Does photographic memory exist?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most people are great at remembering key points from important events in their lives, while the finer details - such as the colour of the table cloth in your favourite restaurant or the song playing on the radio while you brushed your teeth - are forgotten. But some people seem to have the power to remember events, documents or landscapes with almost perfect recall, which is widely referred to as having a photographic memory.

Crowdscience listeners Tracy and Michael want to know if photographic memory actually exists and if not, what are the memory processes that allow people to remember certain details so much better than others?

Putting her own memory skills to the test along the way, presenter Marnie Chesterton sets out to investigate just what’s happening inside our brains when we use our memories, the importance of being able to forget and why some people have better memories than others.

Produced by Hannah Fisher and presented by Marnie Chesterton for the BBC World Service.

Contributors: Stephen Wiltshire Annette Wiltshire Dr Farahnaz Wick Professor Craig Stark

[Image credit: Getty Images]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of
0:07.0	Happiness Podcast.
0:08.0	For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want
0:14.4	to share that science with you.
0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
0:25.5	calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:32.1	I had this secret I robbed banks in my spare time lives less ordinary from the BBC
0:40.0	World Service this is not a good thing to do because police are after you.
0:46.1	Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:49.8	Shall I start now? Yes, ready, say, go.
0:53.0	Welcome to Crowd Science.
1:00.0	And you're listening to me, Marnie Chesterton, sat next to artist Stephen Wiltshire.
1:05.0	And we're playing a little game.
1:08.0	We both have to draw New York's iconic Empire State Building.
1:12.8	Now, sadly, we are not traveling to New York to do this.
1:19.0	We're in Stephen's studio in London, but we have both visited said skyscraper before, so we're relying
1:27.1	on our memories of it. And it's safe to say mine is not going as well as his.
1:31.9	I'm basically drawing a three-tier wedding cake.
1:35.0	As we draw, we're surrounded by Stephen's artwork,
1:40.0	these incredibly detailed drawings of cityscapes.
1:43.2	They're kind of Stephen's calling card.
	...

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