Memory

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I discovered something surprising yesterday, as far as the way most people seem to remember things.

My friends and I were talking about voice actors for anime characters. One of them mentioned that two characters from different shows have the same voice actress, and I said that I didn't know that, but I could see that, since they sound very similar, now that I think about it. My two friends just sort of stared at me for awhile, and assuming they must just disagree with me, I argued my point (they really do sound similar when one of the characters is not excited, even though they have very different personalities). Then, one of my friends just said "I don't really remember what they sounded like." This confused me, so I said "Well, I can just hear their voices in my head when I think about it." And both of my friends seemed really, really surprised by this. They said they can't do that, and they just remember qualities about the voices, such as that they were high-pitched or low-pitched.

I wonder if this is like the video-memory analogy. I mean, I get mental images, and my memories are mostly like little bits and pieces of video clips, though not quite that detailed. I have both visual and audio. I seriously thought everyone remembered in this way. Is this not true, then?

http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php? ... pic&t=2261

A lot of us think like that.

Unfortunately, both my visual and auditory memory are rubbish, at least as far as CONSCIOUSLY accessing them is concerned.

With the right trigger (it has to be quite similar), I am quite good at recognising things, for example I am exceedingly good at recognising the voices of voiceover actors, but ONLY if they do the voiceover "neutrally" (i.e. they don't act, basically, and don't put on an accent, more like in an advert or documentary).

However, with cartoon characters and other situations where the voice is deliberately changed, I have a really hard time recognising the same actors, even when it is obvious to most other people.

I can't deliberately access auditory or visual memories as such, I think my brain has long given up trying to keep up with the imput, so everything is kind of spatial.

i tend to remember numbers and things with patterns.
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I have no problem remembering exact vocal sounds. Not only those familiar to me, such as family and friends, but also character voices from television and radio. I just hear them in my head when I think of them.

Also, I can recall tastes and smells in exact detail. If I think of Oreo cookies, the memory of their flavor is so strong that it is nearly the same as eating the actual cookie. Even the texture of the cookie is reproduced.

This ability has its bad points. We used to have a nasty, dirty little dog that pooped in the house often. Once during dinner, my mom mentioned the dog pooping in the house and the trouble she had cleaning it up. The mere mention of the dog poop caused me to actually experience the smell and I promptly lost my appetite.

I would gladly trade my ability to remember smells and tastes for the ability to remember names and numbers.

My memory can photographic and often goes into great detail. It helps bigtime with certain things and remains useless for other things.

I can remember tastes, smells, sounds, all kinds of stuff. Sometimes its useless and I get looked at wierd when I use it to help someone who can't remember.

The funny thing about my memory when it comes to voice is that if I'm remembering something like the lyrics to a song. I have to play the whole song back in my head to get the lyrics. I can't try and think of them seperate with out the music to go along with it, they just won't come to me then. If there's a long interlude during the song, I have to play through the whole thing before I can resume with the lyrics.

Even worse yet, my mind has a habit of perservating on part of a song like a record thats skipping. In that case, I have to preform the mental equivalant of slamming my fist on the table to get the record to play correct again.

The best way I can describe it is that my my brain takes the raw auditory data from my ears, stores it with out seperating any of the elements, and then when I want to recall it, it sends it back through to be reprocessed as if I was hearing it for the first time again.

I'm the same way as Scoots5012. But when I can't understand or remember what the person is singing, I make up my own lyrics. Almost as if I'm parodying the song just so I can sing it in the shower.

synchro said:

Same, but more smell than anything. I only remember texture if it's unique. I work near a restaraunt , and every time I go outside it's the only thing I can smell, even if it's not open. It helps when I'm trying to block out the smell of bad things. The only downside is strong smells like household cleaners can't be blocked and are very strong. I can't stand the smell of Lysol also. Anyone else here hate the smell of cleaning products?

Yes! I can associate completely with that... I have a hard time remembering song lyrics as well; most of the time I have a really good memory of what the song sounds like, but I can't make out the lyrics even when I recall the song from memory any more than I could when I first heard it. And it's hard for me to just pick out one line from a song when I'm playing it back from memory; I hear it in the full orchestration.

And as for remembering voices and such, I'm far better with voices than I am with faces. I'll see someone and not recognize the person at all, then he or she will just say a few words and I'll immediately recognize who it is.

I don't actually think like that, in the sense of formulating new thoughts. I just remember in that way.



This happens to me, too. It can happen with both songs or just words or phrases, sometimes things I've read or heard, and other times, just out of no where.



Me too! I hate having this problem, because I end up staring at everyone I pass on the street, just to make sure I don't know them.

I am very good at remembering how voices sound, right down to how they said something. And if I'm a fan of a voice actor, I can typically recognize their voices even if it's changed... but not if it's changed drastically from how I'm used to hearing it.

For example, my favorite voice actor is Jim Cummings. I recognize his voice very easily... perhaps this is because I listen for his other voice roles within the voice he's currently doing; I can hear Drake Mallard from "Darkwing Duck" in Cat from "CatDog." I can hear Pete from "Goof Troop" in other villains Jim plays, and so on.

I'm great at discerning tastes and smells, but I won't always remember a taste or a smell unless I experience it repeatedly OR if it makes a big impact on me. I will recognize a taste or smell upon experiencing it again, though. The same goes for information I'm not particularly interested in but need to know, or even people's faces or names. I'm terrible with names... that wasn't helpful when people bothered me in school; I'd go up to a teacher, and I can't even tell them who it was since I'd only know by seeing the culprit in person again! >_<;

I have something like an audiographic memory. I can "play" even complicated orchestral movements in my head and hear pretty much every instrument. With voices I often have a hard time with remembering the exact words but will remember the pitch, intonation, cadence, etc. I remember reading the movie script for The Matrix and recalling *exactly* how each line was delivered....

Anyone have a really bad short term memory ?

My memory used to be amazing. Actually i still have kidna a photographic memory. But i noticed within the last year i seem to have a really bad short term memory. I think of something i want to do, then when i go to do it i forget what im actually doing. I get this alot. Could it be stress related ? this past year has been stressful.

I was thinking maybe as we get older and experience more things we dont rememebr the least important things in life. I rememebr thinking my bro had a terrible memory, but it was just that i didnt go out much and i remmeebr too much detail and stuff no one else bothers to rememebr.

I, too have recently been losing my short term memory. I've always had a bad one, but it was good for awhile, and now getting bad again. Maybe it can go up and down depending on how stressed you are. Just a thought.

Oh, yes. Once I really concentrate to remember something, I'll remember it quite well... but if I don't make it a point to remember, I'll forget almost immediately.

My short term memory is very bad unless I'm reading/studying something that I'm actually interested in.