What does it mean when you can remember everything you read?
They have a condition called hyperthymesia syndrome. This is often referred to as highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM).
Eidetic memory (/aɪˈdɛtɪk/ eye-DET-ik; more commonly called photographic memory or total recall) is the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision—at least for a brief period of time—after seeing it only once and without using a mnemonic device.
Eidetic memory is the ability to recall an image or page in a book, even if you were only exposed to it for a very short amount of time. Moreover, this type of visual memory may be able to be recalled at any time, for many years. In other words, a person will be able to recall a past scene at any time.
People with hyperthymesia can recall almost every day of their lives in near perfect detail, as well as public events that are personally significant.
Photographic memory is often confused with another bizarre—but real—perceptual phenomenon called eidetic memory, which occurs in between 2 and 15 percent of children and very rarely in adults. An eidetic image is essentially a vivid afterimage that lingers in the mind's eye for up to a few minutes before fading away.
Eidetic memory is the ability to recall an image for a brief period of time with high precision, while photographic memory is the ability to recall an image for a much longer period with high precision. Thus, this is the key difference between eidetic memory and photographic memory.
This rare condition also known as highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) causes people to remember just about everything that has occurred in their life.
About Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
A common manifestation of OCD is repeating obsessions, or doing the same thing over and over again. For example, re-reading the same passage in a book again and again.
This 'memory paradox' — that the absence of memory or the inability to recall memories properly in an emotional context leads to dysfunction, but that memories that generate too much emotion can also be disabling — was the subject of the Neuroscience & Cognition Dialogue between Richard Morris and Rachel Yehuda held ...
The main forms of memory presented include sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
What is kinesthetic memory?
“Kinesthetic memory” or “muscle memory” for the automatic movements involved in throwing a ball, dancing, swimming, steering a vehicle, typing, or signing one's name is procedural memory. Procedural memory can also be involved in non-motor procedures that involve habitual responses, as when one plays a familiar game.
Photographic memory is the ability to recall a past scene in detail with great accuracy – just like a photo.

Individuals may encode information to semantic memory through pictures or reading words and numbers, by repeatedly hearing the information, or by connecting the information to something else that has meaning in the memory.
Paramnesia: Distort or erase the memories of yourself or others, so that one can believe fantasies or lies without giving off cerebral implications of deception.
- Long-Term Memory. Long-term memory is our brain's system for storing, managing, and retrieving information. ...
- Short-Term Memory. ...
- Explicit Memory. ...
- Implicit Memory. ...
- Autobiographical Memory. ...
- Memory & Morpheus.
The mind is adept at processing and storing important visual information. While most people are able to recount specific parts of the things they see, those with photographic memory claim to permanently remember entire scenes with great detail.
Highly superior autobiographical memory is thought to be very rare. As of the mid-2010s, according to an expert report, fewer than 100 people with highly superior autobiographical memory ability had been found.
Nikola Tesla also is claimed to have possessed photographic memory. Arturo Toscanini, an Italian conductor. It was estimated that by the end of his career he had memorized over 200 symphonies and up to 100 operas.
A eidetic memory is about as close to the superpower of total memory recall as humans can go. It can go by other names such as a photographic memory or an enhanced memory, but scientists and eidetic memory holders alike find it hard to come up with one rule to suit all.
The thing is, while some people are blessed with a naturally impressive memory, the true memory experts are made, not born.
What is the closest thing to photographic memory?
In the scientific literature, the term eidetic imagery comes closest to what is popularly called photographic memory. The most common way to identify eidetikers (as people with eidetic imagery are often called) is by the Picture Elicitation Method.
EIDETIC MEMORY IN adults is very rare and thought to be inherited. Although sometimes referred to as 'photographic memory', this term is inaccurate because human brains are not like cameras and eidetic images are not really like photographs.
Studies have also found that the average person's response to traumatic stress grows and intensifies over time, almost as if the symptoms are feeding themselves. As a result, trauma sufferers tend to “over remember” more details of trauma than what actually occurred.
False memories can be a form of obsessive thinking. Someone experiencing false memory OCD may suffer from doubts about their ability to accurately recall events. They may wonder if they did something wrong, even when there's no evidence of that being the case.
People with hyperphantasia have a heightened ability to visualize images. It affects about 2.5% of the population.
Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Also called a reading disability, dyslexia is a result of individual differences in areas of the brain that process language.
Some of the more common ones include having to read a word, sentence, or paragraph multiple times before continuing on. This could be as mild as having to reread the last word of every page, to something as severe as having to reread a particular sentence over and over for hours.
- Problems sounding out words.
- Difficulty recognizing sounds and the letters that make up those sounds.
- Poor spelling.
- Slow reading.
- Problems reading out loud with correct expression.
- Problems understanding what was just read.
1. a seemingly contradictory or absurd statement that expresses a possible truth. 2. a self-contradictory and false proposition.
Epistemic paradoxes are riddles that turn on the concept of knowledge (episteme is Greek for knowledge). Typically, there are conflicting, well-credentialed answers to these questions (or pseudo-questions). Thus the riddle immediately poses an inconsistency.
What is paradoxical cognition?
Paradoxical cognition, defined as “managerial frames and processes that recognize and embrace contradiction” (Smith & Tushman, 2005, p. 523), enables managers to consistently shift attention between differentiating and integrating practices (Smith & Lewis, 2011).
Memory. Dyslexia can affect short term memory, so your partner may forget a conversation, a task they have promised to do, or important dates. They may also struggle to remember the names of people they have met or how to get to places they have visited before.
After reading, you may find it almost impossible to retain the information acquired. It may be due to lack of adequate sleep and rest, distractions while reading, poor nutrition, failure to choose the right book, or memory issues such as decay or shallow processing.
- Filter Your Reading. There are no rules when it comes to choosing books. ...
- Get Some Context. ...
- Know Your Why. ...
- Take Notes. ...
- Stay Focused. ...
- Mark Up the Book. ...
- Build a Vivid Mental Picture. ...
- Make Mental Links.