Why does my memory work so well in one way but not any other

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I have a great visual memory for where random object are located. I am able to find needles in haystacks...provided I have seen the needle before...but I am good at finding stuff in general...even if I have not seen where where objects were...because I have a good intuition for that sort of thing..


That is where my memory talents STOP..

I am awful with names and faces and things i hear and things I read...for the most part...just awful...

I sometimes worry about losing the one little part of my memory that is good for anything

What often happens if we have a weakness in one area, we compensate in another, you sound a lot like me, I am more visual, but this partly because I also have dyslexia among other neurological differences... I do seem to have a heighten sense like you, at times I just seem to know things, but like you also "I am awful with names and faces and things i hear..." with me I have found process better if in quite space no distractions and people wise one on one works for me better, more than that often sensory overload.... over process, iys like I almost take in to much information all at once...

JOIN THE CLUB! I'm the same way. I USED to be able to scan a room to some degree like I can scan a book now, and be able to find almost anything.

I STILL remember a fair amount about things that have been misplaced, etc,.,

Unfortunately, remembering lists of items is often harder.

I have similar memory problems. I have to tell people that if they cut their hair I will not recognize them, because it's true. People who don't have pronounced unique features on their face will fall from my memory faster than anything, yet if they keep their hair the same style and color, I know exactly who they are.

I'm good at finding some things, though I often have a blind spot that took some working to get past. When it comes to word memory, I can remember it sometimes, but for a very short time. My verbal memory works best when I mix it with visual memory.

Right now it is working to my disadvantage....I have in my mind's eye a small set of headphones in a plastic bag, but I did not memorize where I saw them...only that I saw them and I have spent the last couple of hours obsessively trying to find them...when it could have just been my imagination. If I can't find something when or where i expect to find it it will haunt me to no end....rawwrr!! !

...ok...i found them...it wasn't my imagination...not exactly what I visualized...but I found a pair of headphones..not sure if these are the ones I saw though.

i've never been able to remember faces. even those of family members are a bit fuzzy i my memory. i think it's because i try very hard not to look at people and i don't like remembering people's eyes looking at me. so i often don't know or remember someone's eye color.

my long term memory is otherwise great. i remember stuff all the way back to age one. unfortunately most of the stuff i remember is bad stuff but that's still better than my short term memory. i'd have to think for quite a while before i could come up with what i did earlier today, or yesterday.

I am terrible with names.

I can remember zillions of other facts. I can tell you the plot of books I read many years ago but I can't remember the characters names.

I can't remember the names of people I worked with years ago even though I might have worked at a job for several years.

My memory for faces is very poor. I've missed my own brother while waiting for him at a train station. I remember standing on a bench, anxiously scanning the crowd, when he was standing, tapping his foot, look right at me. I am constantly walking past people, who think I'm rude for not greeting them.

My memory for linguistics is exceptional, but many other areas my memory lets me down... for example, I forget birthdays, including my own, on a regular basis. One new year it was three days before I realised what day it was. Dates don't matter to me. It makes people think I'm rude. But I can't help it... not only does dating mean nothing to me, I can't remember numbers anyway. I can't remember my own phone number, no matter how hard I try.

You might be interested in these pages about Prosopagnosia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia

http://www.prosopagnosia.com/

I find that my short term memory is bad, and too many tasks mean I forget things. But if some information gets through my head and I learn it, I don't tend to forget.

With the faces, I may or may not get that too. It means I stare at strangers who have similar features, hair or dress sense trying to see if it's someone I used to know! I don't think it's extreme though. I used to be able to identify bullies to teachers later by remembering piecemeal things like shape of nose, colours of eyes, direction of hair growth etc.
Sometimes my own face looks a little unfamiliar to me.

A different sensory organ passing sensory information through a different series of neural pathways to be encoded in a different area of memory. The only common thing amongst the different forms of memory is that they are memory and they share a common time coding system to coordinate them. There is no real reason why they shouldn't be different. I have 5 strong senses with 5 strong memory abilities backing them up, and experience vivid hallucinations from all of them on a constant basis. Sitting here at my computer I can "see" through my monitor and through the wall behind it and look at my bedroom on the other side, I can see where all the clothes are, I can see exactly how I left my pillow and how my blanket is and one of my copies of the Tao Te Ching sitting where it was last left, the specific angle and placement of it upon the bed, and the empty or almost empty water bottles on the floor next to my bed. I can smell the sandalwood incense that is sitting unburned in a holder next to my bed.

Ask me to do something? Unless it is couched in a sensory stimulus I'm going to have a hard time remembering to do it. If I'm supposed to be doing something at a specific time, I imprint the task on the visual experience of a particular clock displaying a time that will leave me time to do whatever preparation I need to do and then do the thing. Around that time I will hopefully just see that clock in front of my eyes and rehear myself being told to do something. Or the sheet of paper I wrote out the task instructions on or the email I was sent.

And this all assumes I'm in an operational mode and not caught up in one of my more intense hallucinations.

I have prosopagnosia but it doesn't impact me very much, I tend to remember people more by silhouette and posture and gait and voice and scent, I can see faces and remember them short term, just not long term, I can describe them to myself and then recite the description back to myself when seeing faces to see if any trigger those descriptors. This only applies to in person encounters. If I see an image of a face, I can remember the image and recognize the person by similarity to the image which I can remember with quite good clarity.

I find English incredibly limiting for actually describing sensory experience. Oh, and I can't turn the memorization off. This is why I don't like to vary routine a whole lot, memorizing all of the changes is exhausting. I have a tendency to stare at my feet when I'm walking so I don't have to memorize too much unnecessary to completion of my task. Somebody asking about something I have memorized but have not acessed often often induces a catatonic state until i manage to metabolize the relevant area and I will just start spewing all kinds of information that is in some way related to what they are asking about and making myself stop reciting it once it starts finding a way to be articulated.

Much of this is the intermingling of classical autism and catatonic schizophrenia, not autism specific.

I have no insight. I just find this interesting because my daughter (AS) is the mirror opposite. She can't find things at all. If she sets something down and then walks a few feet away from it, she won't be able to find it again and I have to point it out to her. She is unable to look for things. I try to be as consistent as humanly possible in the house and always have things stored in the exact same place so that she can find them just by memorizing their permanent location and doesn't have to go looking for them. I don't re-arrange stuff. Not only can she not find the needle in the haystack, she wouldn't be able to find the haystack itself if I moved it to another room.

But, just as she is unable to do what you so easily do, she's a whiz at what you listed as difficult. She remembers faces and names of seemingly everyone she meets, which startles people who have only met her once and assume she will have forgotten both possibly their face and definately their name. She remembers conversations verbatim and can quote them back.

I don't know if this means anything neurologically. I just find it interesting that she's almost your mirror opposite twin regarding memory.

i remember only things that i am interested to find out. i never remember things i am not interested in. it is simple in my mind. if i am not personally interested, it slips through my retention, and if i am curious, i remember exactly what i took into my interested mind forever.