Around 10 % of children are born with photographic memories; and about 1 in ten of them will hold that “photographic” capacity up to age 10. As the brain matures, it integrates its reliance on memory with crucial and analytic faculties that promote recall of important info and foster rejection of trivia. You can’t literally create what cognitive psychologists characterize as “photographic” memory—the capability to recall information, texts, landscapes, and situations with 100% accuracy in each and every detail. You are able to, however, use the attributes of a photographic memory to enhance your recall of factual information, so that you perform much better in business presentations or tests in school.
Naturally, visualization offers the key. Association cements the link.
As you study for a test or prepare for a presentation, develop a network of pictures that helps you visualize the most essential info. Psychologists refer to these pictures as “mnemonic devices”—named after the Greek word for memory. People who seem to dazzle with their wealth of factual knowledge generally have developed big, diverse repertoires of mnemonic devices, among which visualization remains most important. Masters of memory link their visual pictures with sounds, and they recite the substance of their images aloud, so that they see and hear crucial info as they practice it.
Synaesthesia is your greatest mnemonic device.
“Synaesthesia” refers to deliberate combination of sights and sounds. “Babbling brook,” for example, imitates the sound of running water, to ensure that most individuals, when challenged, will agree, “Yes, brooks babble.” In literature, we refer to that kind of synaesthetic imagery as “onomatopoeia”—words that imitate the sounds they represent. In psychology, scientists emphasize the power of onomatopoeia on memory. Very technically, a mnemonic device require not make sense or stand alone as long as it “encodes” the information in a memorable way. To ensure that you can remember the proper spelling of “California,” one fourth grader drew a picture of herself, her sister, and a box marked “NIA,” adding the phrase, “See Ali for NIA.” Simply because her sister goes by “Allie,” the student usually can remember the correct spelling of her house state, nonsense or not.
The mixture of visual imagery and sound makes practice more productive. Developing a strong memory requires constant exercise; and, despite the fact that efficient exercise requires attention to detail and nuance, practice ought to include heavy doses from the fun factor. Working with funny images and silly sayings, you improve your chances of remembering difficult or elusive information. An elementary school teacher introducing figures of speech in literature wrote the word “speech” in the shape of an “8,” signifying the a figure-8. Then, as she introduced simile and metaphor, she repeatedly asked her students, “What do we call these?” and she pointed to the figure. She similarly reinforced the definition of simile by repeating, “A simile is like a smile,” showing a picture of the word “simile” written inside a grin. By the end of an hour, students had learned five typical figures of speech and also the correct literary term for classifying them all.
Written by: Photographic Memory
