|
Top headlines
Lead story
Hollywood loves a photographic memory. You can see how it can be a great plot device. “The idea of photographic memory is simple and powerful,” writes College of Charleston psychology researcher Gabrielle Principe. “Experience is captured objectively, stored completely and retrieved perfectly. See it once, keep it forever.”
There’s one tiny hitch: Photographic memories are fictional. They don’t exist outside of all the movies, shows and books that lean on the idea that human memory works just like a camera.
Instead, memory is a reconstructive process. You’re not just accessing pristine slices of your past when you remember something. “The search cues you use; your present knowledge, attitudes and goals; and your current state of mind or mood” all influence what you recollect, writes Principe. She explains why that’s a good thing – and suggests you should let yourself off the hook when your memory doesn’t provide you with perfect total recall.
[ Sign up for our weekly Global Economy & Business newsletter, with expert perspectives from around the world. ]
|
Your memory is not a camera.
F.J. Jimenez/Moment via Getty Images
Gabrielle Principe, College of Charleston
Hollywood loves a character who has the perfect total recall of a photographic memory. But this idea is a fantasy. It’s not how memory works – for good reason.
|
