research on photographic memory

The Truth About Photographic Memory

It's impossible to recover images with perfect accuracy..

By William Lee Adams published March 1, 2006 - last reviewed on June 9, 2016

59-year-old Akira Haraguchi recited from memory the first 83,431 decimal places of pi, earning a spot in the Guinness World Records.

He must have a photographic memory, right? Not so. According to mounting evidence, it's impossible to recall images with near perfect accuracy.

Certainly, some people do have phenomenal memories. Chess masters can best multiple opponents while blindfolded. Super card sharks can memorize the order of a shuffled deck of cards in less than a minute. But people with Herculean memories tend to be adept at one specific task—i.e., a person who memorizes cards may be inept at recognizing faces.

Alan Searleman, a professor of psychology at St. Lawrence University in New York, says eidetic imagery comes closest to being photographic. When shown an unfamiliar image for 30 seconds, so-called "eidetikers" can vividly describe the image—for example, how many petals are on a flower in a garden scene. They report "seeing" the image, and their eyes appear to scan across the image as they describe it. Still, their reports sometimes contain errors, and their accuracy fades after just a few minutes. Says Searleman, "If they were truly 'photographic' in nature, you wouldn't expect any errors at all."

While people can improve their recall through tricks and practice, eidetikers are born, not made, says Searleman. The ability isn't linked to other traits, such as high intelligence . Children are more likely to possess eidetic memory than adults, though they begin losing the ability after age six as they learn to process information more abstractly.

Although psychologists don't know why children lose the ability, the loss of this skill may be functional: Were humans to remember every single image, it would be difficult to make it through the day.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Teletherapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Therapy Center NEW
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

Understanding what emotional intelligence looks like and the steps needed to improve it could light a path to a more emotionally adept world.

• Coronavirus Disease 2019
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

• Bipolar Disorder
• Therapy Center
• When To See a Therapist
• Types of Therapy
• Best Online Therapy
• Best Couples Therapy
• Best Family Therapy
• Managing Stress
• Sleep and Dreaming
• Understanding Emotions
• Self-Improvement
• Healthy Relationships
• Student Resources
• Personality Types
• Guided Meditations
• Verywell Mind Insights
• 2023 Verywell Mind 25
• Mental Health in the Classroom
• Editorial Process
• Meet Our Review Board
• Crisis Support

Eidetic Memory: The Reality Behind the 'Photographic' Mind

Is perfect recall a myth?

Shaheen Lakhan, MD, PhD, is an award-winning physician-scientist and clinical development specialist.

Gary Yeowell/DigitalVision/Getty Images

The Science Behind Eidetic Memory

• Eidetic Memory vs. Regular Memory

Is Eidetic Memory Real?

Examples of people said to have eidetic memory.

• Techniques to Improve Memory Recall

The ability to recall memories can differ from one person to another. Two people who witnessed the same event can have totally different memories of it. But what if one of the people allegedly has an eidetic memory and can accurately remember exactly what happened in complete detail? Do these people actually exist?

Eidetic memory, often (inaccurately) referred to as a photograph memory, Dr. Kimberly Johnson-Hatchett , MD, board-certified neurologist, public speaker, and author of Retrospective Calling explains that eidetic memory is a rare form of memory usually seen in children where they are exposed to an image for 30 seconds or less and are able to recall this object in great detail, but only for a brief period of time.

Someone with a photographic memory is said to be able to recall images after a long time. It’s permanently stored in their minds without any changes to details similar to a camera taking a photo. Some people claim to have a photographic memory but there is no conclusive evidence that shows it actually exists.

Eidetic memory is similar to photographic memory but the recall lasts much shorter. 

It’s not really understood how eidetic memory works. However, it might have to do with synesthesia which is the neurological condition where a person can experience one sense through another. For instance, a person may see colors when they hear certain sounds.

An exploratory study looked at the association between eidetic memory and synesthesia. Multiple tests that assessed eidetic imagery, color-hearing and color-mood synesthesia were performed on ten participants with possible eidetic memory and/or synesthetic ability. The results showed a significant correlation between synesthesia and eidetic memory, however, more research is needed.

Eidetic Memory vs. Regular Memory

Imagine you are shown a photo of a downtown scene. Once the photo is taken away, you are asked to talk about what was in the image. Most of us can recall some level detail including colors, shapes, prominent objects, and people in the image. This is your short-term memory working. These are memories you are currently thinking about and paying attention to. You can typically remember short-term memories for about 20 to 30 seconds. 

However, someone with eidetic memory has a much greater capacity. In the same exercise, they can remember accurate details including how many windows in the buildings, license plate numbers, street names, types and number of people, and exactly they were wearing down to the number of buttons.

Detective shows love to make use of protagonists with this kind of perfect recall.

Eidetic memory is mostly seen among children and very rarely among adults. Dr. Maya Shetreat , MD, pediatric neurologist, herbalist and author of The Dirt Cure explained that the phenomenon is found far less commonly as we age, likely because adults rely heavily on language and less on visual-spatial memory skills.

One study looked for evidence for the uniqueness of this type of memory in schoolchildren and showed that eidetic imagery did not correlate with superior intellect. Students were classified as eidetic using self-report criteria including objective and subjective measures. The results showed the eidetic subjects performed better on an ‘accuracy of report’ test and a superimposition task; however, the differences weren’t great enough to support evidence for the uniqueness of eidetic imagery.

Additional tests were performed to look at the effect of stimulus manipulations on visual retention . The results showed a lack of significant differences in capacity for visual memory between eidetic subjects and a control group. It concluded that the storage capacity is not a factor in the difference between eidetic imagery and visual memory.

Although there has not been any proof that eidetic memory exists in adults, there are prominent people who have claimed to possess this ability. Some of these include the following:

• Nikola Tesla, Serbina-American inventor
• Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer
• C. S. Lewis, author and literary scholar
• Leonardo da Vinci, Italian polymath
• Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President
• Guillermo Del Toro, filmmaker

Techniques to Improve Memory Recall

Whether or not you have eidetic memory—or even a good memory—your memory can be trained just like a muscle. Here are some ways to strengthen and condition your memory recall:

Improve Your Sleep

Dr. Johnson-Hatchett explained that sleep is where memory consolidation occurs; depriving someone of needed sleep or denying them these sleep cycles can cause cognitive decline and poor memory recall and concentration.

Therefore, one of the most basic things we can do to improve our memory recall is to improve our sleep, specifically our slow wave and REM sleep .

Exercise Your Brain

If you don’t use it, you lose it. Dr. Johnson-Hatchett advised that brain exercises such as activities and games that stimulate and are geared towards memorization have been shown in a randomized study to improve cognitive performance including recall memory.

Ask Yourself To Remember

It’s been shown that the act of predicting whether you would remember specific important tasks can increase your likelihood of recalling these tasks.

So the next time you think of something you need to remember, ask yourself, “Will I remember it tomorrow?”

Test Yourself Regularly

It’s been shown that testing yourself regularly can help improve your memory recall and information retention.  

“For instance, learning a topic, then asking yourself questions about that can improve your retention of that material faster and better than just re-reading or re-listening to that same information,” says Dr. Johnson-Hatchett.

Continue To Learn New Things

Strengthening memory—eidetic or otherwise—in adulthood takes practice and it requires you to consistently get outside your comfort zone.

Dr. Shetreat encourages everyone to continually learn new things. This can be learning an instrument, a martial art, a sport, or doing puzzles and reading books. Exercise and spending regular time immersed in nature are also memory enhancers.

“[Continually learning new things] will always cultivate better memory in general and enhance brain plasticity (new connections in the brain) no matter what your age,” shares Dr. Shetreat.

The ability to recall experiences, images and events allows us to make sense of our present and future. A strong memory can help us become lifelong learners. From brain exercises, and puzzles to better sleep, there are many techniques we can try to improve our memory and in turn, help us live long and healthy lives.

Cutts NE, Moseley N. Notes on photographic memory. The Journal of Psychology. 1969;71(1):3–15.

Glicksohn J, Salinger O, Roychman A. An exploratory study of syncretic experience: eidetics, synaesthesia and absorption. Perception . 1992;21(5):637–642.

Miller S, Peacock R. Evidence for the uniqueness of eidetic imagery. Percept Mot Skills. 1982;55(3 Pt 2):1219–1233.

Hardy JL, Nelson RA, Thomason ME, et al. Enhancing cognitive abilities with comprehensive training: a large, online, randomized, active-controlled trial. PLoS One . 2015;10(9):e013446

Meier B, von Wartburg P, Matter S, Rothen N, Reber R. Performance predictions improve prospective memory and influence retrieval experience. Can J Exp Psychol. 2011;65(1):12–18.

Halamish V, Bjork RA. When does testing enhance retention? A distribution-based interpretation of retrieval as a memory modifier. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn . 2011;37(4):801–812.

By Katharine Chan, MSc, BSc, PMP Katharine is the author of three books (How To Deal With Asian Parents, A Brutally Honest Dating Guide and A Straight Up Guide to a Happy and Healthy Marriage) and the creator of 60 Feelings To Feel: A Journal To Identify Your Emotions. She has over 15 years of experience working in British Columbia's healthcare system.

March 12, 2007

Is there such a thing as a photographic memory? And if so, can it be learned?

Alan Searleman, a professor of psychology at St. Lawrence University and co-author of the college textbook Memory from a Broader Perspective, explains.

In the scientific literature, the term eidetic imagery comes closest to what is popularly called photographic memory. The most common way to identify eidetikers (as people with eidetic imagery are often called) is by the Picture Elicitation Method. In it, an unfamiliar picture is placed on an easel and a person carefully scans the entire scene. After 30 seconds have elapsed, the picture is removed from view, and the person is asked to continue to look at the easel and to report anything that they can observe. People possessing eidetic imagery will confidently claim to still "see" the picture. In addition, they can scan it and examine different parts of it just as if the picture were still physically present. Consequently, one of the hallmarks of eidetic imagery is that eidetikers use the present tense when answering questions about the missing picture, and they can report in extraordinary detail what it contained.

Eidetic images differ from other forms of visual imagery in several important ways. First, an eidetic image is not simply a long afterimage, since afterimages move around when you move your eyes and are usually a different color than the original image. (For example, a flash camera can produce afterimages: the flash is bright white, but the afterimage is a black dot, and the dot moves around every time you move your eyes.) In contrast, a true eidetic image doesn¿t move as you move your eyes, and it is in the same color as the original picture. Second, a common visual image that we can all create from memory (such as an image of a bedroom) does not have the characteristics of most eidetic images, which almost always fade away involuntarily and part by part. Also, it is not possible to control which parts of an eidetic image fade and which remain visible. Unlike common visual images created from memory, most eidetic images last between about half a minute to several minutes only, and it is possible to voluntarily destroy an eidetic image forever by the simple act of blinking intentionally. Furthermore, once gone from view, rarely can an eidetic image ever be retrieved.

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

You might expect that an individual who claims to still see a picture after it has been removed would be able to have a perfect memory of the original picture. After all, a perfect memory is what is usually implied by the commonly used phrase "photographic memory." As it turns out, however, the accuracy of many eidetic images is far from perfect. In fact, besides often being sketchy on some details, it is not unusual for eidetikers to alter visual details and even to invent some that were never in the original. This suggests that eidetic images are certainly not photographic in nature but instead are reconstructed from memory and can be influenced like other memories (both visual and nonvisual) by cognitive biases and expectations.

The vast majority of the people who have been identified as possessing eidetic imagery are children. The prevalence estimates of the ability among preadolescents range from about 2 percent to 10 percent. And it is an equal-opportunity phenomenon--there¿s no gender difference in who is likely to be an eidetiker. Although it is certainly controversial, some researchers also believe that eidetic imagery occurs more frequently in certain populations of the mentally retarded (specifically, in individuals whose retardation most likely stems from biological, rather than environmental, causes) and also among geriatric populations. With a few notable exceptions, however, most research has shown that virtually no adults seem to possess the ability to form eidetic images.

Why should this be so? No one really knows, although part of the answer may be related to a rather obscure fact about the development of such images. Research has shown that if a person verbalizes during the time he or she is scanning the original picture, this interferes with eidetic image formation. This utterance could be something as seemingly innocuous as covertly saying "Saint Bernard" upon seeing a large dog during the initial scanning process. So perhaps part of the reason why it is so rare to find older eidetikers is that adults are much more likely than children to try to both verbally and visually encode the picture into memory. If this is true, then it means that adults are more likely to disrupt the formation of eidetic images and are thus much less likely to be identified as having eidetic imagery, even if they really do possess the ability. Can you acquire eidetic imagery through learning? Personally, I doubt it. To my knowledge, however, there have been no attempts to try to teach the ability to anyone. Although it is clear that eidetic imagery exists, psychologists still do not know why it occurs, what brain mechanisms may be responsible, or why it is found in such a small proportion of the population. It certainly is a fascinating phenomenon.

Photographic Memory: The Effects of Volitional Photo Taking on Memory for Visual and Auditory Aspects of an Experience

Affiliations.

• 1 1 Stern School of Business, New York University.
• 2 2 Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California.
• 3 3 The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
• 4 4 The Yale School of Management, Yale University.
• PMID: 28650721
• DOI: 10.1177/0956797617694868

How does volitional photo taking affect unaided memory for visual and auditory aspects of experiences? Across one field and three lab studies, we found that, even without revisiting any photos, participants who could freely take photographs during an experience recognized more of what they saw and less of what they heard, compared with those who could not take any photographs. Further, merely taking mental photos had similar effects on memory. These results provide support for the idea that photo taking induces a shift in attention toward visual aspects and away from auditory aspects of an experience. Additional findings were in line with this mechanism: Participants with a camera had better recognition of aspects of the scene that they photographed than of aspects they did not photograph. Furthermore, participants who used a camera during their experience recognized even nonphotographed aspects better than participants without a camera did. Meta-analyses including all reported studies support these findings.

Keywords: auditory memory; autobiographical memory; experiences; open data; photographs; visual memory.

• Auditory Perception / physiology*
• Memory, Episodic*
• Mental Recall / physiology*
• Photography
• Visual Perception / physiology*
• Young Adult

• Brain Development
• Childhood & Adolescence
• Diet & Lifestyle
• Emotions, Stress & Anxiety
• Learning & Memory
• Thinking & Awareness
• Alzheimer's & Dementia
• Childhood Disorders
• Immune System Disorders
• Mental Health
• Neurodegenerative Disorders
• Infectious Disease
• Neurological Disorders A-Z
• Body Systems
• Cells & Circuits
• Genes & Molecules
• The Arts & the Brain
• Law, Economics & Ethics
• Neuroscience in the News
• Supporting Research
• Tech & the Brain
• Animals in Research
• BRAIN Initiative
• Meet the Researcher
• Neuro-technologies
• Tools & Techniques
• Core Concepts
• For Educators
• Ask an Expert
• The Brain Facts Book

Is photographic memory real? If so, how does it work?

• Published 17 Apr 2013
• Reviewed 17 Apr 2013
• Author Larry Squire
• Source BrainFacts/SfN

Photographic memory is a term often used to describe a person who seems able to recall visual information in great detail. Just as a photograph freezes a moment in time, the implication for people thought to have photographic memory is that they can take mental snapshots and then recall these snapshots without error. However, photographic memory does not exist in this sense.

It is easy to demonstrate this by asking people who think they have photographic memory to read two or three lines of text and then report the text in reverse order. If memory worked like a photograph, these people would be able to rapidly reproduce the text in reverse order by "reading" the photo. However, people cannot do this.

Memory is more like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle than a photograph . To recollect a past event, we piece together various remembered elements and typically forget parts of what happened (the color of the wall, the picture in the background, the exact words that were said). Passing over details helps us to form general concepts. We are good at remembering the gist of what happened and less good at remembering (photographically) all the elements of a past scene. This is advantageous because what is important for memory is the meaning of what was presented, not the exact details present at any given time.

Of course, people vary in their ability to remember the past. How well we remember things depends largely on how well we pay attention when material is presented. Additionally, the extent to which we replay the material in our minds and relate it to what we already know affects our ability to remember.

Some people with excellent memory use elaborate techniques to help them remember. Others are able to effortlessly recall vast amounts of autobiographical information spanning most of the lifetime. Scientists are learning more about memory by studying these people, as well as people who have very poor memory as the result of  neurological injury or disease .

About the Author

Larry Squire

Larry Squire is a professor of psychiatry, neurosciences, and psychology at the University of California, San Diego and research career scientist at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System. His research explores the organization and neurological foundations of memory.

BrainFacts.org welcomes all your brain-related questions.

Every month, we choose one reader question and get an answer from a top neuroscientist. Always been curious about something?

Disclaimer: BrainFacts.org provides information about the field's understanding of causes, symptoms, and outcomes of brain disorders. It is not intended to give specific medical or other advice to patients. Visitors interested in medical advice should consult with a physician.

Question sent. Thank you.

There was an error sending your feedback. Please try again later.

Ask An Expert

Ask a neuroscientist your questions about the brain.

Submit a Question

Brain Awareness Week

A worldwide celebration of the brain that brings together scientists, families, schools, and communities during the third week in March.

Join the Campaign

Find a Neuroscientist

Engage local scientists to educate your community about the brain.

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

• Privacy Policy
• Accessibility Policy
• Terms and Conditions
• Manage Cookies

Some pages on this website provide links that require Adobe Reader to view.

Advertisement

Did you know? Fewer than 100 people have a photographic memory

By Alexander McNamara and Matt Hambly

25 May 2021

Barbara Ferra Fotografia/Getty Images

Photographic memory is the ability to recall a past scene in detail with great accuracy – just like a photo. Although many people claim they have it, we still don’t have proof that photographic memory actually exists. However, there is a condition called Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) that allows people to recall past events in detail, along with the exact dates when they occurred. For example, they may be able to tell you what they ate for lunch on 1 May 1999 and what day of the week it was (Saturday). But HSAM has been identified in fewer than 100 people worldwide, and while their memories are exceptional, they still aren’t as reliable as photographs.

The East Antarctic plateau is the coldest place on Earth

Ted Scambos, NSIDC

The coldest temperature ever recorded was a frosty -94°C, taken at the East Antarctic plateau, a region that stretches for more than 1000 kilometres. This measurement means the plateau is the coldest place on Earth – not that anyone was actually there to record such a temperature, though. The reading was collected using data from satellites across Dome Argus and Dome Fuji, two ice domes that sit at thousands of metres above sea level. Results suggested the air temperature could be around -94°C, but researchers think that the dry air around the area could cause temperatures to get even colder.

Queen bees can lay more than 1500 eggs in a day

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Queen honeybees live for up to seven years and can lay more than 1500 eggs a day, which equates to more than their body weight. Rather than working, like the vast majority of colony members, queens spend their lives devoted to laying eggs while other bees serve them. Instead of pollen and honey, the queen is fed royal jelly, which workers secrete from glands in their heads. When a queen grows old, a colony will select a new one, but in some colonies there may be multiple new queens, who have to fight each other to the death. The survivor will fly to a drone congregation area and mate with around a dozen drones, storing up to 6 million sperm in her body.

Laughing gas may have ended the last glacial period

Monica Bertolazzi/Getty Images

Laughing gas, otherwise known as nitrous oxide , has been used as an anaesthetic since the 19th century. These days, it is most commonly found in small, steel cartridges sold to the catering industry for making whipped cream. However, nitrous oxide is also a potent greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting chemical. Although it is present in the atmosphere at much lower concentrations than carbon dioxide – just 330 parts per billion – it has 300 times the heat-trapping capability. Indeed, a pulse of nitrous oxide released from plants 14,500 years ago may have hastened the end of the last glaciation.

We don’t necessarily yawn because we are tired

Gints Ivuskans / Alamy

We tend to think of yawning as a sign of being tired or bored. That probably explains the popular perception that it is a way to get more oxygen into the blood to increase alertness. However, psychologist Robert Provine at the University of Maryland tested this idea and found people were just as likely to yawn when breathing air high in oxygen. A closer look at when people yawn suggests another explanation. It turns out that most spontaneous yawning actually happens when we are limbering up for activity such as a workout, performance or exam, or simply when we wake up. That has led to the idea that yawning helps us gear up by increasing blood flow to the brain.

The placebo effect can depend on whether a pill is colourful

Derek Croucher / Alamy

The placebo effect is the mysterious reduction in a patient’s medical symptoms via the power of suggestion or expectation, the cause of which remains unexplained. However, what we do know is that a number of different factors can affect the power of the placebo effect . It can be triggered by administering pills, injections or surgery, or even just an authority figure assuring a patient that a treatment will be effective. In fact, experiments have shown that the power of the placebo effect depends on surprising factors like the appearance of tablets. For example, colourful pills work better as a placebo than white ones.

• environment /

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox! We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

More from New Scientist

Explore the latest news, articles and features

Are you languishing in life? Here’s how to find your purpose again

Subscriber-only

Why you may have a stealth liver disease and what to do about it

Why our ageing world could accelerate progress in ai and robotics, anti-inflammatory nasal spray may ease symptoms of multiple sclerosis, popular articles.

Trending New Scientist articles

CogniFit Blog: Brain Health News

Brain Training, Mental Health, and Wellness

Is Photographic Memory Real? Case Studies & Brain Processes

A photographic memory is usually used to describe when someone has the remarkable ability to recall visual information in great detail. Pop culture today portrays geniuses as those with photographic memories . B ut do our brains actually hold onto memories with inner photos or videos?

Let’s take a closer look…

Perception vs. Reality

In the world of neuroscience, Photographic memory is also known as eidetic imagery .

It’s the ability to remember an unlimited amount of visual information in great detail. A camera can freeze a moment in time in the form of a photograph. Someone with a photographic memory is supposed to be able to take mental snapshots and then later recall these snapshots without error.

However, according to the University of Chicago, San Diego Professor Larry Squire (who specializes in Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Psychology) the brain simply does not actually work this way .

In Professor Squire’s lab, he has asked people who think they have photographic memories to read two or three lines of text. After, they had to report the text in reverse order. If memory works like a photograph, then these people should be able to accomplish the task with ease.

However, none of the participants could do this successfully.

For Professor Squire, “Memory is more like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle than a photograph. To recollect a past event, we piece together various remembered elements and typically forget parts of what happened (examples: the color of the wall, the picture in the background, the exact words that were said)…We are good at remembering the gist of what happened and less good at remembering (photographically) all the elements of a past scene.”

And this works to our advantage.

Our brains sift through what is important for us to remember and holds onto it. But it also throws away any unneeded details.

To show that photographic memory is non-existent among most people, cognitive psychologist Adriaan de Groot did an experiment with expert chess players to test their memory functioning . The players were first shown a chessboard with pieces on it for a brief period (about 15 seconds). Next, they had to reconstruct what they had seen on a new chessboard.

The expert chess players succeeded at this task with higher efficiency than novice players.

De Groot hypothesized that the experts had developed an enhanced ability to memorize visual information. In another experiment, the expert chess players were asked to do the same thing. However, this time, they were shown boards with pieces arranged in ways that would never occur in a game of chess.

Not only did their ability to remember the positions go down, but it dropped to the level of the novice players. De Groot concluded that the original, enhanced performance of the chess players came from their ability to mentally organize the information they had observed, not from any ability to “photograph” the visual scene.

How to Explain Cases of Photographic Memory

There have been a few well-documented cases of such remarkable photographic recall, such as “S.” This person was subject of Alexander Luria’s book, The Mind of a Mnemonist . He could memorize anything from the books on Luria’s office shelves to complex math formulas. Luria also documents a woman named “Elizabeth,” who could mentally project images composed of thousands of tiny dots onto a black canvas.

Both also had the ability to reproduce poetry in languages they could not understand years after seeing it written. This type of recall seems to be connected to the phenomenon of flashbulb memory . This means in highly emotional situations, people tend to remember events so vividly that the memories take on photographic quality.

Until recently, such memories were thought to be permanent, always strong in quality. However, recent studies have indicated that over time, people’s memories of such events will inevitably fade away.

People vary in their ability to remember the past.

In the article How to Improve Your Short-Term Memory: Study Tips to Remember Everything , we go over how pieces of information go through a series of stages before they are retained in your long-term memory:

• First, the information is sent as a sensory input to your visual system
• Then it is received by the visual cortex
• Next, it is processed by your short-term memory
• Finally, it is stored in your long-term memory

How well we remember things largely depends on how well we pay attention when information is presented to us. Also, how much we replay/connect material affects our memory as well .

Since there are only isolated examples of people with eidetic memory throughout the study of neuroscience , many have concluded that there isn’t any explanation for how this phenomenon works neurologically.

In these rare cases, visual information gets stored as an actual image in the sensory input/reception stage. Since photographic memory involves seeing visual images , it must be on the very basic sensory level that eidetic memory functions.

The Neuroscience Behind Photographic Memory

Neuroscience researchers hypothesize that photographic memory involves something in the brain being wired incorrectly. This has caused sensory stimuli to last in the memory for longer durations than most people.

Memory is thought to be facilitated by changes at the neuronal level due to long-term potentiation. Over time, the synapses that work to hold onto our memories are strengthened through repeated usage, producing long-term memories.

Normally, this induction takes many rounds of stimulation to start working so our brain can hold onto memories for long periods of time. This could be a reason why we don’t remember many events of our childhood.

Neuroscientists assume that people with photographic memories have a genetic mutation that lowers their threshold for long-term potentiation to hold onto memories. This then results in more visual images being stored as sensory memories and then long-term memories in the brain. Multiple stimulations do not seem to be necessary to retain the visual images; rather, one brief presentation of a stimulus would be sufficient.

Future Research on Photographic Memory

So, is photographic memory real?

It may be so rare that it appears to be almost fictional. Mostly because it could be the result of an uncommon genetic mutation.

Advancing the study of photographic memory requires scientists to find more subjects with unusual memory abilities. One recent case is that of “AJ”. This woman seems to remember every detail of even the most trivial events during her lifetime.

Neurological testing may yield a greater understanding of what causes such clear and detailed memories to form.

With neuroscience technology increasing and the hope that more people with exceptional memories will come forward, it is possible that more research can be done to answer interesting questions about photographic memory.

• Category: Brain Health
• Tag: brain health , improving memory , long-term memory , memory , Neuroscience

• Overcoming Anxiety At Work: Steps to Promote Wellness Towards Successful Career

Pin It on Pinterest

Share this post with your friends!

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Memory Studies pp 1–10 Cite as

Photography and Memory

• Ali Shobeiri 3  
• Living reference work entry
• Latest version View entry history
• First Online: 13 September 2023

52 Accesses

The affinity between photography and memory is rather axiomatic: We take photos to preserve our memories. This formulation considers photographs as aide-mémoire and photography as a mnemotechnique . Such a basic analogy, however, falls short in explaining the spatiotemporality and materiality of photography and overlooks the mediated aspects of memory in narrating the past. The difficulty with describing the conjunction of memory and photography lies in the fact that neither of them has a static essence: Both remembering and photography are inherently dynamic processes. While for some the photograph simply is a representational image that embodies past events, for others the photograph’s materiality and social uses are equally crucial in the way it continually reshapes our memories. In addition, debates on “prosthetic memory,” “postmemory,” and trauma have already shown how photography plays a role in the disembodied, transgenerational, and retroactive operations of memory work. To classify diverse approaches toward memory and photography without ignoring the dynamic aspects of either of them, this entry is divided into two parts: “conceiving photography through memory” and “perceiving memory through photography.” While the first section explains how the medium of photography has been historically defined via its approaches to memory and remembrance, the second section shows how some salient views on memory are largely founded on photographic lexicons and metaphors. Among others, the first part draws on the work of thinkers such as Siegfried Kracauer, Roland Barthes, and Elizabeth Edwards, and the second part discusses the work of Sigmund Freud, Marianne Hirsch, and Ulrich Baer.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution .

Baer U (2005) Spectral evidence: the photography of trauma. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

Google Scholar  

Barthes R (2000) Camera Lucida. Vintage Books, London. (Originally published in French in 1980, under the title of La Chamber Claire)

Batchen G (1997) Burning with desire: the conception of photography. MIT Press, Cambridge

Bate D (2010) The memory of photography. Photographies 3(2):243–257

Article   Google Scholar  

Bazin A (1967) Ontology of the photographic image. In: Bazin A (ed) What is cinema. University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles, pp 9–17

Benjamin W (1999) Little history of photography. In: Jennings MW, Eiland H, Smith G (eds) Walter Benjamin: selected writings: volume 2, part 2. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 507–530

Berger J (2002) The ambiguity of the photograph. In: Askew K, Wilk R (eds) The anthropology of the media. Blackwell, Oxford

Berger J (2013) Understanding of a photograph, John Berger. Penguin Books, London

Caruth C (2016) Unclaimed experience: trauma, narrative and history. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

Book   Google Scholar  

Cavell S (1979) The world viewed: reflections on the ontology of film. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

Ceila L (1997) Prosthetic culture: photography, memory and identity. Taylor & Francis, Abingdon

de Duve T (1978) Time exposure and snapshot: the photograph as paradox. October 5(1):113–125

Edwards E (2001) Raw histories: photographs, anthropology and museums. Berg, Oxford

Edwards E (2006) Photographs and the sound of history. Vis Anthropol Rev 21(1–2):27–46

Edwards E (2009) Photographs as objects of memory. In: Candlin F, Guins R (eds) The object reader. Routledge, New York, pp 331–341

Edwards E (2012) Objects of affect: photography beyond the image. Annu Rev Antropol 41(1):221–234

Edwards E, Hart J (eds) (2004) Photographs objects histories: on the materiality of images. Routledge, London

Freud S (1925) The mystic writing-pad. Metapsychol Theory Psychoanal 11(1):427–433

Gunning T (2004) What’s the point of an index? Or, faking photographs. Nordicum Rev 25(1):39–49

Hirsch M (2001) Surviving images: holocaust photographs and the work of postmemory. Yale J Criti 14(1):5–37

Hirsch M (2012) The generation of postmemory: writing and visual culture after the holocaust. Columbia University Press, New York

Holmes OW (1859) The Stereoscope and the Stereograph. The Atlantic Monthly 3(2):738–748

Kracauer S (2014) Photography. In: Despoix P, Zinfert M (eds) The past’s threshold: essays on photograph. Diaphanes, Zurich, pp 27–44. (Originally published in German in 1927, as an assay in Frankurter Zeitung)

Kuhn A, McAllister KE (eds) (2006) Locating memory: photographic acts. Berghahn Books, New York

Landsberg A (1995) Prosthetic memory: Total recall and blade runner. Body Soc 1(3–4):175–189

Metz C (2003) Photography and fetish. In: Wells L (ed) The photography reader. Routledge, New York, pp 138–148

Mitchel WJT (1992) The reconfigured eye: visual truth in the post-photographic era. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

Olick J, Robbins J (1998) Social memory studies: from ‘collective memory’ to the historical sociology of mnemonic practices. Annu Rev Sociol 24:105–140

Olin M (2002) Touching photographs: Roland Barthes’s mistaken identification. Representations 80:99–118

Sekula A (1984) On the invention of photographic meaning. In: Bergin V (ed) Thinking photography. Macmillan, London, pp 84–109

Shevchenko O (2015) The mirror with a memory: placing photography in memory studies. In: Lisa TA, Hagen T (eds) Routledge international handbook of memory studies. Routledge, London, pp 294–309

Sliverman K (2000) World spectators. Cornel University Press, Stanford

Sontag S (1977) On photography. Penguin Books, London

Trachtenberg A (2008) Through a glass darkly: photography and cultural memory. Soc Res Int Q 75(1):111–132

van Dijck J (2007) Mediated memories in the digital age. Stanford University Press, Stanford

van Dijck J (2008) Digital photography: communication, identity, memory. Vis Commun 7(1):1–21

White H (1978) The historical text as a literary artifact. In: Tropics of discourse. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Wigoder M (2001) History begins at home: photography and memory in the writings of Siegfried Kracauer and Roland Barthes. Hist Memory 13(1):19–59

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

Ali Shobeiri

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ali Shobeiri .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Tech, Trondheim, Norway

Lucas M. Bietti

Institute of Culture and Memory Studies, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Martin Pogacar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Cite this entry.

Shobeiri, A. (2024). Photography and Memory. In: Bietti, L.M., Pogacar, M. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93789-8_33-2

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93789-8_33-2

Received : 03 April 2023

Accepted : 14 April 2023

Published : 13 September 2023

Publisher Name : Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-93789-8

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-93789-8

eBook Packages : Springer Reference Literature, Cultural and Media Studies Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences Reference Module Humanities

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93789-8_33-2

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93789-8_33-1

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Eidetic Memory Vs. Photographic Memory

Mia Belle Frothingham

Author, Researcher, Science Communicator

BA with minors in Psychology and Biology, MRes University of Edinburgh

Mia Belle Frothingham is a Harvard University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Sciences with minors in biology and psychology

Learn about our Editorial Process

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

On This Page:

Eidetic memory refers to the ability to vividly recall images from memory after only a few instances of exposure, with high accuracy for a short time after exposure, without using a memory aid. Photographic memory, though often used interchangeably with eidetic memory, implies the ability to recall extensive details, like entire pages of text, with high precision. Genuine photographic memory’s existence is debated and hasn’t been conclusively proven.

Eidetic memory is more common in children, with only about 2 to 15% of American children under 12 exhibiting this trait.

This ability dwindles in adulthood. The prevalence in children might arise from their reliance on visual stimuli, whereas adults balance between visual and auditory cues, impeding the formation of eidetic memories. People with eidetic memory are often termed “eidetikers.”

Conversely, there’s no conclusive evidence supporting the existence of genuine photographic memory. Despite some individuals boasting incredible memory capabilities, the idea of instantly encoding an image into an impeccable, permanent memory has been debunked repeatedly.

Even outstanding memories, like LeBron James’ recall of basketball games, are likely due to intense focus and passion, not a so-called “photographic memory.” Some claim to possess this memory type but often utilize mnemonic techniques to enhance recall.

“Hyperthymic syndrome” is sometimes linked to photographic memory, describing individuals who remember vast amounts of autobiographical detail.

In essence, eidetic memory provides a nearly precise mental snapshot of an event. While primarily visual, it can encompass other sensory facets related to the image.

Comparatively, “photographic memory” denotes the ability to recall extensive detail without the distinct visualization associated with eidetic memory.

How Eidetic Memory Works

Eidetic memory describes the ability to retain memories like photographs for a short time.

It involves recalling visual details as well as sounds and other sensations associated with the image in an exceptionally accurate manner. Unlike photographic memory, eidetic memory does not require prolonged exposure to an image and the recall is not perfect or permanent.

Eidetic memory is a transient form of short-term memory . When you visually witness something, it goes into your eidetic memory for moments before being discarded or relayed to short-term memory.

Once in short-term memory, it may be remembered for days, weeks, or months when it will be scrapped or dispatched to long-term memory.

Naturally, when information is relayed from eidetic memory to short-term memory, it is forwarded as data rather than a precise picture that you can see in your mind’s eye.

For instance, you notice your keys on the counter in passing and later assume that you probably need to locate your keys. You recall from your short-term memory that you caught them on the counter, but you would not be able to imagine them as clearly as if you were looking at them.

How Photographic Memory Works

Photogenic memory works considerably differently. With a photographic memory, the picture of the object is maintained in short-term or long-term memory.

Photographic memory denotes the ability to recall entire pages of text or numbers in detailed precision.

An individual who has a photographic memory can shut their eyes and see the thing in their mind’s eye just as plainly as if they had taken a photograph, even days or weeks after they witnessed the object. This type of memory is scarce and challenging to verify.

Prevalence of Eidetic Memory

As we mentioned before, eidetic memory is typically found only in young kids, and virtually absent in adults. Children maintain far more capability for eidetic imagery than adults, indicating that a developmental change, such as acquiring language skills, could disrupt the possibility of eidetic imagery.

Eidetic memory has been found in about 2 to 10 percent of children aged six to twelve. It has been theorized that language acquisition and verbal skills allow older children to think more abstractly and therefore depend less on graphic memory systems.

Extensive research has failed to demonstrate consistent relationships between the presence of eidetic imagery and any emotional, neurological, intellectual, or cognitive measure.

Very few adults have had phenomenal memories (not necessarily of images), but their capacities are also detached from their intellect levels and are highly specialized. In extreme cases, like those of Kim Peek and Solomon Shereshevsky, memory skills can reportedly inhibit social skills.

Shereshevsky was a conditioned mnemonist – not an eidetic memorizer – and there are no examinations that demonstrate whether Kim Peek had a genuinely eidetic memory.

Also, according to sources, the mathematician John von Neumann could recall every book he had ever read from memory.

Can You Train Your Brain to Get a Photographic Memory?

Numerous people would love to have a photographic memory. Not everyone is competent in obtaining a photographic memory. Regardless, there are some things one can do to improve one’s memory overall.

There are also some methods for training one’s mind to take in and store those mental photographs for later use.

Improving One’s Memory Generally

One of the best things one can do to gain a photographic memory is to improve one’s memory generally. There are many ways that one can do this, and the most productive thing one can do to improve memory is to keep one’s mind active.

Completing things like crossword puzzles and other mind games will significantly help you train one’s mind to remember facts, figures, and, eventually, images.

Another way to enhance memory is to train the mind to connect and associate new information or pictures with previously retrieved and stored data.

These connections can be used to remember almost anything, and it is a great way to ensure that one can remember something for longer than a few seconds. Using associations or “chunking” information in memory can enormously improve one’s recall ability.

The Military Method

There is a method of obtaining a photographic memory which is called the Military Method. It is believed that the military uses this technique to train operatives to have a photographic memory.

While there is no objective evidence as to whether or not it is true, some individuals have had some success in improving their memory with this process.

Before beginning the Military Method, one must commit entirely to the exercise. The technique takes about a month to complete, and one must do it every day for it to truly work. If one misses even one day of practice, it can set one back at least a week in trying to make the progress one is seeking.

First, one will need a completely dark room free from distractions to use this method. One will also need a bright lamp or light that can be turned on or off. Maybe a windowless bathroom or closet with a ceiling light is a good option.

Grab a sheet of paper and produce a hole in it about the size of a paragraph on a page of a book or manuscript one is trying to memorize. This way, one should only be able to see one section at a time when placing the paper on the book or document.

Sit comfortably in the tiny windowless space one has chosen. One should be able to turn the light on and off quickly without getting up or moving around too much.

Adjust the book or document to see it quickly, and the words jump into focus when one glances at it without difficulty. The distance can vary from person to person based on if they wear eyewear and their overall eyesight.

Place the paper over what one is trying to memorize to show just one paragraph. Please turn off the light and let one’s eyes adjust to the darkness. Then, switch the light on for just a split second, examine the paragraph, and turn the light off again.

One should have a visual imprint of the mental picture right in front of oneself or be able to view it in the mind’s eye. When the image disappears after a bit, repeat the process.

One will repeat this process until one can remember every word in the correct order of the paragraph. Doing this exercise for about fifteen minutes every day every month should help one improve one’s photographic memory.

If one cannot remember the entire section after a month, one should have at least been able to memorize a portion of it and improve one’s memory overall.

Learning to Focus & Eliminating Distractions

One of the great ways to improve one’s ability to recall information and images is to focus entirely on what one is trying to memorize. When remembering pictures or information, eliminating distractions can significantly enhance one’s ability to store that information later.

Of course, one will not always be able to eliminate distractions when one wants to memorize something. There could be many things going on and noise or people talking in the background.

To best remember information and images, one will need to genuinely hyper-focus on what one is trying to memorize. This can take some training to block out distractions when required to learn the information or images.

Practicing with Common Objects, Like a Deck of Cards

Memorizing a group of objects like dominos or a deck of cards can help one improve one’s memory and train one’s mind to remember what it sees. Grab a deck of cards, maybe UNO cards or playing cards one has lying around, and choose three cards at random.

Memorize the cards, put them back in the deck, shuffle them, and find the cards one memorized, putting them in their order when one learned them. Each day one is successful, add more cards until one can do the entire deck.

One can do the same thing with dominos or other similar but different objects. One draws a few in a particular order, memorizes them in that order, and tries to recreate them repeatedly, each time with more dominos or objects.

Eating Foods that Stimulate Memory

Some foods can help increase one’s memory. For instance, omega-3 fatty acids have been discovered in studies to lessen memory loss. If you desire to preserve a good memory, make sure you obtain plenty of these either in a supplement or through weekly amounts of salmon.

A study by the Radiological Society of North America has revealed that coffee improves memory. Too much coffee can be harmful, but drinking a morning cup or two of coffee can significantly enhance brain function and memory recall throughout the day. Several studies also suggest choline as a memory supporter.

One can find choline in egg yolks – eating a daily dose of eggs can significantly help you boost one’s short-term memory capacity.

A high-protein diet has also been linked to good memory. Ultimately, luteolin, a nutrient in celery, has improved short-term memory.

Skepticism of Eidetic Memory

Scientific skepticism about eidetic memory was brought up by Charles Stromeyer around 1970, who began to study his future wife, Elizabeth, who claimed that she could remember pieces of poetry written in an unfamiliar language that she did not comprehend years after first encountering and seeing the poem.

Apparently, she also could recall random dot patterns with such commitment as to combine two ways into a stereoscopic image.

She is the only remaining documented person to have passed an eidetic memory test. Nonetheless, the methods used in the examination procedures could be considered questionable, especially given the exceptional nature of the claims, along with the fact that the investigator married his subject.

The tests have never been duplicated as Elizabeth has consistently refused to repeat them, which does raise further concerns.

Some psychologists believe that the reflection of eidetic memory comes from an unusually long persistence of iconic images in a few lucky people. More modern evidence brings up questions about whether any recollections are genuinely photographic.

Eidetikers’ memories are extraordinary, but they are scarcely flawless. Their memories frequently contain tiny errors, including information not included in the original visual stimulus, so even eidetic memory often seems to be reconstructive.

American cognitive scientist, Marvin Minsky, considered reports of photographic memory to be an “ unfounded myth”  in his book The Society of Mind (1988).

Additionally, there is no real scientific consensus regarding its nature, the proper definition, or even the actual existence of eidetic imagery, even in that of children. Brian Dunning, a scientific skeptic author, reviewed the research on the subject of eidetic and photographic memories in 2016 and came to the conclusion that there is a lack of hard evidence that eidetic memory even exists at all among normal adults.

There is, in fact, no evidence that even something remotely like photographic memory exists. However, a common theme runs in many research papers Brian looked at.

That is why the difference between standard memory and exceptional memory appears to be one of degree.

Barasch, A., Diehl, K., Silverman, J., & Zauberman, G. (2017). Photographic memory: The effects of volitional photo taking on memory for visual and auditory aspects of an experience.  Psychological science ,  28 (8), 1056-1066.

Feiman, G. (2017). Eidetic Memory and School Age.  Journal of Russian & East European Psychology ,  54 (2), 130-191.

Haber, R. N. (1979). Twenty years of haunting eidetic imagery: Where’s the ghost?.  Behavioral and Brain Sciences ,  2 (4), 583-594.

Martinez, M. E. (2010). Human memory: The basics.  Phi Delta Kappan ,  91 (8), 62-65.

Paivio, A., & Cohen, M. (1979). Eidetic imagery and cognitive abilities.  Journal of Mental Imagery .

Scully, A., & Wiss, K. Photographic Memory.  The Whitman Journal of Psychology 2014 , 40.

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• My Account Login
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Open access
• Published: 11 February 2021

Visual working memory and sensory processing in autistic children

• Ryan A. Stevenson 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ,
• Justin Ruppel 6 ,
• Sol Z. Sun 6 ,
• Magali Segers 1 , 7 ,
• Busisiwe L. Zapparoli 7 ,
• James M. Bebko 7 ,
• Morgan D. Barense 6 , 8 &
• Susanne Ferber 6 , 8  

Scientific Reports volume  11 , Article number:  3648 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

6352 Accesses

5 Citations

2 Altmetric

Metrics details

• Neurodevelopmental disorders

While atypical sensory processing is one of the more ubiquitous symptoms in autism spectrum disorder, the exact nature of these sensory issues remains unclear, with different studies showing either enhanced or deficient sensory processing. Using a well-established continuous cued-recall task that assesses visual working memory, the current study provides novel evidence reconciling these apparently discrepant findings. Autistic children exhibited perceptual advantages in both likelihood of recall and recall precision relative to their typically-developed peers. When autistic children did make errors, however, they showed a higher probability of erroneously binding a given colour with the incorrect spatial location. These data align with neural-architecture models for feature binding in visual working memory, suggesting that atypical population-level neural noise in the report dimension (colour) and cue dimension (spatial location) may drive both the increase in probability of recall and precision of colour recall as well as the increase in proportion of binding errors when making an error, respectively. These changes are likely to impact core symptomatology associated with autism, as perceptual binding and working memory play significant roles in higher-order tasks, such as communication.

Similar content being viewed by others

Coexisting representations of sensory and mnemonic information in human visual cortex

Rosanne L. Rademaker, Chaipat Chunharas & John T. Serences

Working memory representations in visual cortex mediate distraction effects

Grace E. Hallenbeck, Thomas C. Sprague, … Clayton E. Curtis

The effects of visual working memory load on detection and neural processing of task-unrelated auditory stimuli

Laura Brockhoff, Laura Vetter, … Thomas Straube

Introduction

The rising prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to 1 in every 59 births 1 and the rising global cost of care 2 necessitate a better understanding of the etiology and associated heterogeneous symptomology of the condition. Historically, theories explaining ASD focus on disturbances in high-level cognitive functioning such as theory of mind 3 , weak central coherence 4 , or executive dysfunction 5 . More recent accounts, however, have focused on low-level, underlying neurobiological differences that unfold throughout development and cascade into social and cognitive challenges. These include changes in excitation and inhibition spurred by imbalances in GABAergic and glutamatergic synapses 6 , irregular temporal fidelity of neuronal coupling 7 , or deficits in Bayesian statistical learning 8 . These accounts share a common link in providing explanations for atypical sensory perception in autism 9 , which have been both theorized to 10 , 11 and empirically shown to impact symptomatology 12 .

Sensory issues are nearly ubiquitous in ASD, affecting up to 94% of autistic individuals 13 . Atypical sensory perception impacts core diagnostic criteria, including social communication and restricted interests and repetitive behaviors 14 . Although sensory issues are commonly discussed as an impairment, there are also areas where autistic individuals outperform their typically-developed (TD) peers 15 . Thus, a complete account of sensory issues in autism must explain not only the observed weaknesses, but also the areas of enhanced performance. To this aim, we employed a well-characterized continuous cued-recall task 16 , 17 to study the strengths and weaknesses of maintaining sensory representations in visual working memory (VWM), a mental workspace to connect inputs with higher-order cognition 18 . Participants study a varying number of coloured squares (set size; 2–3 in the current study) in discrete locations and after a brief delay, they report the remembered color of a randomly cued square, indicated by a location probe (i.e., “what colour did you study in this location previously?”). This response is made by selecting the remembered colour from a continuous colour wheel, allowing for the measurement of not only VWM capacity, but also of recall precision, and perceptual binding of colour and location. Autistic individuals often exhibit enhanced visual perceptual abilities on simple visual tasks, such as change detection, colour discrimination, and simple visual search tasks for review, see 19 . In the VWM colour wheel task, the precision of an individual’s response (i.e., how closely individuals recall the exact studied color) would tap into this strength. Therefore, we predicted that autistic individuals would exhibit greater VWM precision than their TD peers and may, overall, show fewer errors.

When an error is made, however, the VWM colour-wheel task affords us with the possibility to determine the origin of such errors, forgetting the studied colour or misbinding a studied colour with the incorrect location. Autistic individuals have difficulties binding sensory information into a unified percept 20 , 21 , 22 : they are less susceptible to visual illusions that require integration of multiple component features 23 , and show reduced benefits of binding a speaker’s face with their voice 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 . In a colour-wheel VWM task, these binding errors would result in recalling a colour that was presented at a non-target location. We predicted that when errors are made, autistic individuals would be more likely to make binding errors than their TD peers. Therefore, this task allows us to simultaneously observe strengths and weaknesses in sensory processing in the same individuals while keeping the task demands unaltered.

Participants

Participants included 51 children (mean age = 12.0 ± 2.8 years) split into two groups, TD and ASD. TD children (N = 30, 8 males, age range 7–16 years old, mean age = 11 years old) had neither an individual or familial diagnosis of ASD, nor any other neurological condition. Autistic participants (N = 21, 17 males, age range 8–17 years old, mean age = 13 years old) had a formal ASD diagnosis by a clinical practitioner familiar with ASD and provided their clinical report. Diagnoses were confirmed through the administration of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-1 or -2 28 ) by a research-reliable clinician. To ensure that TD participants were not on the autism spectrum, and to assess symptom severity in ASD, the Autism Quotient (AQ 29 ) and Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS 30 ) were administered to all participants. The AQ was scored using Likert scoring 31 , with the TD group scoring significantly lower than the ASD group (TD mean score = 51.3 ± 13.9, ASD mean score = 95.3 ± 15.7, p  = 8.00e −14 , t (49)  = 10.28, d  = 2.39). Likewise on the SRS, the TD group scored significantly lower than the ASD group (TD mean score = 51.0 ± 8.9; ASD mean score = 75.7 ± 11.6, p  = 9.62e −10 , t (49)  = 7.54, d  = 2.39). Note that a score of 76 and above on the SRS is considered severe, a score between 60 and 75 is considered indicative of so-called “high-functioning” ASD in those with a diagnosis, and 59 or below is considered asymptomatic. Cognitive abilities were measured using the Weschler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI-2 32 ) 2-scale subtest. TD participants’ scores did not significantly differ from those of ASD participants (TD mean = 102.9 ± 10.8, ASD mean = 107.4 ± 14.9, p  = 0.23, t (49)  = 1.59, d  = 0.34).

All protocols were approved by the research ethics board at the University of Toronto, and all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Informed consent was obtained from a parent and/or legal guardian. Participants were compensated monetarily for their time and with a small gift.

Participants were seated in front of a 15-inch laptop screen at a distance of approximately 60 cm. The screen resolution was 1280 × 960 pixels and the refresh rate was 60 Hz. Stimuli were generated and presented using MATLAB (Natick, MA) and the Psychophysics Toolbox 3 extensions 33 , 34 , 35 .

Stimuli and procedure

Stimuli and task design were based on Zhang and Luck 16 but adapted to be more suitable for a younger age group. Each trial started with a 100 ms long presentation of coloured squares as memory samples, with set sizes of either 2 or 3, around a black fixation cross (1.0° × 1.0° visual angle) on a gray background. The to-be-remembered coloured squares (henceforth, sample items) were 1.2° by 1.2° in size and could be located at 18 possible locations arranged around a virtual circle with a radius of 5.6° (Fig.  1 ). Participants were instructed to remember as many of the sample items as possible.

Trial composition. This panel depicts an individual trial (set size = 3). Responses were analyzed with a probabilistic mixture model in which the degree of error between the chosen colour and the actual presented colour is calculated and tabulated across trials.

Sample item colours were selected from 180 possible colours, evenly distributed along an isoluminant colour wheel (centered at (L = 65 a = 5 b = 5) in the CIEL*a*b* colour space The colours of all sample items on a given trial were randomly chosen without replacement from these 180 colours, with the constraint that two samples colours must be separated by a minimum 15 values (i.e., 40°) in colour space to ensure discriminability.

After a 1000-ms delay screen containing only the fixation cross, the test screen was presented. The locations of the sample items were outlined in black (with no colour fill except the gray background), and the to-be-reported target item’s location bolded to distinguish it from the non-target locations (4 pixel weight for non-targets items, 8 pixel weight for the target item). The test screen also contained a visual presentation of the colour wheel described above, arranged on an annulus with an inner radius of 7.6° and an outer radius of 10.1° The luminance of all possible stimulus colours remained constant and independent of hue.

During the test screen phase, participants used the computer mouse to select the remembered colour of the target square by clicking the location on the colour wheel that most precisely corresponded with the remembered colour of the target item. To facilitate visualization of the chosen colour, when the participant selected a colour from the colour wheel, the target location’s outline was filled with the selected color. Emphasis was placed on precision, and participants were given unlimited time to change and adjust their selection until they were satisfied with their choice. The participants pressed the keyboard space bar when they felt ready to lock in their response and would then advance to the next trial following a 500 ms inter-trial interval. Participants were instructed to avoid selecting non-target colours and instead to guess a random colour if they could not recall the target item. Participants completed 80 trials in total, with 40 trials per set-size condition interleaved within a single block. Prior to data collection, participants completed 10 practice trials to ensure that they understood the task and were completing it properly.

Behavioural data analysis was based on the method outlined by Bays et al. 2008 http://www.bayslab.com 17 . Stimulus colours and participant responses were coded in circular units (from π radians to -π radians), and recall error was calculated as the angular deviation between the actual target colour and the colour selected by the participant.

To investigate participants’ VWM, we employed a probabilistic mixture model developed by Bays et al. 36 . The model assumes that three memory states account for the distribution of responses in a VWM task: recalling the target, recalling a non-target, or recalling nothing from memory which will result in guessing. When the participant can recall the target colour, measured as the probability to recall the target, or pMem , target responses are assumed to be normally distributed around the target colour using a circular analogue of the Gaussian distribution, the von Mises distribution. For instances in which the participant retrieves a non-target colour, measured as the probability to recall the non-target, pNT or binding error, each pNT response is also assumed to be distributed around a non-target colour using a von Mises distributions. Finally, the participant may not be able to access the target at all and has to guess randomly, measured as the probability of guesses, pGuess , a uniform distribution around the circle. It should be noted here that pGuess is equal to 1 − (pMem + pNT) and is not considered a parameter itself, thus the parameters pMem and pNT determine the probability of any of the three memory states, all of which must sum to 1.

In addition, the precision parameter reflects the fidelity or resolution with which the colour has been represented in memory, when colour can be retrieved (pMem). Recall precision was calculated as the reciprocal of the standard deviation of the recall error (using Fisher’s definition of circular standard deviation). Recall precision assesses the degree to which responses cluster around the original target colour (i.e., higher precision scores indicate the participant’s responses cluster more narrowly around the target colour, suggesting more precise responses). It is assumed that the von Mises distribution around target and non-targets are assumed to have the same precision.

Maximum likelihood estimates of the three aforementioned parameters, pMem, pNT, and precision, were separately obtained for each participant and each set-size using an expectation–maximization algorithm. The three memory states defined by these parameters will henceforth be referred to as memory (pMem), binding errors (pNT), and guesses (pGuess), respectively. Model parameter estimation was performed with a range of initial parameter estimates to ensure global maxima were achieved.

Differences between diagnostic groups and set sizes were subsequently tested using a mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA) and follow-up t-tests in the parameter values pMem, recall precision, pNT, and pGuess. Also, given significant differences in pMem between groups, the proportion of binding errors relative to all errors, or

were calculated to account for differences in total number of errors, then compared. The proportion of guesses relative to total errors is equal to one minus pNT|Error, thus independent analysis is redundant. Greenhouse–Geisser corrections were applied whenever the sphericity assumption of the ANOVA was violated.

Symptom severity in the ASD group was calculated as the weighted sum of the SRS and AQ measures:

where AQ max and SRS max represent the maximum score on each measure, resulting in a range of symptom severity from 0 (least severe) to 1 (most severe). The relationship between pMem, precision, and pNT|Error on symptom severity was analyzed via multiple regression.

Analysis of target responses: probability of recall (pMem) and precision

We first measured the probability of participants recalling the target colour, or pMem. In the ASD group, pMem was 0.86 (SE = 0.04) for the set size two and 0.75 (SE = 0.05) for set size three (Fig.  2 , top). In the TD group, pMem was 0.77 (SE = 0.03) and 0.61 (SE = 0.03) with a set size of two and three, respectively. A 2 × 2 mixed-model ANOVA (group x set size) with pMem as the dependent variable revealed a significant main effect of set size, with the set size of two having a higher pMem than the set size of 3 (F (1,49)  = 23.54, p < 0.001, η p 2  = 0.33). Furthermore, there was a significant main effect of diagnostic group, with pMem being higher in the ASD group than the TD group (F (1,49)  = 5.19, p = 0.03, η p 2  = 0.10). There was no significant interaction between set size and group (F (1,49)  = 1.08, p = 0.30, η p 2  = 0.02).

Results. Autistic individuals exhibited increases in their likelihood to remember the target and the precision of their responses, but also an increased NT|Error. Bars represent group averages, circles represent individuals’ data, with crosses representing outliers. Error bars represent standard error of the mean.

Precision was also estimated , which reflects the fidelity or resolution with which the colour has been represented in memory, when colour can be retrieved. Precision in the ASD group was 1.13 (SE = 0.12) and 0.63 (SE = 0.06) for set sizes two and three, respectively (Fig.  2 , middle). In the TD group, precision was 0.75 (SE = 0.08) and 0.44 (SE = 0.06) for set sizes two and three, respectively. A 2 × 2 mixed-factor ANOVA (group x set size) revealed a significant main effect of set size with higher precision at a set size of two, relative to three, items (F (1,49)  = 64.97, p < 0.001, η p 2  = 0.57). Furthermore, there was a significant main effect of diagnostic group, with the ASD group exhibiting higher precision than the TD group (F (1,49)  = 7.99, p = 0.007, η p 2  = 0.14). Finally, there was a non-significant trend towards a group by set size interaction; the precision benefit for the ASD group was marginally higher at set size 2 relative to set size 3 (F (1,49)  = 3.62, p = 0.07, η p 2  = 0.07). The average error with each presented target colour was also calculated to determine whether precision varied across the colour spectrum in a meaningful, patterned way, and did not (Fig.  3 ).

Error by individual colour. Autistic individuals’ higher precision than controls can be seen in their lower average error than controls (heavy lines). No meaningful pattern of error by individual colours was observed (light lines).

Analysis of error responses: binding errors (pNT) and guesses

When the target was not recalled, two types of errors were possible: specifically, binding errors (pNT) and guesses. Binding errors occur when a participant recalls the non-target colour, and guesses occur when the participant reports a colour that was not presented. To explore the nature of these errors, we estimated the frequency of each type of error, then compared across groups and between conditions in two ways, first accounting for group differences in frequency of errors using pNT|Error, followed by examining values of binding errors and guesses without accounting for the difference in pMem, to examine what drove effects found in the initial analysis.

As reported above, pMem in the ASD group was significantly larger relative to the TD group. This means that the magnitude of binding errors and guesses will, by necessity, be lower in the ASD group. Therefore, we calculated the proportion of binding errors relative to total errors, pNT|Error, and subjected those to a 2 × 2 (diagnostic group x set size), mixed-model ANOVA (Fig.  2 , top right). A significant main effect of set size was observed, with pNT|Error higher with a set size of three relative to two items (F (1,49)  = 4.20, p = 0.04, η p 2  = 0.08). Critically, a main effect of diagnostic group was also observed, with the ASD group exhibiting higher pNT|Error than the TD group (F (1,49)  = 4.22, p < 0.04, η p 2  = 0.08). No significant group by set size interaction was observed (F (1,49)  = 2.19, p < 0.15, η p 2  = 0.04).

To examine what drove this effect, we examined measures of binding errors and guesses not accounting for differences in pMem. Binding errors in the ASD group were 0.03 (SE = 0.04) and 0.08 (SE = 0.11) for set sizes two and three, respectively (Fig.  2 , middle right). In the TD group, binding errors were 0.04 (SE = 0.08) and 0.06 (SE = 0.13) for set sizes two and three, respectively. A 2 × 2 mixed-factor ANOVA (group x set size) revealed a marginally significant main effect of set size with higher binding errors at a set size of three, relative to two, items (F (1,49)  = 9.24, p = 0.004, η p 2  = 0.16). There was not a significant main effect of diagnostic group with binding errors (F (1,49)  < 0.01, p = 0.99, η p 2  < 0.01). There was not a significant group by set size interaction (F (1,49)  = 0.58, p = 0.45, η p 2  = 0.01).

Guesses in the ASD group were 0.11 (SE = 0.03) and 0.17 (SE = 0.05) for set sizes two and three, respectively (Fig.  2 , bottom right). In the TD group, guesses were 0.19 (SE = 0.03) and 0.33 (SE = 0.05) for set sizes two and three, respectively. A 2 × 2 mixed-factor ANOVA (group x set size) revealed a significant main effect of set size with higher rate of guessing at a set size of two, relative to three, items (F (1,49)  = 9.24, p = 0.004, η p 2  = 0.16). Furthermore, there was a significant main effect of diagnostic group, with the ASD group exhibiting fewer guesses than the TD group (F (1,49)  = 5.03, p = 0.03, η p 2  = 0.09). Finally, there was a no significant group by set size interaction (F (1,49)  = 1.65, p = 0.21, η p 2  = 0.03).

Given that the TD group exhibited significantly more guesses that the ASD group, it is possible that the increase in pNT|Error was driven by an increase in attentional lapses or failure to encode for other extraneous reasons. We conducted post hoc t-tests to examine this possibility in more detail. No significant difference was found between the ASD and TD group with a set size of two (t (49)  = 1.52, p = 0.14, d = 0.43), but a significant difference was observed with a set size of three (t (49)  = 2.21, p = 0.03, d = 0.63). No significant difference was found in guesses between set sizes in the ASD group (t (20)  = 1.94, p = 0.07, d = 0.42), but a significant increase in guesses was observed from set size 2 to 3 in the TD group (t (29)  = 2.80, p = 0.009, d = 0.51).

Relation to clinical symptomatology

Within the ASD group, multiple regression was used to determine if pMem, precision, or binding errors were associated with symptom severity, as assessed with the SRS and AQ (mean = 0.76, range = 0.57–0.90 of a possible 0–1). The overall model was significant (R 2  = 0.46, F (3,17)  = 4.90, p = 0.01), with pMem being the strongest predictor (t = -3.07, r partial  = -0.60, p = 0.007). However, pMem and precision were multicollinear (r 20  = 0.84, 95% CI = [0.64 to 0.55], VIF = 3.35, p = 0.0004). For thoroughness, it should be noted that binding errors were not related to either pMem (r 20  = 0.01, 95% CI = [-0.42 to 0.44], p = 0.96) or precision (r 20  = 0.32, 95% CI = [-0.12 to 0.66], p = 0.16). Given the multicollinearity, precision was removed from the model, and a second multiple regression was conducted using pMem and pNT|Error to predict symptom severity. The overall model remained significant (R 2  = 0.40, F (2,18)  = 6.00, p = 0.01), with pMem (t = -3.46, r partial  = -0.63, p = 0.003) but not pNT|Error (t (20)  = 1.28, r partial  = 0.29, p = 0.22) significantly predicting symptom severity.

Sex differences

Given the differences in sex distribution across groups, sex differences were explored. No significant differences were found between males and females in pertinent variables at either set size (2 and 3, respectively), including pMem (t (49)  = 1.15, p = 0.11, d  = 0.32; t (49)  = 0.23, p = 0.90, d  = 0.06), precision (t (49)  = 0.81, p = 0.59, d  = 0.23; t (49)  = 0.55, p = 0.34, d  = 0.15), binding errors (t (49)  = 1.44, p = 0.07, d  = 0.40; t (49)  = 1.52, p = 0.07, d  = 0.42), pNT|Error (t (49)  = 0.55, p = 0.48, d  = 0.15; t (49)  = 0.88, p = 0.14, d  = 0.25), or guesses (t (49)  = 0.66, p = 0.18, d  = 0.; t (49)  = 0.50, p = 0.85, d  = 0.14).

Through the use of a well-established VWM continuous cued-recall task, this study provided novel evidence reconciling two apparently discrepant findings relating to sensory processing in autism. That is, both enhanced and impaired sensory processing in autism have been shown with almost equal frequency for review, see 14 , 19 . Typically, these differences have been shown across distinct tasks 37 and stimulus types 38 , with enhanced perception commonly found with simple stimuli and detail-oriented tasks and impaired perception commonly seen with more complex stimuli and globally-oriented tasks. Results from the current study, for the first time, indicate enhanced sensory processing in both accuracy and precision of sensory recall, yet increased binding errors when errors are made: distinct aspects of sensory processing using the same task, stimuli, and individuals.

The Enhanced Perceptual Functioning (EPF) model of sensory processing in autism proposes that autistic individuals prioritize the perception of low-level sensory information relative to higher-level perceptual operations 15 , 19 , 39 . This difference in processing has been hypothesized to lead to both enhancements in perceptual abilities (e.g., enhanced pitch memory 40 and visual discrimination 41 ), but differential abilities at higher levels of perception (e.g., biological motion perception 42 )—a combination of perceptual effects commonly referred to as a difference in local–global bias. This account has typically been described through comparing performances across different cognitive tasks or stimuli. For example, when processing composite letters, autistic individuals show a bias towards over-representation of the smaller, component letters relative to their TD peers, but this effect disappears when specifically asked to attend to the larger, global letters 37 . Thus, it has been postulated that deficits in more global, integrative sensory processing may result from a difference in default perceptual style, with a tendency to focus on the detailed aspects of any given sensory input. The current results expand on this finding, however, suggesting that findings of perceptual enhancements and differences in autism are not specifically task-reliant but instead process-reliant, as can be observed simultaneously in a single paradigm.

Autistic children exhibited specific perceptual advantages in their ability to recall visual representations (as measured by pMem), and additionally, the precision of those representations was of higher fidelity then their TD peers. That is, when correctly remembering a colour in a specific location, autistic children’s ability to recall the exact hue of the colour was greater. Interestingly, recent computational work has suggested that both precision and pMem may be accounted for by a single factor of memory strength, or sensitivity 43 —and explanation that is parsimonious with the current data given the strong relationship between pMem and precision. Interestingly, the perceptual advantage of increased likelihood of recall significantly was predictive of clinical symptom severity as assessed through the Social Responsiveness Scale and the Autism-spectrum Quotient. This relationship between levels of autistic traits and performance in a VWM task provides convergent evidence that atypical sensory processing may contribute to clinical symptomatology for review, see 14 .

The analysis of concurrent error types was more equivocal, with multiple possible interpretations. When examining binding errors relative to the total proportion of errors committed (pNT|Error), autistic participants committed a higher proportion of binding errors ; they incorrectly perceptually bound a presented colour with the wrong spatial location. In conjunction with the observed increase in precision , this would suggest that the perceptual representation of colour is being maintained with high fidelity. Further, given the higher level of pMem in ASD relative to controls, this suggests that autistic individuals broadly have the capacity to bind colour and space. However, the autistic group showed a higher proportion of binging errors relative to the total number of errors than the control group. This finding is in line with previous research, which has reliably demonstrated that autistic individuals exhibit atypical integration of individual pieces of information to form a coherent Gestalt percept 20 , 21 , 22 . This effect ranges from the perceptual processing of sensory stimuli such as a speaker’s face and voice 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 to higher-level cognitive representations, such integrating content of a story into a global narrative 44 .

The above hypothesis of atypical binding reflects the rate of binding errors when an error is committed. This phenomenological finding has multiple possible alternative explanations at the mechanistic level. The increase in pNT|Error in the autistic group was driven by a significantly higher rate of guesses in the control group, in particular with a set size of three. Thus, alternatively to the above hypothesis, analysis of the binding errors without accounting for group differences in pMem did not reveal group differences, leaving the possibility that there a greater number of attentional lapses in the control group may also contribute to or drive this effect. Further, if autistic children were inherently better at color than spatial attention (within ASD), or if autistic children were better at colour memory than controls, this could result in performance in the autistic group to be biased towards colour rather than space more so than the control group. Lastly, the autistic group may be more likely to focus on the task, and, as a colour memory task, may have biased the autistic group more than the control group towards attending to colour. Future studies in which the task was to remember the location will be able to assess these alternate hypotheses.

How might we understand the present pattern of results from a neuro-computational perspective? Recent computational models have proposed that both precision and binding errors in VWM can be explained through decoding of noisy population neural activity 45 , 46 . Specifically, the model consists of populations of neurons, which respond conjunctively to multiple feature dimensions (e.g., color, orientation, location). For example, a given neuron in the model might respond most strongly to a specific hue of green, at a specific location, with the firing rate decreasing as the presented hue (or location) deviates from the maximally preferred value. In this way, the firing properties of each neuron can be represented as a multivariate Gaussian tuning function across all feature dimensions of interest. During study, sample items are encoded and maintained through the firing rate of the neural populations, which are determined by their respective tuning preferences. During recall, a decoder is applied to the pattern of population activity, ultimately selecting the most likely feature value, given the cue. Thus, the imprecision of responses can arise from population neural noise across the target dimension (e.g., colour), while binding errors arise from noise across the cue dimension (e.g., location). Applied to our data, this model would suggest that autistic individuals represent sample items with lower levels of noise in the target dimension, but that higher levels of noise in the cue dimension result in an unreliable mapping of the location cue to the correct color, thereby resulting in binding errors between colors and their locations. Indeed, autism researchers have suggested that atypical behaviours and perceptions in autism may be linked to changes in the variability, or noisiness, of neural response patterns 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 .

Based on their work with healthy populations, Bays et al. 45 , 46 also argue that in VWM recall tasks, non-spatial features (e.g., color and orientation) are obligatorily bound to their associated locations, with no binding between non-spatial features. Similarly, face perception research suggests that the healthy human visual system automatically binds facial elements into an undifferentiated whole 52 . Given the deficits in holistic face perception in ASD 53 , 54 , along with group differences in binding deficits between a spatial and non-spatial feature when accounting for differences in overall error rates reported here, an interesting prediction is that autistic individuals might only show binding difficulties across features that are obligatorily integrated in the healthy visual system.

Additionally, integration of multiple types of sensory information, in this case spatial and colour information, requires functional connectivity between multiple brain regions. However, research has demonstrated that autistic individuals have decreased connectivity between brain regions in general 55 , 56 , and within the dorsal visual stream specifically 57 . Furthermore, autistic individuals show atypical activation, functional connectivity, and inter-region neural synchronization in fronto-parietal networks during letter-based VMW tasks 58 and in fronto-temporal networks during face-based VWM tasks 59 . Coupled with the current findings, these studies lend support to the claim of the EFT model suggesting that improved processing of individual aspects of sensory inputs may come with a cost, in this case including higher levels of binding errors relative to all errors during VWM. These changes are likely to directly impact core symptomatology associated with autism, as perceptual binding 60 and working memory, including VWM 61 , play significant roles in communication.

Abrams, D. A. et al. Underconnectivity between voice-selective cortex and reward circuitry in children with autism. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110 , 12060–12065 (2013).

Article   ADS   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Leigh, J. P. & Du, J. Brief report: Forecasting the economic burden of autism in 2015 and 2025 in the United States. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 45 , 4135–4139 (2015).

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M. & Frith, U. Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”?. Cognition 21 , 37–46 (1985).

Article   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Happe, F. Autism: Cognitive deficit or cognitive style?. Trends Cogn. Sci. 3 , 216–222 (1999).

Ozonoff, S., Pennington, B. F. & Rogers, S. J. Executive function deficits in high-functioning autistic individuals: Relationship to theory of mind. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 32 , 1081–1105 (1991).

Rubenstein, J. L. & Merzenich, M. M. Model of autism: increased ratio of excitation/inhibition in key neural systems. Genes Brain Behav. 2 , 255–267 (2003).

Article   CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Brock, J., Brown, C. C., Boucher, J. & Rippon, G. The temporal binding deficit hypothesis of autism. Dev. Psychopathol. 14 , 209–224 (2002).

Pellicano, E. & Burr, D. When the world becomes ‘too real’: A Bayesian explanation of autistic perception. Trends Cogn. Sci. 16 , 504–510 (2012).

Wallace, M. T., Woynaroski, T. G. & Stevenson, R. A. Multisensory integration as a window into orderly and disrupted cognition and communication. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 71 , 193–219 (2020).

Stevenson, R. A., Segers, M., Ferber, S., Barense, M. D. & Wallace, M. T. The impact of multisensory integration deficits on speech perception in children with autism spectrum disorders. Front Psychol 5 , 379 (2014).

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Wallace, M. T. & Stevenson, R. A. The construct of the multisensory temporal binding window and its dysregulation in developmental disabilities. Neuropsychologia 64C , 105–123 (2014).

Article   Google Scholar  

Stevenson, R. A. et al. The cascading influence of multisensory processing on speech perception in autism. Autism 22 , 609–624 (2018).

Tomchek, S. D. & Dunn, W. Sensory processing in children with and without autism: A comparative study using the short sensory profile. Am. J. Occup. Ther. 61 , 190–200 (2007).

Baum, S. H., Stevenson, R. A. & Wallace, M. T. Behavioral, perceptual, and neural alterations in sensory and multisensory function in autism spectrum disorder. Prog. Neurobiol. 134 , 140–160 (2015).

Mottron, L. & Burack, J. A. Enhanced Perceptual Functioning in the Development of Autism (Springer, New York, 2001).

Google Scholar  

Zhang, W. & Luck, S. J. Discrete fixed-resolution representations in visual working memory. Nature 453 , 233–235 (2008).

Bays, P. M. & Husain, M. Dynamic shifts of limited working memory resources in human vision. Science 321 , 851–854 (2008).

Baddeley, A. Working memory: Looking back and looking forward. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 4 , 829 (2003).

Mottron, L., Dawson, M., Soulieres, I., Hubert, B. & Burack, J. Enhanced perceptual functioning in autism: An update, and eight principles of autistic perception. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 36 , 27–43 (2006).

Stevenson, R. A. et al. Multisensory temporal integration in autism spectrum disorders. J. Neurosci. 34 , 691–697 (2014).

Stevenson, R. A. et al. Brief report: Arrested development of audiovisual speech perception in autism spectrum disorders. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 44 , 1470–1477 (2014).

Stevenson, R. A. et al. Evidence for diminished multisensory integration in autism spectrum disorders. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 44 , 3161–3167 (2014).

Happé, F. G. Studying weak central coherence at low levels: children with autism do not succumb to visual illusions. A research note. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 37 , 873–877 (1996).

Foxe, J. J. et al. Severe multisensory speech integration deficits in high-functioning school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their resolution during early adolescence. Cereb. Cortex 25 , 298–312 (2013).

Stevenson, R. A. et al. Multisensory speech perception in autism spectrum disorder: From phoneme to whole-word perception. Autism Res. 10 , 1280–1290 (2017).

Irwin, J. R., Tornatore, L. A., Brancazio, L. & Whalen, D. H. Can children with autism spectrum disorders “hear” a speaking face?. Child Dev. 82 , 1397–1403 (2011).

Smith, E. G. & Bennetto, L. Audiovisual speech integration and lipreading in autism. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 48 , 813–821 (2007).

Lord, C. et al. Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule: ADOS-2 (Western Psychological Services, Los Angeles, CA, 2012).

Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Skinner, R., Martin, J. & Clubley, E. The autism-spectrum quotient (AQ): Evidence from asperger syndrome/high-functioning autism, malesand females, scientists and mathematicians. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 31 , 5–17 (2001).

Constantino, J. N. et al. Validation of a brief quantitative measure of autistic traits: comparison of the social responsiveness scale with the autism diagnostic interview-revised. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 33 , 427–433 (2003).

Stevenson, J. L. & Hart, K. R. Psychometric properties of the autism-spectrum quotient for assessing low and high levels of autistic traits in college students. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 6 , 1838–1853 (2017).

Wechsler, D. & Hsiao-pin, C. WASI-II: Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (Pearson, New York, 2011).

Brainard, D. H. The psychophysics toolbox. Spat. Vis. 10 , 433–436 (1997).

Pelli, D. G. The VideoToolbox software for visual psychophysics: transforming numbers into movies. Spat. Vis. 10 , 437–442 (1997).

Kleiner, M. et al. What’s new in Psychtoolbox-3. Perception 36 , 1 (2007).

Bays, P. M., Catalao, R. F. & Husain, M. The precision of visual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource. J. Vis. 9 , 7–7 (2009).

Plaisted, K., Swettenham, J. & Rees, L. Children with autism show local precedence in a divided attention task and global precedence in a selective attention task. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 40 , 733–742 (1999).

Bertone, A., Mottron, L., Jelenic, P. & Faubert, J. Enhanced and diminished visuo-spatial information processing in autism depends on stimulus complexity. Brain 128 , 2430–2441 (2005).

Mottron, L., Belleville, S. & Menard, E. Local bias in autistic subjects as evidenced by graphic tasks: Perceptual hierarchization or working memory deficit?. J. Child. Psychol. Psychiatry 40 , 743–755 (1999).

Mottron, L., Peretz, I., Belleville, S. & Rouleau, N. Absolute pitch in autism: A case study. Neurocase 5 , 485–501 (1999).

Plaisted, K., O’Riordan, M. & Baron-Cohen, S. Enhanced visual search for a conjunctive target in autism: a research note. J. Child. Psychol.. Psychiatry 39 , 777–783 (1998).

Blake, R., Turner, L. M., Smoski, M. J., Pozdol, S. L. & Stone, W. L. Visual recognition of biological motion is impaired in children with autism. Psychol. Sci. 14 , 151–157 (2003).

Baio, J. et al. Prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among children aged 8 years—autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network, 11 Sites, United States, 2014. Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. (MMWR) 67 , 1–23 (2018).

Loveland, K. A., McEvoy, R. E., Tunali, B. & Kelley, M. L. Narrative story telling in autism and Down’s syndrome. Br. J. Dev. Psychol. 8 , 9–23 (1990).

Bays, P. M. Noise in neural populations accounts for errors in working memory. J. Neurosci. 34 , 3632–3645 (2014).

Schneegans, S. & Bays, P. M. Neural architecture for feature binding in visual working memory. J. Neurosci. 37 , 3913–3925 (2017).

Perez Velazquez, J. L. & Galan, R. F. Information gain in the brain’s resting state: A new perspective on autism. Front. Neuroinform. 7 , 37 (2013).

Dinstein, I. et al. Unreliable Evoked Responses in Autism. Neuron 75 , 981–991 (2012).

Haigh, S. M., Heeger, D. J., Dinstein, I., Minshew, N. & Behrmann, M. Cortical variability in the sensory-evoked response in autism. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 45 , 1176–1190 (2014).

Coskun, M. A. et al. Increased response variability in autistic brains?. NeuroReport 20 , 1543–1548 (2009).

Milne, E. Increased intra-participant variability in children with autistic spectrum disorders: Evidence from single-trial analysis of evoked EEG. Front. Psychol. 2 , 51 (2011).

Farah, M. J., Wilson, K. D., Drain, H. M. & Tanaka, J. W. What is “special” about face processing?. Psychol. Rev. 105 , 298–482 (1998).

Joseph, R. M. & Tanaka, J. Holistic and part-based face recognition in children with autism. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 44 , 529–542 (2003).

Davies, S., Bishop, D., Manstead, A. S. & Tantam, D. Face perception in children with autism and Asperger’s syndrome. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 35 , 1033–1057 (1994).

Brambilla, P. et al. Brain anatomy and development in autism: review of structural MRI studies. Brain Res. Bull. 61 , 557–569 (2003).

Uddin, L. Q., Supekar, K. & Menon, V. Reconceptualizing functional brain connectivity in autism from a developmental perspective. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 7 , 458 (2013).

Villalobos, M. E., Mizuno, A., Dahl, B. C., Kemmotsu, N. & Müller, R.-A. Reduced functional connectivity between V1 and inferior frontal cortex associated with visuomotor performance in autism. NeuroImage 25 , 916–925 (2005).

Koshino, H. et al. Functional connectivity in an fMRI working memory task in high-functioning autism. NeuroImage 24 , 810–821 (2005).

Koshino, H. et al. fMRI investigation of working memory for faces in autism: Visual coding and underconnectivity with frontal areas. Cereb. Cortex 18 , 289–300 (2007).

Stevenson, R. A. et al. The cascading influence of low-level multisensory processing on speech perception in autism. Autism 22 , 609–624 (2018).

Baddeley, A. Working memory and language: An overview. J. Commun. Disord. 36 , 189–208 (2003).

Download references

Acknowledgements

RS is funded by an NSERC Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2017-04656), a SSHRC Insight Grant (435-2017-0936), the University of Western Ontario Faculty Development Research Fund, the province of Ontario Early Researcher Award, and a Canadian Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund (37497). SF is funded by an NSERC Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2018-05829). This research was supported by BrainsCAN at Western University through the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) as well as by Western University’s Brain and Mind Institute.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON, N6G 2K3, Canada

Ryan A. Stevenson & Magali Segers

Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

Ryan A. Stevenson

Department of Psychiatry, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Neuroscience Program, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

Centre for Vision Research, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Justin Ruppel, Sol Z. Sun, Morgan D. Barense & Susanne Ferber

Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada

Magali Segers, Busisiwe L. Zapparoli & James M. Bebko

Rotman Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada

Morgan D. Barense & Susanne Ferber

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

The study was designed by R.S., J.R., M.B., and S.F. Data was collected by R.S., M.S., and B.Z. Data was analyzed and interpreted by R.S., J.R., S.S., M.B., and S.F. The manuscript was drafted by R.S., and edited and approved of by all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryan A. Stevenson .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Stevenson, R.A., Ruppel, J., Sun, S.Z. et al. Visual working memory and sensory processing in autistic children. Sci Rep 11 , 3648 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82777-1

Download citation

Received : 01 April 2020

Accepted : 28 December 2020

Published : 11 February 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82777-1

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

This article is cited by

Increased gene dosage of rfwd2 causes autistic-like behaviors and aberrant synaptic formation and function in mice.

• Yong-Xia Li
• Zhi-Nei Tan
• Xin-Ming Ma

Molecular Psychiatry (2024)

People with higher autistic traits show stronger binding for color–shape associations

• Katsumi Watanabe
• Makoto Wada

Scientific Reports (2023)

Dissociation Between Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Statistical Learning in Children with Autism

• Violet Kozloff
• Zhenghan Qi

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (2023)

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines . If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Hsam: The genetic mystery of photographic memory

Genuinely “photographic” memories are exceptionally rare. Also called highly superior autobiographical memory (Hsam), this ability is only verified by one institution, the Centre for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine.

The center describes people with Hsam as having “a superior ability to recall specific details of autobiographical events”. They “tend to spend a large amount of time thinking about their past and have a detailed understanding of the calendar and its patterns.  

Follow the latest news and policy debates on sustainable agriculture, biomedicine, and other ‘disruptive’ innovations. Subscribe to our newsletter. SIGN UP

For those born without the natural gift of phenomenal recall, there are tricks and techniques that train the brain into a better memory muscle.

According to Gail Robinson, professor of clinical neuropsychology at the Queensland Brain Institute, “the magic ingredient is paying attention”.

“In neuropsychology, if someone has a patchy memory, we look at how good their attention is; what else are they thinking about,” she says.

“Paying attention is a different skill from memory. And it’s absolutely a skill you can develop. That part is nurture. It requires focus, being selective on the information you retain, and encoding that. Deep focus is key – and social media feeds are killing that skill.”

This is an excerpt. Read the original post here.

GLP Podcasts & Podcast Videos More...

GLP podcast: RFK Jr. recycles ‘gay frogs’ pesticide conspiracy; GMO v organic debate is over; Scientist behind gene-edited twins back in the lab

Glp podcast: dangers of ‘diet weed’; making insulin in cow’s milk; the conservative case for genetic enhancement, videos more....

Video: Why does love make us feel so good? Examining its effect on our brains

Bees & pollinators more....

Are we facing an ‘Insect Apocalypse’ caused by ‘intensive, industrial’ farming and agricultural chemicals? The media say yes; Science says ‘no’

Dissecting claims about Monsanto suing farmers for accidentally planting patented seeds

Analysis: Do neonicotinoid and glyphosate pesticides threaten bees? A reassessment

Infographics more....

Are pesticide residues on food something to worry about?

Gmo faqs more....

Why is there controversy over GMO foods but not GMO drugs?

How are GMOs labeled around the world?

How does genetic engineering differ from conventional breeding?

Alex Jones: Right-wing conspiracy theorist stokes fear of GMOs, pesticides to sell ‘health supplements’

IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer): Glyphosate cancer determination challenged by world consensus

Most popular.

Newsletter Subscription

• Weekly Newsletter (Wed)
• Daily Digest (Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri)
• Weekly Top Six (Sun)
• Featured Articles Only
• Human Articles Only
• Agriculture Articles Only
• All Types of Content

Get news on human & agricultural genetics and biotechnology delivered to your inbox.

Examining The Differences Between Eidetic And Photographic Memory

Why are some people able to remember minute details and intricate visuals easily? The phenomenon of exceptional memory has been studied for years, and many experts have come up with terms seeking to describe it. Two common terms describing this unique skill have emerged—eidetic memory and photographic memory. In this article, we'll take a deeper look into both types of memory by discussing their defining characteristics and how they differ. From examining the research into eidetic and photographic memory to discussing other types of memory, this article will provide insights into the mechanisms that allow some people to retain and recall vast amounts of information.

Eidetic memory -- definition and examples

Eidetic memory is a form of memory used to recall images in a highly accurate way after only a short period of exposure to them.

Children are thought to lose the ability to utilize eidetic memory due to the development of other methods of learning and memorization (e.g., reading), which lessen the need to use one’s visual skills. 

Eidetic memory is thought to be channeled through a projection-like image that manifests in front of the individual, as opposed to a mental image. Though there is evidence that eidetic memory may exist in some people, researchers continue to investigate its sources and characteristics.

Photographic memory – definition and examples

Photographic memory refers to the ability to recall visual information with incredible detail and accuracy over long periods, as though it has been imprinted on the brain like a photograph. The existence of photographic memory has been debated extensively, but there is a general consensus that it is an unproven phenomenon. 

While the scientific evidence for the existence of photographic memory is scant, there is anecdotal evidence of people having the ability to recall large amounts of detailed information. There are several examples of prominent figures who have possessed strong memory skills, including Wolfgang Mozart and Nikola Tesla.

Researchers have been studying this type of memory for years, and while there is still much to learn, their findings have shed light on how the brain processes information and memory. Examining photographic memory can help us better understand the power of the brain and its potential.

Differences between eidetic memory and photographic memory

Eidetic memory and photographic memory both refer to the ability to remember, in detail, information taken in visually. However, eidetic memory is considered a more short-term form of memory—and one that is backed up by evidence, albeit a small amount. Photographic memory, on the other hand, is thought to be a more long-term form of memory. The phenomenon of photographic memory is even less research-backed than that of eidetic memory, leading most experts to deny its existence. 

Most people are able to produce eidetic images. However, eidetic images only last for a moment in eidetic memory—less than a second for most people—before fading away. Very few individuals can remember an image for longer. In contrast, the concept of photographic memory is based on the notion that one can retain an image for a greater duration and recall that image at will.

Other memory skills 

So, if there is a lack of evidence pointing to the existence of eidetic or photographic memory skills, what accounts for some people’s ability to remember large amounts of information for extended periods? Many people do have an enhanced capacity for retaining and recalling vast stores of details. One specific form of such skills is called hyperthymesia . Hyperthymesia refers to exceptional autobiographical memory, which is the memory of one’s life. People with hyperthymesia typically do not have to try to remember information from their life. 

In contrast to people with hyperthymesia, there are also people who are able to memorize vast quantities of information through various memorization skills. These individuals are known as mnemonists . While people with proven forms of exceptional memory may utilize skills that are similar to those of eidetic or photographic types of memory, they typically are not engaging solely in that type of memory. For example, a mnemonist may use their eidetic memory along with other forms of memory to help them encode and store information.

The benefits and challenges of exceptional memory skills

Having a strong memory may seem like a superpower that only a few individuals possess, but it may be accompanied by unique challenges. For those living with this ability, revising for exams or recalling essential details from a meeting may be simple. However, moving past a difficult event, such as the passing of a loved one, may be more difficult for people who have hyperthymesia or who are mnemonists. This can lead to mental health concerns like anxiety or depression.

How to develop memory

Developing our memory skills can significantly improve our daily lives. There are several useful memory techniques you can implement to try and help yourself remember important information better, such as visualization exercises and repetition.

One method gaining popularity is the use of mnemonic devices, which use associations or acronyms to aid in memory retention. Additionally, staying physically active and getting enough sleep can also enhance our cognitive abilities.

The human brain is a complex and fascinating organ that requires proper nutrition to function optimally. Many foods have been identified as helpful for improving memory and boosting cognitive function. For example, blueberries are packed with antioxidants and have been shown to improve communication between brain cells . And dark chocolate contains flavonoids that can improve cerebral blood flow and enhance memory . Additionally, nuts and seeds, such as walnuts and pumpkin seeds, are rich in vitamin E, which has been linked to higher brain function.

As individuals age, it is common to experience a decline in cognitive function, including memory. But this does not have to be inevitable. There are plenty of strategies one can utilize to improve their general memory. One of the most effective is repeated exposure to information. Repeating information has been shown to strengthen the neural connections responsible for memory retention.

Additionally, engaging in activities that promote a healthy brain, such as exercise and a balanced diet, is essential. Taking active steps to improve your memory can enhance your daily life and help prevent memory-related illnesses in the future.

In today's fast-paced world, staying focused on a task without getting sidetracked by distractions can be challenging. Taking control of these distractions can improve your focus and boost your recall ability . One effective way to do this is to start by identifying the main distractions hindering your productivity. It could be as simple as checking your phone every few minutes or checking your email. Once you have identified these distractions, try to implement strategies to eliminate them. This could mean turning off notifications or setting specific times to check emails. 

Benefits of therapy for memory

Therapy can be a valuable tool for addressing memory or other cognitive concerns. There is a well-established link between our emotions and our cognitive functioning . This is the reason you may remember emotionally charged moments from your life more clearly than other events. A therapist can help you better understand this connection while also addressing complex feelings that may arise out of memory loss or similar concerns. Therapy can also help you address mental health challenges that are impacting your memory, such as depression, anxiety, stress, or insomnia. 

Improving memory through online therapy

Research suggests that online therapy can help individuals address cognitive functioning challenges that may be related to mental health concerns. For example, in a study published in the journal Advances in Cognitive Science, researchers found that online therapy led to improvements in memory of participants experiencing comorbid depression and insomnia. These results can be added to those of an increasingly large number of studies pointing to the efficacy of online therapy for a range of mental health challenges. 

If you’re looking to learn more about how your memory, emotional health, and cognitive well-being interact, consider getting matched with a licensed therapist online. With an online therapy platform like BetterHelp , you can schedule sessions at times that work for you and receive regular appointment reminders so that you don’t have to rely on your memory. Your therapist can also connect you with useful resources, such as at-home exercises geared toward helping you improve your cognitive health.  

What are the downsides of eidetic memory?

An eidetic memory, popularly called a photographic memory (although whether true photographic memory exists may be up for debate), can have both advantages and drawbacks. Some of the potential downsides may include feeling constant pressure to perform perfectly and remember important details, having a tendency to ruminate on past events, and experiencing challenges filtering out unneeded information.

Do people with eidetic memory remember everything?

In general, people with eidetic memory do not remember absolutely everything. Eidetic imagery usually has to do with remembering images in great detail for longer than the typical person would. This extraordinary memory capability often comes with many benefits.

Do people with eidetic memory have advantages?

People with eidetic memory may have many advantages thanks to their phenomenal memories, such as finding it easier to retain new information and easily memorizing directions to new locations. They may also have highly superior autobiographical memory.

Who is most likely to have eidetic memory?

Young children tend to be the most likely to have eidetic memory.

Is eidetic memory genetic or learned?

It is currently not clear whether true eidetic memory may be genetic, learned, or both.

Is eidetic memory most common in adulthood?

No, eidetic memory tends to be most common in childhood. Children often have very good visual memory.

How accurate is eidetic memory?

Eidetic memory can be a very accurate form of memory recall, but even eidetic memory can still be prone to typical memory distortions . Even photographic memories may not be perfect, and true photographic memory may not exist in reality.

What happens to eidetic memory as we age?

Eidetic ability usually fades as we age.

How can someone have an eidetic memory?

Those in the behavioral and brain sciences fields don’t currently know whether eidetic memory is inherited genetically or the result of environmental factors.

How do you know if you have eidetic memory?

Eidetic memory exists for nearly everyone to some extent, but if you have the type of eidetic memory that’s commonly referred to as photographic memory, you may be able to perfectly recall a visual image several minutes after seeing it with amazing precision and detail. For most people with ordinary memory, these images would fade after a few seconds unless they were moved from short-term memory to long-term memory.

• How To Support And Improve Your Memory Medically reviewed by Paige Henry , LMSW, J.D.
• Memory Loss: When To Be Concerned And What To Do About It Medically reviewed by Laura Angers Maddox , NCC, LPC
• Relationships and Relations

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

The Whitman Journal of Psychology 2014

This issue includes articles discussing photographic memory and political psychology. We chose to research photographic memory due to the controversies over whether or not this ability exists. Political psychology also interests us because we want to examine how childhood experiences can contribute to a leader's personality and decisions. Our editors for this issue are seniors in the Psychology program at Walt Whitman High School. We work together to choose and edit articles for the Journal. We received over 75 submissions for this issue and carefully reviewed each of them. The articles were chosen based on the topic and quality of the writing.

Related Papers

Political psychology

Daniel Bar-Tal

someone good

Critical Review

james kuklinski

Educational …

Beverly Dretzke

Joel R. Levin is professor, and Beverly J. Dretzke and Julia E. McGivern are doctoral candidates, Departmen t of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, W153706; Christine B. McCormick is assis-tant professor, Department of Psychology, ...

Political Psychology 36(3)

Political Psychology has experienced a marked increase in the number of submissions, downloads, citations, and global exposure over the past few years. It is also a more influential journal than it was at the beginning of the decade. Specifically, the journal is now available in more than 4,200 libraries worldwide, compared with 2,200 five years ago; the number of downloads has recently increased to more than 620,000(!), compared with about 100,000 five years ago; the number of new submissions has increased drastically over the past five years to more than 300 per year; and the impact factor has risen to 1.771-the highest in the history of the journal. In 2014 alone, more than 40 articles published in the journal have been downloaded more than 500 times each. In this article, we analyze submissions to Political Psychology, acceptances, downloads, and citations by area of study and methodology.

Journal of Personality

Christian Wheeler , Derek Rucker

Political Psychology

Helen Haste

paul t hart , Frank Mols

Mark Pancer

RELATED PAPERS

MCNA | Pitonca

Haluk TANRIKULU

Interacoes Cultura E Comunidade

Andre Luiz Caes

Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Químico-Farmacéuticas

Daniel Alba

Into Space - A Journey of How Humans Adapt and Live in Microgravity

Sara Langston

Journal of Applied Mathematics

Sandeep Mishra

International Journal of Scientific Research

Asha Krishna

Pure and Applied Chemistry

Sarani Zakaria

BMC Public Health

Alaaeddine Ramadan

Journal of Physics: Conference Series

irfana faryuni

Psychological Bulletin

Harris Cooper

Christina Preston

Journal of the Formosan Medical Association

Li-min Huang

Journal of Biomechanics

Prosiding Seminar Nasional Program Pengabdian Masyarakat

warih puspitosari

Photochemistry and Photobiology

Danaboyina Ramaiah

Erebea, 22.2.

Joaquín Muñiz Coello

Miscelánea Medieval Murciana

José Manuel Crespo Valero

Applied Physics A

Isabelle Huynen

Pericles Zouhair

Mary-Jane Rubenstein

Micropaleontology

Jodie Fisher

European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

Wolfgang Retz

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

What’s it like living with a phenomenal memory and can it be learned?

Both nature and nurture contribute to incredible recall skills and for those who have them there are benefits and drawbacks

“17 April 2001?” I ask Krystyna Glowacki, 24, over Zoom.

“That was a Tuesday,” she shoots back after less than half a beat. It was.

Hottest temperature ever recorded in Oman?

I’ve barely finished the question before she verbalises her confident response: 50.8C. Correct. Every hair on my arm stands up.

And Mongolia? I’m throwing in far-flung places to really test this seemingly superhuman brain. 44C, right again.

Coldest in Germany? “Minus 45.9 degrees, in a sinkhole in Bavaria on December 24, 2001.” I sit there blinking. At this point I actually laugh. Her memory is so good, it’s preposterous.

Glowacki, from the New South Wales central coast, can name the hottest and coldest temperature recorded in every country in the world, along with the location and date that record was set. She can also name the longitude and latitude of every major city in the world. Despite lockdown, she transports me across oceans, accurately naming coordinates from San Francisco to Berlin in quickfire responses.

‘I read it once and retain it’

“I just have the ability to retain information. It’s just there,” Glowacki says . She only needs to scan the internet once or twice to take and keep anything in.

Glowacki is on the autism spectrum and has superlative memory and calendar recall skills.

Genuinely “photographic” memories are exceptionally rare. Also called highly superior autobiographical memory (Hsam), this ability is only verified by one institution, the Centre for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine.

The centre describes people with Hsam as having “a superior ability to recall specific details of autobiographical events”. They “tend to spend a large amount of time thinking about their past and have a detailed understanding of the calendar and its patterns”.

To date, the centre’s laboratory has identified fewer than 100 occurrences of Hsam worldwide.

Although she has not undergone the rigorous testing required to be classified as having Hsam, Glowacki does exhibit some of the same traits.

So far, just one person identified as having Hsam is Australian: Rebecca Sharrock.

While Sharrock’s gift has attracted much media attention, less has been written about the cohort just below the Hsams: those with superlative memories, probably the best within their social or professional circle.

In neuroscience terms, they’re deemed as having “highly average to superior” memories; not genuinely photographic, but nonetheless astonishing.

‘I can remember every minute a goal was scored’

One such person is Dave Huggan, 46, nicknamed “Statto” for his incredible recall abilities.

He looks to the left as I ask him, over Zoom, the finalists in the 1903 FA Cup final. “Bury 6, Derby Country 0,” he says, before relaying the minute all six goals were scored by five different scorers, whom he names. We do this for several different years: he remembers every FA Cup finalist, scorer and minute scored since 1872, and when tested, he’s accurate about 95% of the time.

Like Glowacki, Huggan did not have to train for his feats of memory; however, he is not autistic.

“I can see the goal now, Gary,” he says of a later FA cup final, he accurately recounts. “I can see it go in from the far side of the field into the corner of the net.”

His eyes light up but mine glaze over. “I know it’s boring; that’s why I perform,” Huggan, from Sydney, says. “Otherwise it’s just facts. It’s hard to get people to engage. You need that entertainment factor.”

He then, almost alarmingly, rattles off every Melbourne Cup winner, in chronological order, in the frenetic style of a horse race commentator. Later, he sends me a video of him singing a megamix of every UK Christmas No 1 song.

“I began absorbing football facts aged 17 and people started noticing,” he says. “I just remember all of it from reading it once or twice.”

People still notice. He performs the No 1s medley annually at his office Christmas party; same for horse winners on Melbourne Cup day.

Unfortunately, it didn’t translate into academic exam success in his weaker subjects like maths and science: “I only remember things I like.”

‘The magic ingredient is paying attention’

For those born without the natural gift of phenomenal recall, there are tricks and techniques that train the brain into a better memory muscle.

According to Gail Robinson, professor of clinical neuropsychology at the Queensland Brain Institute, “the magic ingredient is paying attention”.

“In neuropsychology, if someone has a patchy memory, we look at how good their attention is; what else are they thinking about,” she says.

“Paying attention is a different skill from memory. And it’s absolutely a skill you can develop. That part is nurture. It requires focus, being selective on the information you retain, and encoding that. Deep focus is key – and social media feeds are killing that skill.”

Anastasia Woolmer, 44, is living proof that memory can be improved. A two-time Australian Memory Champion and the first female to win this title in Australia, she achieved this goal after only five months of self-training.

“It was astounding to me,” she says. “You go your whole life thinking what you’re born with is it. I’d forget names at small dinner parties. I think impostor syndrome is common. It felt liberating: if I set my mind to something, I can learn it really quickly and gain confidence.”

Woolmer was inspired by Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer, which suggests brain training, rather than naturally gifted people, account for most USA Memory Championship finalists.

The memory techniques, known as mnemonics, use imagery to aid encoding and retrieval. Another, the memory palace, dates back to the fifth century BC and “places” abstract things on to actual objects, narrativising memory.

In Woolmer’s case, she used her dance background to remember the first 1,000 digits of pi. “I attached a movement for every number sequence from 000 to 999,” she says.

“So 100 digits of pi is just a short contemporary dance story of around 35 movements. It’s just scaffolding new information on to things already easy for me to remember.”

Woolmer is now training to beat the Australian record for pi figure recall (10,533 digits). “I could beat that in a week of learning,”she confidently says.

‘A surgeon couldn’t Google every answer’

Other than a glorious geek-out, how useful is this skill?

Woolmer works full time in finance. “It sounds ridiculous but I don’t have to reopen tabs on my screen to recall data and figures I need,” she says. Having fewer tabs open may seem like a trivial feat, but Woolmer pushes back on this.

“A surgeon couldn’t Google every answer they need when in the operating room,” she says.

For actors in verbose plays, or politicians like Bill Clinton able to charm voters by remembering hundreds of names, it’s certainly still a valued professional trait that quick research on the internet cannot disrupt.

Huggan finds his superlative memory an enormous aid to his sales job and not just at Christmas party time. “I’ll say to a potential client – I remember all of them – ‘You had a $60k budget and you wanted to sponsor an event’.” It helps with presentations too. “You’re able to do the sales pitch there and then rather than return to your notes.”.

‘It can absolutely get lonely’

While many of us might relish better memories, it can be a case of being careful what you wish for. If you’re the only one in your group who remembers an anecdote or detail, it can be potentially maddening.

“It can absolutely get lonely,” Robinson says of Hsams. “Becky [Sharrock] was in last Friday, and saying how she’s having to learn for it not to disrupt her life. It’s a compulsion – she can’t switch the memories off. It’s an affliction, in a sense.”

Glowacki relates to this. “Some events I’ve seen or heard I’d just like to forget, but I can’t,” she says. “When bad things happen to me, when I had arguments that escalated or when I misbehaved.”

She tells me she feels special when she gets tested on her memory. So we finish on a calendar date, selected by me at random: 1 September 2003.

“Monday,” she says. “We watched Finding Nemo at the cinema. I wore a maroon tracksuit and pale blue shirt underneath. I cried because I saw a pink sticker I wanted.”

She waves goodbye on Zoom, then I Google the Australian release date of Finding Nemo: 28 August 2003 – 13 years before the sequel, Finding Dory , gently mocked something Glowacki sometimes yearns for: the ability to forget.

• Self and wellbeing
• Australian lifestyle
• Neuroscience

Most viewed

SiOWfa15: Science in Our World: Certainty and Controversy

The course website and blog for the fall 2015 instance of penn state's sc200 course.

Photographic Memory

Alan Searleman, professor of psychology at St. Lawrence University, says that the closest thing to a photographic memory is eidetic imagery. Eidetic imagery is “a material picture in the mind which can be scanned by the person as he would scan a real current event in his environment, or as a potent, highly significant stimulus which arises from within the mind and throws it into a series of self-revealing imagery effects.” [ source ] It is most commonly found in children and is usually lost around age six. There is also voiced concern that the ability to memorize one thing could lead to the lack of memorizing another. For example, a card shark may memorize the order of cards, but could struggle to memorize faces.

The only documented case resembling photographic memory is a study that was conducted by Charles Stromeyer III in 1970. The test was run on a Harvard student, Elizabeth.“Stromeyer showed Elizabeth’s left eye a collection of 10,000 dots. The next day, he showed her right eye a second collection of 10,000 dots. From those two images, her brain melded together a three-dimension image, known as a stereogram.” [ source ] Since then, scientists have found no new cases to prove that photographic memory is real. The most compelling evidence to date is all anecdotal cases that merely demonstrate the exceptional ability to recall information, which is not strong enough evidence to prove anything. In 2010, researchers from Knox College and Kansas State University showed that “mental representations about photographs aren’t encoded in the same way that the pictures themselves are recalled.” Essentially, since we do not recovery memory and photographs in the same way, a memory can’t really be photographic. [ article ]

Although there have been articles – paralleling ideas from that of Knox/Kansas– to provide explanations for why a photographic memory is not plausible, few experiments have been run to test this. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the brain it is extremely difficult to retain all information on the brains activity, especially on specific aspects like memorization. An experiment I could think of that would test this matter would be to have a subject view something for an allotted amount of time, and than have them recall it at certain time intervals in the future, perhaps by drawing it out word for word and organizing in the exact format it was show on the original page. Yet, this is subject to many third variables like cheating by reviewing the page.

In conclusion, though photographic memory may seem plausible, especially in cases of people who have indescribably accurate memories, science points to the likelihood that such a thing doesn’t exist. Although we all wish we had this capability, the closest we will ever get is eidetic imagery (which still sounds pretty good to me).

Other Sources:

Society of Neuroscience. (2013, April 17). Is Photographic Memory Real? If So, How Does it Work? Retrieved from http://www.brainfacts.org/about-neuroscience/ask-an-expert/articles/2013/is-photographic-memory-real/

Does Photographic Memory Exist? (2012, December 19). Retrieved from  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/i-developed-what-appears-to-be-a-ph/

Is There Such a Thing As a Photographic Memory? And If So, Can It Be Learned? (2007, March 12). Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-such-a-thing-as/

2 thoughts on “ Photographic Memory ”

Based on your research, I don’t know if photographic memory is real or not. You do mention that there is little evidence that it does exist, so there is a good possibility that it may not. I sometime feel like I have a photographic memory, and that is definitely how I pass a lot of my tests. Like you mentioned, there could be a lot of third variables in this case.

I found this post very interesting especially because I am currently learning about memory in my psychology class. We have come up with the same outcomes in my class as you have in this blog post. Although it may seem like people have a photographic memory, it really is not completely possible because of the way we encode memories. I do however, find the idea that some people when they go into a test and see a question they can picture where on a piece of paper that information was while they were studying it, but they have no idea what the actual word is. I wonder if this has anything to do with photographic memory.

Comments are closed.

This company uses AI to create photos out of nothing but your memories

If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.

A company is now using memories to create AI-generated photos. It’s part of the Synthetic Memories project’s ongoing work to help people recover their lost memories by turning them into memory photographs.

By utilizing AI models and the data from a person’s brain, the team behind the project is able to create a memory photograph that showcases the event in an image that looks like it could have been captured when the event was happening.

The image uses older models of AI, like DALL-E 2, which means there are a number of imperfections found within the images. But, the company behind the project believes that these older models help capture the more nebulous and hazy aspects of memories, as we don’t always remember the finer details.

Tech. Entertainment. Science. Your inbox.

Sign up for the most interesting tech & entertainment news out there.

By signing up, I agree to the Terms of Use and have reviewed the Privacy Notice.

Some of the latest endeavors of the project included taking memories from the mind of 84-year-old Maria, a woman from Barcelona. Maria told the project that she has vivid memories of trying to catch a glimpse of her father, who was in prison opposite where they lived.

The project says it is concerned that OpenAI and other AI companies will eventually retire its older models, which they say make for the best pictures because of the imperfections they include. If that happens, they’ll have to rely on newer models to create their memory photographs, which might not be as true-to-life as they won’t have the same imperfections that memories can sometimes offer.

This is, of course, just one of the many ways we’re seeing AI used by different companies around the world. Others are finding new ways to create AI-generated videos and photos, and even using them to help verify eye behavior so that they can tell if someone is lying .

This article talks about:

Josh Hawkins has been writing for over a decade, covering science, gaming, and tech culture. He also is a top-rated product reviewer with experience in extensively researched product comparisons, headphones, and gaming devices.

Whenever he isn’t busy writing about tech or gadgets, he can usually be found enjoying a new world in a video game, or tinkering with something on his computer.

• This insanely fast rocket-powered drone can almost reach Mach 1
• Researchers made a holographic display from a plain old iPhone 14 screen
• DARPA's mysterious Manta Ray could be the future of underwater drones

More Science

The next total solar eclipse won’t happen until 2026

Don’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a rare star explosion

Scientists show off gravity-defying breakthrough in magnetic levitation research

New tech will let wind turbines build themselves

Latest news.

The biggest TV shows this week on Netflix, Apple TV+, Hulu, Max, Peacock, and Paramount+

Civil War didn’t scare me at all – and was actually kind of a letdown

iPhone 15 Pro isn’t the gaming device I hoped it could be

Pixelmator Pro is the best way to edit PDFs on a Mac after its latest update

Sign up for the most interesting tech & entertainment news out there.