On Wed, 07 Oct 2015 01:54:53 -0700, Annette Taylor wrote:
Hi Tipsters: Sorry for the cross-posting; got no replies so far.
We forgive you. This time. ;-)
Student questions about auditory sensory memory:
Is there any analogous memory phenomenon for auditory stimuli
similar to the very rare but demonstrated phenomenon of photographic
memory?
First, I would not use the term "photographic memory" because
the common/popular interpretation of the term is extremely
misleading. Rather, the term "eidetic imagery" is to be preferred
for the same reasons we use the term "reinforcement" instead
of "reward" (a reinforcer is anything that maintains operant behavior;
the person/animal does not have to consider it rewarding).
Take a look at the Wikipedia Entry (NOTE: it is a starting point,
not the final word); see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidetic_memory
NOTE: Check out Joshua Foer's ref in Footnote 16. See:
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2006/04/kaavya_syndrome.single.html
Foer became a "memory athlete" which he explains in his book
"Moonwalking with Einstein".
Old Stony Brook cohort Alan Searleman wrote an article for
"Scientific American" on "Photographic Memory" and briefly
review what little evidence there is for its existence; see:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-such-a-thing-as/
Alan and Foer both point out that only one adult has ever passed
a test for what might be considered a "Photographic Memory",
as reported in Stromeyer's article on the subject "Elizabeth"
who was able to fuse two random dot ("Julesz") stereograms.
The article was originally published in "Psychology Today"
(why not? Milgram published original research there) and this
was re-published in Neisser's book "Memory Observe".
There are reasons to be skeptical about the results and "Elizabeth"
has refused to be re-tested -- the phenomenon has not be shown
to exist in any other person. For a recent (popular) evaluation, see:
http://www.medicaldaily.com/photographic-memory-hoax-science-has-never-proven-its-real-so-why-do-we-keeping-acting-it-286984
If Hugh Foley is still reading, may be he can ask what Alan's
position is these days -- Hugh's opinion would also be worthwhile.
My response to
this was that perhaps perfect pitch might be something like this?
Take a look at this blog post by a cognitive psychologist who studies
music perception for background on perfect pitch and its relationship
to eidetic/photographic memory:
http://www.psychologyofmusic.co.uk/pitchmemory.html
Is this a memory phenomenon or a perceptual capability? If one
has the perceptual ability, then one's memories would be affected
but the main work is done by the perceptual processes.
Also is there a concept related to being able to remember a sound
after only a single exposure? This might be important in learning
foreign
languages but in other sound contexts as well. I guess it's asking
about
a type of 1-shot learning (like conditioned taste aversion).
With respect to language learning, this is unlikely for a variety of
reasons:
all infants can distinguish among all phonemes but by one year of age,
they can only perceive and discriminate the phonemes that they have
been exposed. The ability to recognize phonemes in other languages
that do not appear in one's commonly used language, is not gone but
apparently stored in "permastore" and practice can "re-activate" the
ability to recognize the unused phonemes. Janet Werker has done
a lot of work in this area and she reviews the work in this are in an
Annual Review of Psychology chapter; see:
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015104
I think one distinction you might want to make clearer is whether one
is using mnemonics (Foer and many memory researchers is that this
how extraordinary memory is achieved) or one somehow is preprogrammed
to perform at memory tasks at an extraordinary level. With respect to
"perfect pitch" that seems to me to be more of a perceptual ability
in contrast to a purely memory phenomena like "eidetic imagery".
How does the activity of the hippocampus specifically affect memory in
people
with auditory and visual impairments? Is the auditory input necessary
for a
complete visual memory? Do auditory and visual inputs coalesce to make
a
complete memory or are the two somewhat distinct?
I think this goes far afield from the original topic and can
investigated in
its own right (i.e., independently of eidetic imagery or perfect pitch)
but
I'll let others address these points.
-Mike Palij
New York University
[email protected]
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