by Joelle Steele

Eidetic memory is often confused with photographic memory, but the two are not the same and both are much debated topics in the scientific community. Photographic memory is defined as being able to take a brief look at a page of text and then later recall and repeat that text without seeing it in one’s mind. Eidetic memory, on the other hand, is defined similarly but it comes with both visual and auditory memories.

I’m fairly eidetic, but not photographic. I tend to remember what things look like in books I’ve read, and sometimes I do recall specific details. I also remember things I’ve seen written on blackboards from kindergarten through college. To this day, I remember the scientific classifications (taxonomy) of Linnaeus by merely “looking” at my tenth grade science teacher’s list on the blackboard in my head. I can see everything else on the blackboard too, and can also see most of the front part of the classroom.

I can also see, with great clarity, what people and places looked like at any point in time if I was once there at that time. And, when I’m putting my grocery list together, I’m walking down the aisles of the store in my mind. And once I’m at the store, I look inside my refrigerator in my mind to see if I’m out of anything I may have forgotten to include on my list. This doesn’t always work perfectly, since despite my best efforts at picturing one of my cupboards, I once ended up with five bottles of Thai Peanut Sauce.

When I worked for a landscape contractor, he had everyone write down phone messages in a yellow paper spiral notebook. When he would be looking for a particular message and couldn’t find it, I could usually find it right away because I remembered what the page looked like and what other messages were next to it.

I think that my eidetic memory may be related to music too, but not to any musical ability. Whenever I want to memorize song lyrics, I just write them down or type them up, and then when I sing the song, I look at the typed-up lyrics in my mind.

I can also recognize the most subtle differences in a song that has been re-recorded or re-mastered. I can spot key changes, and subtle changes in how an instrument or an instrumental passage is played in the newer or different version. I think this is because I can hear a song in my head, down to its tiniest details, the way it was originally recorded. This is a totally useless ability, by the way. I can’t think of a single application for it in the real world.

When I wrote my memoirs, it was very clear to me and my family members who read them that I have a good autobiographical memory. Part of this is probably because I have been doing astrology and genealogy for many years, and both rely heavily on documenting life events. But my life events are also fully documented in my in-head calendars – see my blog about synesthesia. I can look back to any year and know what happened to me or in the world (at least what was important in the world to me). In the reverse, I can think of almost any event in my life and know what year it happened. Most of the time, this is a great thing. Other times, there are things I’d like to forget …