Apparently she has always naturally been able to read through anything at a regular (slightly faster than average) pace of about 300wpm and memorize it word-for-word, and apparently be able to recall it years later just as easily.
Her memory isn’t spectacular in any other way or for any other type of information. She claims to not have synesthesia or anything like that and doesn’t know why she is able to do this.
I have read stories of people like John Von Neumann who are said to have had the same ability to remember books permanently and verbatim without effort. I just want help brainstorming what could make this possible.
I think that she has ability to strongly visualize letters and words. For most of people is hard to imagine one long word perfectly(I mean with all letters at once). Try to visualize a word ‘synesthesia’, the whole word as single image.
This girl see this, 10 times clearer and faster. She has problems with other alphabets, because she isn’t used to it. Her ability could be developed in the childhood. She used to read a lot in the young age, therefore her ‘word imagination’ had much time to improve.
I also believe, that she subconciously imagine sentences, in a different backgrounds. It would be real places as well as imagined. She kind of write in the images in her mind. It’s how people remember informations, however the most of them is not aware of it.
But there is one important condition for this type of recall. It requires absolute focus on reading.
Hmmmm…not sure if I’m buying it. She’d smoke the poetry event at the USA Memory Championship, if her powers are real. It’d be fun to see her tested under scrutiny.
I would also be willing to pay for her to be tested. ASSUMING she’s actually telling the truth, I’d pay for the studies, get everything set up, etc… Things like fMRI before, during and after reading something. Then during recall of previously read material.
This whole idea has made me hypothesize ways that something like this could be possible. I have read that emotional memories are permanent in some ways, and often times get stronger after a delay. Whereas most other memories degrade rapidly. When I studied biology, I tried so very hard to remember simple facts, and most I would forget. It was a struggle. Yet I can easily remember all about the p16 and p52 genes, and their functions. As well as Nav1.7, and the protein CD47. I only read a couple of articles about those things, yet I remember them vividly and easily because each one produced a sort of excitement in me about their theoretical possibilities. This girl claims not to have any conscious form of synesthesia, and that only the roman alphabet produces this ability for her. So perhaps her brain processes letters and groups of letters much more deeply and emotionally than a normal person for whatever reason. Just a thought…
She claims she doesn’t “visualize” the material, and just remembers it based on the ideas. So again, IF she’s telling the truth, something else must be going on here. And I would love to know what that is. I know Kim Peek was able to remember 98% to 99% of what he read permanently after one reading, and he read MANY many times faster than this girl. It’s not hard to believe that it is possible for our brains to read, comprehend and permanently retain 100% of the material we present to it at a steady enough pace.
Is there any evidence about that other than anecdotal stories? I haven’t seen any cases of verified photographic memory yet, and I’ve been searching for years.
His amazing memory has been confirmed, though probably not “photographic”… I don’t think his amazing memory was well understood, but it was definitely real. People could ask him random facts about almost anything, and as long as one of the books he read in his lifetime contained the answer he would respond immediately. People liked to call him “Kimputer.” Almost every known savant ability, he seemed to possess. Though he couldn’t dress himself, as is the case with most idiot savants.
I wish he were studied more while he was alive. Scientists mapped his brain with MRIs and things. But I don’t think anyone ever performed something like fMRI while he was memorizing stuff. I would love to see what brain areas and connections are responsible for such an incredible memory.
Hopefully a legit researcher (or research group) will contact her and do a genuine experiment that’s then published in a peer reviewed journal then followed by confirmation experiments by others. It’s interesting, but I’m naturally skeptical and dismissive until it’s vetted through normal scientific procedures.
I know someone who reads slowly and with difficulty, but often (perhaps not always) remains able to more or less quote long passages from memory (nobody has tested him, thoughl). Interestingly, he has almost no visual memory and can’t easily associate objects with words, nor can he remember the meanings of certain nouns in his languages because he can’t link them with physical things or fully understand. He claims sounds have personalities (or something like that - I never fully understood what he meant) and I suspect he is remembering the sounds of words he reads because of this association, like a kind of synesthesia. He forgets physical things a lot, though, like his shoes or telephone. Although I suspect it is partly a matter of attention.
I’m not sure if I believe fully this story about the girl, but I can imagine something similar to what my friend does (more or less being able to quote from memory but not perfectly, reading slowly but intensely).
