The conclusions are expected, however it is nice to have experimental confirmation. Now we just need to figure out what are they doing differently to enable such phenomenal recall.
"We investigated recall of recent and remote, predominantly routine, events in HSAMs and controls. Interestingly, HSAMs and controls recall the same amount of information when tested within a few days (up to a week). Beyond this, HSAM participants forget autobiographical details at a far slower rate than do age- and sex-matched controls. Furthermore, in comparison with controls, HSAM participants maintain more richly detailed recollections and their forgetting curve for autobiographical memory is shallow, which should come as no surprise given the nature of their memory (LePort et al., 2012). The data here suggest that HSAMs are not better than controls in acquiring information. However, they are far superior at retaining information."
> are not better than controls in acquiring information
My earliest memory is 2 weeks after 4 (I am now 31). I can remember it down to the most intricate detail. I cannot for the life of me remember the tasks I am looking at this sprint (which is why I write them down). Memories seemingly become more accessible the more time has passed; facts too, I can recall the vast majority of my high school syllabus despite being someone who a solid C-grade student.
This is the first time hearing about HSAMs, but based on personal experience I would posit that it has more to do with how memories are accessed, not how they are stored.
2. there’s actually no such thing as “read-only” from our memory. it’s closer to “read and then rewrite.” so, it can change over time and often become less accurate the more you access memories.
> For post-1953 information he was able to modify old memories with new information. For instance, he could add a memory about Jonas Salk by modifying his memory of polio.
Additionally, the surgery he had, caused him to have a very... unique neurological structure. I'd hesitate to generalize his experiences directly that way.
> Now we just need to figure out what are they doing differently to enable such phenomenal recall.
The feat can be reproduced by a trained memorizer. I would be very surprised if people with HSAM are not regularly reviewing events in some way.
From a different source:
> People with HSAM tend to obsess over events (even mundane ones) more than the average person. They ruminate over what happened during the day and organize everything in their minds over and over again.
> In fact, they often report “habitually recalling their memories, a seemingly compulsive tendency,” noted Aurora K.R. LePort and her colleagues. “Every night before bed one participant recalls what occurred on that day X number of years ago. Another recalls, while stuck in traffic, as many days as possible from a certain year.”
Sounds very suspicious that people were able to name day of the week for random dates 15+ years ago when most days that pass one has no reason to associate the date and day of week. Makes me wonder about the individuals participating in this study, their incentives to get an official high memory credential, and whether they learned a formula for calculating days of the week.
There was a 60 minutes episode interviewing 6 SAMs[1]. They're tested with random historical events happening back a
few decades, some fairly mundane such as weather patterns -
---
"Let's move back in time now to 1990. It rained on several days in January and February, can you name the dates on which it rained?" McGaugh asked.
Believe it or not, she could.
"Let's see. It was slightly rainy and cloudy on January 14th, 15th. It was very hot the weekend of the 27th, 28th, no rain," she replied.
We checked the official weather records and she was right.
I am the exact opposite of someone with hsam. I forget things constantly, and often have to fake my way through conversations like "do you remember when we..". I feel like I'm a totally different person from who I was 10 years ago, because I remember almost nothing from that time. I try not to get into arguments because I just have to take the other person's word that events happened like they said.
My adult son, who has serious leanring disabilities (cannot read, only do basic math with number up to 20), seems to have an above average memory for certain autobiographic details, such as who he was with on a certain date. But I don't think it is in the order of HSAM.
This college student I dated: the sex was great but she also had some quirks (and other thigs). One quirk was crazy, verbatim ABM. Good luck debating someone with a “CCTV footage” memory.
"We investigated recall of recent and remote, predominantly routine, events in HSAMs and controls. Interestingly, HSAMs and controls recall the same amount of information when tested within a few days (up to a week). Beyond this, HSAM participants forget autobiographical details at a far slower rate than do age- and sex-matched controls. Furthermore, in comparison with controls, HSAM participants maintain more richly detailed recollections and their forgetting curve for autobiographical memory is shallow, which should come as no surprise given the nature of their memory (LePort et al., 2012). The data here suggest that HSAMs are not better than controls in acquiring information. However, they are far superior at retaining information."