One of the major characteristics of autism is delayed language and communication development. This is consistent with evidence suggesting that eidetic memory is more frequent in people with mental disabilities, such as autism. Therefore, young and old populations are probably more likely to concentrate on visual details and less likely to verbalize while studying an image. Geriatric populations may also revert back to a similar approach as children, as the language centers in their brains begin to deteriorate. While adults utilize abstract linguistic thought – and often have a hard time repressing this – children depend on visual stimuli while interacting with their surroundings. Therefore, it is plausible that the variation in frequency of eidetic imagery is due to dependence on linguistic ability. The tendency of eidetic memory to manifest in young and old populations is particularly interesting in light of research indicating that verbalization during the time that a person studies the original image interferes with eidetic image formation. Additionally, geriatric populations also demonstrate a higher frequency of eidetic imagery. A study by Ralph Haber in 1964 screened 500 elementary school-age children and found that as many as 50% of children possess eidetic memory (la Brecque, 1972). However, research indicates that 2-15% of children possess eidetic memory. Therefore, eidetic images are not literally “photographic” representations of images, as implied by the popular term photographic memory.Įidetic memory is extremely rare in the adult population. Searleman (2007) describes that eidetic images can be influenced by cognitive biases and expectations.
People with eidetic memory may alter physical features of an image or invent details during recall. As with all forms of memory, eidetic images are a construction of reality. However, an eidetic image is not unflawed. Once an eidetic image has faded away, it can rarely – arguably never – be retrieved.
Eidetic images usually fade away involuntarily after a few minutes, and the image is lost upon blinking. Thus, an eidetic image is not simply an afterimage, which usually moves and is often different in color from the original image. As described by Searleman (2007), a true eidetic image does not move when one moves their eyes. People with eidetic memory are able to reproduce a previously viewed image in their mind, maintaining general physical qualities such as spatial organization, color, and texture. This differs slightly from eidetic memory. The popular term photographic memory refers to the ability to capture and store an exact replicate of an image (like a photograph) in one’s brain and perfectly recall the image at a later time point.
0 kommentar(er)
