Photographic Memory: Does it exist?

This article from Psychology today struck me. We have started to discuss the Memory chapter in class lately. This article is about 'photographic' memory and what it is and whether it exists. I was quite interested in this article because I had a teacher my sophomore year (who has since retired) that claimed to have a photographic memory, and she seemed very credible. She could pick up a book she had never read, glance at a page, and recall what happened. (Wow, what a talent!). It made for her to be a very fast reader.

This article makes the claim "It's impossible to recover images with perfect accuracy. The myth of photographic memory". That is interesting and I wonder if it works the same way for images with text on them or not. While the article does not acknowledge photographic memory, it says that memory that comes very close is "eidetic memory". Good eidetic memory is something people are born with, it can not be learned. After staring at a picture for 30 seconds, people with a good sense of eidetic memory can remember the image with very great detail. Still, even for seasoned eidetikers, their reports may contain flaws and the vivid memory only lasts a few minutes. Children have a very good eidetic memory that seems to fade over time. This might explain why children have a very keen sense for detail.

So, was my teacher a fraud? Well I'd like to hope not. I bought into it. Maybe she never lost her "eidetic memory" that she had as a child. I think it'd be very interesting to get inside her mind.

Cry baby

No parent likes to see their child sad or to hear them cry, but how should they deal with it? If a parent gives their crying child a cookie, will they stop crying? This video suggests otherwise. This child, after receiving their cookie, starts to fake cry in hopes of getting another cookie from his mother. This is an example of positive reinforcement, something we learned about in class today. Positive reinforcement is part of B.F. Skinner's Operant Conditioning theory. The behavior (crying) will increase because a stimulus (cookie) is added. It is somewhat confusing because crying doesn't sound positive, but you can't exactly think of it that way. This mom has gotten herself into a pickle by rewarding a behavior that I'm sure she does not want to continue because as I said before, no one wants to see their child sad.