Wouldn’t it be great to look at a page of text, or a map, and immediately remember every detail? Many famous people – from Leonardo da Vinci to former US President Bill Clinton – have claimed to have some level of photographic memory. But is true photographic memory actually a real thing? Or are some people just better at those memorization techniques they tried to teach you in grade school?
What do we mean by “photographic memory”?
We spoke to Professor Jon Simons, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, to try and get to the bottom of it. When we say “photographic memory”, what we usually mean, according to Simons, is “being able to perfectly recall an image, scene, or text as if it were a photograph,” – but when we asked if it was real, the answer was clear.
Simons told us photographic memory “is not supported by scientific evidence.”
Instead, neuroscientists might talk about “eidetic” memory – fans of The Big Bang Theory will remember that one of the show’s main characters, Sheldon Cooper, often claims to have this ability.
“Eidetic memory is the ability to vividly recall images, sounds, or objects in great detail, almost as if they’re still present,” Simons told us. “This type of memory is sometimes found in children but is relatively rare in adults.” If you’re reading this, Sheldon, sorry to disappoint.
Even in kids, it’s uncommon. An oft-quoted statistic suggests 2-10 percent of kids aged 6-12 might have the ability, which appears to stem from research conducted in the 1960s.
In a 1979 paper, psychologist Ralph Norman Haber detailed the results of a decade-long project he had undertaken to investigate eidetic memory, finding that the concept was “virtually nonexistent” in adults. Haber includes transcripts of conversations with some of the kids involved in the research, providing a fascinating insight into what having an eidetic memory might be like.
In one example, a 10-year-old boy was briefly shown an illustration of Alice – of Wonderland fame – chatting to the Cheshire Cat as it sits in a tree. When the image was taken away, the subject (S) was asked to continue looking at the blank easel, moving their eyes if needed, and to tell the experimenter (E) what they could see, as in the following excerpt:
E: Do you see something there?
S: I see the tree, grey tree with three limbs, I see the cat with stripes around its tail.
E: Can you count those stripes?
S: Yes, (pause) there’s about sixteen.
This is just a brief snapshot – but consider whether you could remember an image you’d only seen for 30 seconds to this level of detail.
Portrayals of photographic memory in popular media are often exaggerated and can sometimes be misleading.
Professor Jon Simons
Although most kids who appear to show this ability do eventually lose it with age, a case report published in 2023 raised the possibility of eidetic memory in a 27-year-old woman with epilepsy. After having various types of seizures starting at age 6, the woman was undergoing some testing prior to surgery when her impressive ability at memorizing pairs of words became apparent. The authors hypothesized that in this rare case, the woman’s seizures – which originated in the part of the brain responsible for language – could have actually enhanced her memory.
As to why a small number of children may have eidetic memory when it’s seemingly out of reach for most adults, there have been a few theories. Some have suggested that it’s to do with developmental changes in the brain, or that younger children rely more on their visual memory before their verbal skills progress to the point that they can think more abstractly.
Haber wasn’t convinced by this though, writing that there was “no evidence to support any version of a developmental hypothesis.” In his conclusions, he primarily called for more research to unpick the nature of eidetic memory, but to this day it remains poorly understood.
It is possible to train your visual memory, enhancing ability to recall visual information more vividly and accurately through deliberate practice and the use of specific techniques.
Professor Jon Simons
What about all those famous people with supposedly “photographic” memories?
If there’s no evidence photographic memory exists, why are so many convinced they have it? Are all the examples in film and TV just straight-up fiction?
“Portrayals of photographic memory in popular media are often exaggerated and can sometimes be misleading,” Simons confirmed. “In movies, TV shows, and books, characters with photographic memory are depicted as being able to recall vast amounts of information with perfect accuracy, such as reading a page once and remembering every word forever. In reality, no scientific evidence supports this level of perfect, detailed recall in humans.”
Thankfully, the professor did have some good news. While true photographic memory may be a fantasy, with a bit of work it’s possible to improve your visual memory to a level that begins to approach it.
“It is possible to train your visual memory, enhancing ability to recall visual information more vividly and accurately through deliberate practice and the use of specific techniques,” Simons told IFLScience. “An example [is] mnemonic strategies such as the Method of Loci (or Memory Palace) technique, which involves imagining placing information you want to remember along a familiar route or location, like rooms in a house.”
“Studies have shown that training in this technique for a few weeks can enhance visual memory significantly.”
Seems Sherlock Holmes was really onto something after all.
Why do some people have such good memories?
They may not have a photographic memory, but you might know someone who just seems to have a knack for recalling information. It could even be you – if you’re a trivia champ or can learn directions better than a sat nav, you might have wondered why your memory seems to work so well.
“Some adults have something called Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, which allows them to remember personal experiences and events with great detail. However, this does not equate to true photographic memory because it doesn’t involve perfect recall of visual details like images or texts but rather an exceptional level of recall of life events,” Simons explained.
He added that while some people have excellent memory for certain types of information, such as numbers, this may be because these individuals have gotten very good at using memorization techniques.
“While true photographic memory, as depicted in media, has not been scientifically proven to exist, understanding the neurological basis of exceptional memory abilities can provide insight into why some individuals can recall information with remarkable detail,” he continued.
“For example, a region in the middle of the brain known as the hippocampus is crucial for forming and retrieving memories, especially spatial and episodic memories. People with exceptional memory may have highly active or structurally distinct hippocampi, allowing them to form stronger and more detailed memories.”
The classic example of this is taxi drivers in London. If you’ve never visited the UK’s capital, you should know that in many areas, the streets are basically a maze (grid pattern, who’s she?). That’s what you get when you start with ancient Roman foundations and just keep building. But drivers of the iconic black cabs need to be able to navigate through this mess confidently, and to do so they must pass a test called The Knowledge. It typically takes three to four years – you can often spot people zipping around on mopeds, memorizing a section of the map.
At the end of all that, as well as being able to start their career as cab drivers, studies have shown that successful candidates have literally restructured their brains: “London taxi drivers […] have been found to have a larger posterior hippocampus compared to the average person,” said Simons.
There’s more to memory
For most of us with average recall capabilities, that mythical photographic memory sounds pretty sweet. Think how handy it would have been to go into an exam with the pages of the textbook ready-memorized, diagrams and all. But according to all the scientific evidence we have right now, photographic memory is just that – a myth.
Though The Big Bang Theory didn’t quite nail it, Benedict Cumberbatch’s 21st-century Sherlock got pretty close – and with a little work, you probably could too.
Nevertheless, the study of memory remains arguably one of the most fascinating areas of neuroscience. Photographic memory may not be real, but there’s still so much to discover.
“We’re currently running a research study to learn more about the cognitive and brain basis of exceptional memory abilities, to understand whether people who are ‘super memorisers’ use particular strategies to achieve their remarkable feats of memory, and whether their brains show differences in how they are structured or how they function,” Simons told IFLScience.
Lots of other exciting studies are pushing the boundaries of how we think about memory and how it works in the brain, with important implications for tackling major health issues like Alzheimer’s disease.
[PULL QUOTE ANYWHERE BEFORE HERE – NO NEED FOR ”] Though The Big Bang Theory didn’t quite nail it, Benedict Cumberbatch’s 21st-century Sherlock got pretty close – and with a little work, you probably could too.
So: photographic memory? Not a thing. Eidetic memory? A thing, but only in a tiny number of people, mainly kids. But just… really good memory? Though The Big Bang Theory didn’t quite nail it, Benedict Cumberbatch’s 21st-century Sherlock got pretty close – and with a little work, you probably could too.
This article first appeared in Issue 28 of our digital magazine CURIOUS. Subscribe and never miss an issue.
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