Myths about memory.
In this text, I’ll discuss misconceptions about our human memory. A lot of people seem to, for example think that photographic memory is something real.
Myths:
Only 5 - 9 pieces of information can be stored in our short term memory.
This is something that have understandably been misunderstood. This is real, but do not apply to “pieces of information”, it applies to chunks of information. The number “1” is a piece of information but the number “13” is a chunk of information. 13 can be counted as one “piece of information” if it’s easy to remember. If someone thinks of an unlucky symbol when thinking of 13 (the unlucky number) then this chunk of information can become a piece of information. So, the 5 – 9 pieces we can store doesn’t really say how much we can stored.
Your memory is finite.
This has been researched and the conclusion is that our brains can’t run out of memory under our lifetime. We do not have a finite memory. You only take in and process a small amount of data each day (compared to what you would if you took in all the data around you). Our memory can seem finite because of memory loss. But that’s often not our memory that fails us but our attention span, or our disinterest of the subject. We have trouble creating the memory in the first place, not retaining it. And we do forget but it’s not because the lack of space in our memory.
“ The human brain consists of about one billion neurons. Each neuron forms about 1,000 connections to other neurons, amounting to more than a trillion connections. If each neuron could only help store a single memory, running out of space would be a problem. You might have only a few gigabytes of storage space, similar to the space in an iPod or a USB flash drive. Yet neurons combine so that each one helps with many memories at a time, exponentially increasing the brain’s memory storage capacity to something closer to around 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). For comparison, if your brain worked like a digital video recorder in a television, 2.5 petabytes would be enough to hold three million hours of TV shows. You would have to leave the TV running continuously for more than 300 years to use up all that storage. ” - Scientific American.
Photographic memory is real.
Photographic memory is something that allows the person possessing it, to remember something they’ve seen or experienced with photographic accuracy. This is sadly not anything that exists outside the films. Our memory isn’t built to remember exact details of a picture or anything else. It would take up too much of our energy and that would not help us. One person under the pseudonym Elizabeth, seemed to have something like a “photographic memory”. The scientist that documented her ability, Charles Stromeyer, later married her. This made the scientific community quite sceptic of Elizabeth’s ability so they asked her to repeat the test but she refused. But something called eidetic memory seem to exist, which is almost like photographic memory but it can be wrong on small details and often fades quite quickly. One more thing that exist is the phenomenon of “hyperthymesia” which is an extremely detailed memory of ones own life. This does not however grant one the ability to recall everything with photographic accuracy. So photographic memory is unfortunately just a myth.
Not even 1% has an eidetic memory.
Eidetikers as the people who possess an eidetic memory are called, have an easy time remembering most details about what they’ve seen or experienced. This is not something that is extremely rare depending on the age of the eidetiker. Children relatively often have this ability but out grow it when they learn to think more abstract. 2% to 15% of children in the age under 12 have this ability.
Natural memory is better than trained memory.
Each year a championship is held, the “World Memory Championships”. No-one of those who have won have ever claimed that they have a photographic or eidetic memory. Only that they’ve trained themselves to have an amazing memory with mnemonic strategies.
As of writing this the records are:
Spoken numbers (1 second each): 456 digits
Binary digits (5 min): 1080 digits
Historic/future dates (5 min): 132 dates
Names & faces (5 min): 97 points
Speed numbers (5 min): 520 digits
Random words (5 min): 125 words
Speed cards: 20,44 seconds
The BOLD text means that it’s the common MYTH. The text under disproves the myth.
Sources:
5-9 Short Term Memory.
Memory is infinite.
Photographic memory is not real.
Eidetikers.
World memory championships.
And with that, I’ll see you my irregulars.