Man's rare ability may unlock secret of memory

Man's rare ability may unlock secret of memory

www.cnn.com

Williams is one of only three people in the world identified with this off-the-charts autobiographical memory, according to researchers at the University of California-Irvine who gave the condition its name: hyperthymestic syndrome, from the Greek words for excessive (hyper) and remembering (thymesis).

Unlike most people whose memories fade with time, much of Williams' life is etched indelibly in his mind.

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Traumatic Memory Suppression
Spontaneous Past-life Memory.

Wow, imagine the use for criminal proceedings or 9/11. People could tell all of the details related to that event. I bet more people have this ability but don't want to share, for fear of being a science experiment.

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I'm surprised there have not been any posts to this thread yet.

There are many texts that have been published that assist people with improving memory and recall. Tony Buzan has written many.

My own memory is near perfect, it's recall that is sometimes a struggle - sometimes I can read text from a mental image of a page yet othertimes I can't. When I'm drunk, I recall events, images, conversations et al much more easily than when I'm sober. Ask me when sober to recall a conversation had while totally drunk and I might struggle but get me drunk again and I'll remember every detail from the drinks that were drank to the intonation and pronunciation of every word in every conversation.

Ever noticed how when you're having a heated argument you can recall events and conversations from events that p*ssed you off which ordinarily you would not remember?

From a subjective viewpoint, memory and recall are very much related to the senses: if your body is positioned closely to the position posed during occurrence and the mind is in a similar state (emotional etc..) then recall seems to be easier. Try to recall how to drive a car or ride a bicycle (run through the physical actions mentally) whilst stood then try it whilst positioned as you would perform the physical action. Which did you find easier?

A Good aid to memory (remembrance and recall) is to set a mood during learning, relate that mood to the presence of a learning aid/prop (a stone/pebble, fragrance, pendent et alia) and to concentrate on that prop/aid during recall. It helps.

Meditation assists memory and mental acuity via placing the mental state at a constant flow (hope that makes sense).

Perhaps Williams has a mental constancy and an ability to mentally recalibrate his senses to their state during occurrence which enables him to recall occurrences.

Nice find.

Edited for clarity.

[edit on 17/5/08 by Rapacity]

Originally posted by Rapacity


From a subjective viewpoint, memory and recall are very much related to the senses: if your body is positioned closely to the position posed during occurrence and the mind is in a similar state (emotional etc..) then recall seems to be easier. Try to recall how to drive a car or ride a bicycle (run through the physical actions mentally) whilst stood then try it whilst positioned as you would perform the physical action. Which did you find easier?

There's something to this.....My Grandmother had taught me to crochet years ago. When I wanted to start again a few years back, I could not 'remember' how to do it.....but I picked up the crochet hook and by handling it and the yarn, after a few minutes it seemed that my hands remembered the correct positions and movements, with out much help from my 'conscious' brain!