likedcalico wrote:
When I was showing my boyfriend my old house in Washington and my old school, I was also telling him who lived in what house in my neighborhood and I was telling him what buildings were there in the city when I was a kid and what wasn't there when we left. I was also telling him when they built this and when they built that and he was impressed by it because he can't do it. He thinks its photographic memory. Is it?
I also told him what rooms were my classes when I was in elementary school by pointing at each window of kmy old school. See that room "15 there, that was my second grade class."
"See the second door there, that was my third grade classroom." "See that door there with room 10 on it, that was my forth grade class." And then I told him what my last two classes were. He said he can't do that either but he can remember what school he went to but not remember which ones were his classrooms.
He also thinks knowing movies word by word is photographic but I told him I had seen Benny & Joon so many times, I know the lines in the movie but I did not know it word by word when I saw the first few times. He says he can't memorize movies word by word. Is knowing lines from movies photographic too after seeing it so many times.
I don't think that's photographic memory. My understanding is that a photographic memory means you are able to look quickly at a scene, and then be able to recall it in perfect detail when you can no longer see it, even to the point of being able to notice details you didn't see when you were actually looking at it. For instance, glancing at a room, and then closing your eyes and answering questions about the number of ceiling tiles, or the titles of books on the shelves. Like "
Cam Janson", who would glance at the homework page in her textbook while at school, leave the book at school and then do the problems at home by "looking at" her memory of the homework page.
I remember which classrooms I was in and stuff too. I think people just remember different things about their childhood. And remembering movies word for word has to do with auditory memory, not visual memory.
23 Aug 2007, 2:43 pm
