Made me curious as to what they used to say and looked it up: "eidetic memory"
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2025
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I checked the comments just to make sure someone mentioned eidetic memory.
The "um achually" approach is to point out that "eidetic" is actually the correct term and that "photographic" is a colloquialism.
Let me offer you the real "um achtually": books were a thing. A literary memory would be a colloquial equivalence to photographic.
First recorded in 1920–25; from Greek eidētikós, equivalent to eîd(os) eidos + -ētikos -etic
— Dictionary.com
So this word is actually younger than the camera it seems like.
I can never remember that word. Sure makes it awkward in conversation: "I have one of idiomatic memories or whatever, can't remember what it's called."
If you had a photographic memory, you could just remember the spelling
Yes, that's the joke.
No it's not. It references the fact that photography wasn't a thing yet.
Yes, the original post is about that. I was making a joke about bragging about having a photographic memory but forgetting the word.
O yea true I got lost. Weird since I'm magnetorientatological.
I'm so happy you looked it up. Now I can see how it's spelled. Also, I'm pretty sure I was mispronouncing it.
Nope, after googling, I think I had invented a word that didn't exist. I thought it was didetic.
Interesting I never thought about why there are two terms for it.
As an aphantastic person I am on the opposite end I guess.¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hey now you are still a phantastic person!
Hehe, nice. Haven’t heard that one before.
Never heard of this before, and it's a pretty cool topic to delve into. I also stumbled upon hyperphantasia which sounds absolutely incredible. Imagination so vivid it's basically like real seeing.
"It's better than sex!"
You can still have an eidedic memory (as mentioned by Brenstar).
A photographic memory is just a perfect visual memory.
I tried training it once. It didn't go well. It turns out I'm mostly aphantastic as well. I can still have fully visualised dreams however, which is always odd.
Ted Ed recently made a video on it and they cover how dreaming could worl. I would summarise it... but I zoned out in that part of the video
Hyperthymesia is the medical term
An overactive hypothalamus which holds onto all memories in an obsessive manner regardless of their relevancy or emotional content, cooperating with the hippocampus.
If the brain were a person, a hyperthymesic brain has OCD.
I would know, I have one.
The name of the Buy Mode music of the 2001 Life Simulation Game The Sims is named "Mall Rat" by Jerry Martin.
:)
Hyperthymesia seems to be more autobiographical, rather than a total recall of memory.
That wiki page goes on to explain an example of someone who could perfectly remember a specific day in their past, but were unable to recall what their interviewers were wearing after spending a day with them.