like a container or a computer memory - "here's a big book for you to digest and recall, here's another, and another.....now get it done quickly or we'll fail you...there, that's my job done. I'm such a good teacher!"

Thanks for the great reply, ToughDiamond. I've had exactly the same problems with my studies. Especially learning foreign languages (which is a mandatory thing here in the Netherlands) was extremely hard for me. Learning long lists of words is just... pointless to me. English, on the other hand, came naturally to me because I read a lot about computers and watch a lot of films. I never had to do anything special to learn it.

Understanding always beats studying! Having an actual interest in what you're trying to learn also helps a great deal.

You also make a good point in that stress may suppress the ability to recall things. I've noticed this myself too, I can just freeze up when under pressure. When given a bit of time, everything sometimes just come rushing back, but other times it doesn't become more than a thin trickle of one thing at a time.

Do any of you also have problems remembering names or (phone) numbers? I always forget names as soon as people tell them. I also had to keep looking up my own phone number for a year or something, before I finally decided I should memorize it. Then I put in some effort to try to memorize it (repeat it every day to myself), and suddenly I could remember it.

I'm very bad with names and phone numbers. I have to pause for a moment when asked for my own number. The names thing is a real problem at work, sometimes. I will occasionally be asked to do a special project for somebody and I am told to bring it to so and so when I am finished and I have no idea who they are talking about. And to make matters worse, when I ask where this person is, without fail, that they sit next to somebody else who's name means nothing to me. Rather than ask for clarification and feel stupid, I usually end up wandering around checking names on cubicles for half an hour.

Wow, am I glad I work for a very small company

We only get a new employee every six months or so. But it's a real problem with customers. We shake hands, they tell me their name, and I promptly forget it. I then spend the rest of the meeting listening very intensively for names being mentioned. This is a really bad strategy but it's the best I can do

I think it has to do with the social situation being hard enough for me, requiring me to concentrate hard on "doing the socially correct thing" and introducing myself and talking etc, so I can't be arsed to also remember what everyone else is saying! This might tie into the stress theory mentioned by ToughDiamond.

I agree there is a definite stress component to it. Social interaction takes a lot of mental effort for me. So much so that I find even the simplest interaction exhausting.
Btw, I fall into the same bad strategy that you do when it comes to learning people's names. It's like being dropped in the middle of a foreign country and not knowing the language. A person could tell me their name but it's like I just can't pick that out of the rest of the crap and retain it. But if I watch them all interact, eventually I can get it. "Oh, okay... they keep calling that one 'Steve' so he must be Steve."

I couldn't remember my own phone number for two years at least. I used to tell people it was a new one so they wouldn't think I was odd. I can almost remember my son's number because I use it a lot, but even so, I often need to read the first two or three digits before the rest comes back into my head. But as more telephones are being made with their own memories, I hope the rest of society will soon join us....they won't bother to remember numbers when they're always stored in the phone itself.

I forget names also. I'm sure the stress makes that happen more. If I'm introduced to somebody and I'm told their name, I just think "Oh no, I'm going to forget it!" and then we have to have a conversation so I don't get the time to go over the name in my head a few times to make it stick. I have to be able to think of a link with somebody else I know who has the same name, or some other mnemonic trick......there are a few tricks like that, e.g. if somebody has red hair and they're called Fred, that's easy, because we had a red-haired teacher at school who we called Red Fred. But if I don't happen to notice a characteristic that I can link with their name, I can't do it. It wouldn't be so bad if names came up one at a time and if I had the time to sit down and think of something.

Or perhaps if I could dominate the conversation and insist on first discussing their name and how I was going to remember it - "So, you're called Bill.....that's a very common name, why couldn't you be called something a bit more unusual and interesting? Still, I once knew a guy called Bill, he was an idiot. I guess you look like a bit of an idiot too, so maybe that'll help me remember you." Perhaps not. On the other hand, would people obkect if I were to write their name down as they told it to me? Does society expect me to prove I find people's names easy to remember without writing them down, or would they be pleased that I was interested enough to make a note of it? I'm sure a lot of the things we get embarrassed about don't really bother people. Though I'm sure people don't like it if they get the idea I'm not interested in them.

Tips for remembering names:
http://thinksimplenow.com/productivity/ ... -any-name/

Also found this - a very crafty trick if you don't mind being a little bit dishonest in an emergency:

I do that too! But I've never told anybody that I do that. I think a some people might be insulted by the associations and mnemonics I come up with to remember their names.

From these posts I am reading... it seems like this very well may be an ASD issue or trait.

I also share these same problems that have been mentioned and it is sometimes a real problem for me. Not always, but sometimes.