Is there any specific ways or practice techniques to develop a photographic memory. One of my friends has a photographic memory that I didn't know about until today. I was literally blown away. He could recite word for word book and information he had learned from the FIFTH GRADE. This is amazing, and if there is ayway to develop it...I want it.

-Tully-

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Originally posted by Tully12M:
This is amazing, and if there is ayway to develop it...I want it.

-Tully-

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Me too.

Can he remember word for word a book he read last week?

There are techniques memorise a book. Tony Buzan in his book Use Your Memory ISBN 0563 20813 9 (paperback) page 173-174 gives a brief how to memorise a book using the techniques to memorise stuff explained in the rest of the book.

Alex

I imagine that if h can remember a book he read from 5th grade that he could remember one from last week. And his intlligece is completely effortless, he never used techniques from a book, he was just born with it. He scored a 28 on his ACT in the 6th grade, has taken AP classes n middle school,and if he neve moved would have graduated as a sophomore. CRAZY.

-TULLY-

Scored 28 on his ACT in grade 6.
I did not think you could take the ACT until at least, grade 9

I can remember word for word a book I read in the 1st grade. I never re read my class notes and have a pretty good memory for most stuff that I read and I'm glad I don't remember the later books word for word. It would slow me down.

I love photoreading books. I find it much more interesting that someone can post a question asking if it's possible to learn to memorise a whole book and I know exactly which book I photoread the information in.

No I hadn't activated the Tony Buzan Book I only photoread it 4 weeks ago. When you asked I went straight to the book opened the page and confirmed that the book had a method for memorising an entire book. I know the method intuitively. You wind up with an anchorword for each page number then you use a link system for each paragraph. I think its faster just knowing which book has the information you want and grabbing it when you need to get it exactly right is much faster

Alex

Some people are invited to take the test early, and they don't count, they are just invited to see how they do.

If your friend really has photographic memory, we should document it because the last time I check there were only 3 individuals with Photographic memory in the world. One of them was from Asia and the other from Italy. The only problem with these individuals was that they had a very low IQ.

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Originally posted by Tully12M:
Some people are invited to take the test early, and they don't count, they are just invited to see how they do.

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A photographic memory has been shown to be very common amongst small children. I seems they hold a photographic image of their experiences until they can understand/deal with them. Once they start intergrating their experiences into their life their memory becomes more fluid and less photographic.

The reason we don't have a photographic (eidetic) memory as we get older is that we keep adding/linking to our existing memories to build our understanding. Our memories are excellent we just used them to build up our information banks.

Alex

Duke College offers a scholarship program for middle school students who do well on their SAT scores, they take the SAT with seniors and juniors in highschool and there is a big seremony when the scores come back. I was invited to this, but I fell far short of your friend.

[This message has been edited by Mastermind (edited October 28, 2002).]

I have to meorize the whole To Be or not to be speech in Hamlet by next week, any tips would be nice if you have some.

-Tully-

Tony Buzan's book suggest rather than learning line for line you

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read and reread quickly... and with understanding over a period of four days, approximately five to ten times per day. If you read for understanding continually in this way, you will become far more familiar with the material than you realise at the end of the twentieth reading, and you will be able to recall, without looking at the text, most of the material to be remembered.

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He further suggest you use your imagination to understand (that is use your imagination while reading). Use key words to help you fill in the gaps, chain them in their order to help you to remember.

I don't know how familiar you are with peg systems for memory so I don't know if you can put all of the above information to use. Let us know and we can explain it further.

Alex

Hey I totally believe that you can develop a photographic memory! But I think that you would have to be patient and practice your memory.
If you use all the techniques in the memory books and practice them over and over again I bet you would come close to a photographic memory...

i also think its possible, but nobody has developed a system for gaining a photographic memory. if someone made a system of how to practice certain things, i think that developement and refinement of the system would yield an effective program for getting a photographic memory.

What would be the purpose of the photographic memory? Why would one want to gain such a.. skill?

Yes, it would help a piece in studying, but I think it's better to understand the material...

The cool thing is that when you see a movie, you can watch it anytime, anywhere, over and over and over again

We already have a photographic memory. We just keep cutting up the pictures to make bigger and better pictures.

Alex

I am going to have to go get The Memory Book. How is use both sides of your brain Alex? Do they all say pretty much the same thing?

-Tully-

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The only problem with these individuals was that they had a very low IQ.

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And what does IQ determine?

Your common sense. I think IQ tests are BS. My psychology teacher brought up that fact, he had us take 3 separate IQ tests, 1 I scored genius, 1 very low and 1 medium. I took a couple of the online ones too but they really don't measure your intelligence as far as I can see, only your common sense.

Use both sides of your brain by Tony Buzan? I'll have to locate it and get back to you on that. He refers to it in the memory book... talking about mind mapping. Let you know as soon as I've read it

Alex

Use Both Sides of Your Brain by Tony Buzan (also sold as Use Your Head).

Excellent all round book for student wanting to get a grasp of mind mapping and memory. It also gives a brief run down on speed reading. Half the book goes into mind mapping very few illustrations though making it rather wordy. That is it explains mind mapping in some detail. If you got the mind map book by him then this book will be redundant. It gives a brief 'how to' in the memory area. Yet goes into some detail on how long things last in your memory peak recall etc. Devoting 2 chapters to that. Seems only 2 memory techniques are covered in this book.

More about memory is covered in his book Use your Memory This books also has exercises you can play with and it works you through progressively helping you build your skills as you go.

If you're looking for a book on memory I think you'll find Use Both Sides of Your Brain a bit disappointing. Its more about using mind mapping for learning.

A book by Robert Finkel Memory Booster Easy techniques for rapid learning and a better memory 1993 ISBN 0-7499-1160-3 (pbk) has an interesting chapter on memorising chemical structures. Also has a technique for memorising during class so that you don't have to take notes during a class. He also explains memorising a magazine page for page. In effect he doesn't memorise it word for word he learns the content of it, page for page. A technique that could be applied to books.

Another good author of memory books is Harry Loraine. He's taught techniques for memorising scripts and presntations. It looks like he's written a new one for students. I suggest you have a look at amazon.com search his name. Have a look at the content exerpts if they are available.

Alex