Exceptional Memory - notes from lecture PDF

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Exceptional Memory The mnemonists: Shereshevsky    

A Russian journalist S studied by Luria from 1920 – 1950 He has a STM capacity of >70 items – the avg. person holds 7 items Able to recall lists correctly years after hearing them once

Shereshevsky synaesthesia  

‘The coupling of senses’ S ‘saw’ ‘felt’ and ‘tasted’ sounds/words

Shereshevsky abilities    

Recited the first stanza of Dante's The Divine Comedy It was in Italian, a language he didn’t understand Associated each syllable with a mental image – when needed to recall would recall the image which would trigger memory Luria did not distinguish between natural ability and possible use of mnemonics

Disadvantages of ‘exceptional memory’      

Unable to read poetry or fiction easily Affected simple social interactions Interfered with ability to hold a regular job Made some money as a mnemonist Unable to forget S was eventually institutionalised

Professor Aitken (Hunter,1977)      

Mathematician Remarkable short-term memory span Retention of learned material Exceptional recall of material learned without intent Relied on conceptual mapping Most remarkable abilities on ‘interesting’ material

Case AJ: Hyperthymesia  

Could recall all her memories form teenage years to present Implicates cognitive dysfunctions – poor abstract reasoning

Superior autobiographical memory: Case HK (Ally, Hussy & Donahue,2012)    

Normal intelligence and normal short- and long-term recall Increasingly accurate autobiographical memory Brain smaller than average But right amygdala 20% larger and increased connectivity to hippocampus

Disadvantages of ‘exceptional memory’

 

Often forgetting is seen as a bad thing – a ‘design’ flaw But…  Forgetting makes traumatic and unpleasant memories less salient  Forgetting helps to unclutter memory (‘pruning’)

Eidetic Memory:  

Eidetic memory is not uncommon in young children It’s not found in adults. The only (extremely rare) exceptions may be some autistic savants, like Stephen Wiltshire

Eidetic Memories: Chess players   

Chess masters showed 91% correct recall for chess positions, compared to 41% for less expert players (De Groot, 1965) They rely on recognition of familiar patterns and chunking Typical chess master knows ≈ 50,000 chunks (Simon & Gilmartin, 1973)

Case SF: power of chunking (Ericsson et al,1980)     

SF was a college student with an average memory (memory span of 7 digits) He was trained extensively to use chunking For example, 3492 => “3 minutes and 49 point 2 seconds, near world record mile time”. This enabled him to increase his digit span to 79! His letter and word spans were no better than other people...