Do Aspies store memories differently?
nerdygirl
Veteran
Joined: 16 Jun 2014
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,645
Location: In the land of abstractions and ideas.
I have an extremely good memory about some things, but terrible when it comes to others.
Stress and/or depression has a lot to do with it. If I am feeling stressed/overwhelmed/down, my mind is way too foggy and my memories end up being patchy.
But, if I am in a good state of mind and relaxed my memories will store in great detail.
I am extremely good at remembering concepts and how things work.
I am able to recall some events from the past as if I was watching a movie - I see it clearly around me and I can hear the sounds from past if I focus on them. Some details get missed but I can recall a huge amount of audio-visual stimuli, especially if they are logically or time-wise connected. I am known of singing whole songs out of memory and keeping the melody. Not a big deal if you can actually hear the song in your head. But my parents and grandparents say they can't do it.
Maybe they misunderstand me? I don't see and hear the memories exactly like reality. They are more like a dream. Different kind of senses is used to imitate the old stimuli than the actual eyes. When I recall the past I use the same senses as I do in my dream. I know because I was practicing Lucid Dreams and I took my time staying in middle between dream and reality to learn about the 2 kinds of senses. You know you can feel the real bed and the floor in dream world at the same time and those 2 stimuli feel similar but yet different? Same with sounds. When you stay between dream and being awake you can hear both sounds from reality and the dream world. Just as if you had 2 different senses of touch and hearing.
To me, it simply sounds like you'd be considered a "Sensor" in MBTI terms. Wait your name is familiar... I think I actually asked you about that before lol. I've read that supposedly that is one thing "sensors" do, but my mother tested as being intuitive and she says she can do it as well (though I don't think she recalls sound or anything), so maybe it's just a gift some people have.
Here's the Wikipedia link Wikipedia - Eidetic Memory
Perhaps that is what you have.
That's actually something I'm researching. I was wondering if you had a source for aspies tending to have eidetic memories? They're extremely rare and most people who claim to have one really don't have the ability, so I can't imagine most having one. They're also basically non-existent in adults, because research has shown that the ability diminishes with age (it's generally not seen after puberty). It doesn't really seem like the OP would have one either, since they mentioned lacking detail, but that's just my opinion.
@RikkiK: I don't really think there's been enough research into autism and memory to say anything for sure about the connections. Someone mentioned aspies tending to have perfect memories and I don't think that's necessarily true unless they're remembering details about their special interests of course . You vividly remembering childhood traumas actually makes sense though. You mentioned PTSD and that's what it sounds like to me. I don't really think there's a term for the other stuff you described, but it's pretty interesting though. For you, it seems like memory issues could be related to your PTSD and also anxiety or depression if those are issues for you.
I've always had a good memory, but it's definitely changed as I've gotten older (and I'm only 19). I feel like maybe I suppressed a lot of memories (it sounds like you did might have too?) or something and that's why. I've also dealt with health issues that could be related to my memory issues.
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Diagnosed with ADHD combined type (02/09/16) and ASD Level 1 (04/28/16).
Well, I tend to do it too.
I have a huge trouble remembering people. I can remember the topics and even hear whole sentences in my memory but people are gray puppets on detailed background. I believe it has something to do with my face blindness. I can recall what I talked about and where it occured but I can't recall who I talked with. There is no dependable database for people in my memory.
I recall someone asking me about it so apparently you did. I am ISTJ or ISTP depending on my mood (when I am stressed I tend to become more ISTJ and when I am fine I am ISTP).
BTW. My memories from childhood are not PTSD ones because they are often normal/pleasant memories of my childhood such as watching the snow falling behind a window while singing a pre-school song, swinging a willow tree, eating wild apples, swimming, putting a house key into my doghouse to prevent losing it (I was a latchkey kid and I was constantly losing or forgetting the key), baking a cake with my childhood friend, riding a bike with my dog attached to it (that was a awesome feeling! The running dog was pulling the bike and I was riding very fast without even moving my legs) etc.
Of course, some memories are bad - such as cutting my hand to bone when home alone, being laughed at by whole class or watching (and smelling...) my dog going crazy over a decomposing, stinky animal when we were on a walk - but they are minority. And the worst memories (such as breaking my tooth or being raped) I can't even remember. I remember clearly how they started and what I did afterwards but I can't recall the actual traumatic experience.
JupiterSpace
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: 18 Dec 2014
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Posts: 26
Location: On Your Computer Screen
Don't know if mine is classified as eidetic or not but here's how mine works:
For events that have meaning to me it's like someone pressing a video recording button in my head and I'm able to replay the whole scene later on, sometimes decades later on, and recount the scene in specific detail including such things as what clothes people were wearing. People have thought I was BS'ing them - so to prove me wrong they went so far as to dig up personal photos of an event I've described only to look at the photo and remark "holy crap - you're right".
It doesn't work for everything - I can replay most very recent events but only the ones that have a personal meaning (usually an emotional trigger but not always) seem to stick for the long term.
Some other here have reported same/similar memory.
_________________
Diagnosed Asperger's
BTW. My memories from childhood are not PTSD ones because they are often normal/pleasant memories of my childhood such as watching the snow falling behind a window while singing a pre-school song, swinging a willow tree, eating wild apples, swimming, putting a house key into my doghouse to prevent losing it (I was a latchkey kid and I was constantly losing or forgetting the key), baking a cake with my childhood friend, riding a bike with my dog attached to it (that was a awesome feeling! The running dog was pulling the bike and I was riding very fast without even moving my legs) etc.
Of course, some memories are bad - such as cutting my hand to bone when home alone, being laughed at by whole class or watching (and smelling...) my dog going crazy over a decomposing, stinky animal when we were on a walk - but they are minority. And the worst memories (such as breaking my tooth or being raped) I can't even remember. I remember clearly how they started and what I did afterwards but I can't recall the actual traumatic experience.
Yeah, it was you!
Sorry if I implied the PTSD comments were to you - I was talking to the OP because they mentioned having had childhood traumas.
For events that have meaning to me it's like someone pressing a video recording button in my head and I'm able to replay the whole scene later on, sometimes decades later on, and recount the scene in specific detail including such things as what clothes people were wearing. People have thought I was BS'ing them - so to prove me wrong they went so far as to dig up personal photos of an event I've described only to look at the photo and remark "holy crap - you're right".
It doesn't work for everything - I can replay most very recent events but only the ones that have a personal meaning (usually an emotional trigger but not always) seem to stick for the long term.
Some other here have reported same/similar memory.
That's very interesting, thank you!
I don't think it would be considered eidetic. It actually sounds more like emotional/flashbulb memory. You've basically described it to a t.
My mother (she's very extroverted and I don't think she's on the spectrum, but who knows? She did fail the Sally-Anne test) and I have a similar ability to the one that you have. It actually seems like many people believe they have a photographic memory because this ability seems to be more common than people are aware of. One way I've heard of to test for eidetic memory is the picture elicitation method, which involves having children study a photograph - obviously a random one that they have no emotional connection to - for 30 seconds or so. The ones labeled as having an eidetic memory seem to have perfect accuracy. As far as I know, there isn't really a term to describe the exceptional photographic-like memories some people display (with non-emotional events), but this isn't something I've researched in an in-depth manner yet. Maybe they're simply icons? Personally, I'm not really sure if eidetic memory/imagery has been defined well enough for researchers to really conclude who has one or who doesn't yet though. Or perhaps I just don't have a good understanding of the proposed concept yet. *shrug*
For me, it's like this: I can clearly picture old memories like my 4 and 5 year old preschool classrooms, and other old memories, but I don't tend to remember every detail (such as the clothes people are wearing, but then again, I don't actually picture any people when I see these memories). I even have a memory of being in a crib at that same preschool, but I'm not sure if it's real or not. I believe my mother does tend to remember most details though. She's told me how while in school when she would take exams, she would picture the part of her textbook relevant to the question and I guess she'd re-read it in her mind (lol) and that's how she'd get the answer.
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Diagnosed with ADHD combined type (02/09/16) and ASD Level 1 (04/28/16).
Hang on I thought photographic was remembering in pictures even if you didn't see all of the detail.
So everyone must remember things in pictures? I can remember my house from 20 years ago. I could tell you where most things would have been located around the house, i still remember the colour, pattern and design of most of the furniture. It's like being closely described to dreaming only my dreams are more realistic, I view things how I perspectively saw them, If I was thinking of point a to point b and I was familiar with the directions, I could navigate there in my head. Its a good way to keep track of what I am thinking when I want to think abstract thoughts, ie I can picture the object and think also narrate around the object. My memory can be faulty when I'm stressed, under pressure and I can forget everything. Sometimes memories I had completely forgot about just comes from no where. I'm very good at remembering facts that interest me. I think thinking in pictures is probably the best part of my memory that I have got. It's funny because I can't remember people's names or dates or even what day it is sometimes but when it comes to music it just seems to play in my head and sometimes I can wake up to it and sometimes I play it over and over in my head. And it just comes to me like it's sent to me. The brain is cool.
No, no.You didn't imply it was to me. But I decided to add my 2 cents to show it doesn't have to be trauma related even if it is in the OP case.
I just like talking too much. Don't mind me.
I remember events and emotions in such great detail that there are times I hear abusive words in my head. Seeing a child who's possibly on the spectrum being mistreated by their parent or parents is enough for those memories to resurface. I also remember the happy times with a good deal of detail as well. Seeing kids running around, laughing brings back memories of my kid sister and I horsing around and being kids. There are songs that bring back happy memories, because they helped me to muddle through those mixed up times.
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Who wants to adopt a Sweet Pea?
First of all, I am pretty certain that, compared to neurotypicals, I use a “richer” (or more complete) taxonomy for classifying/organizing all the extensive information I collect. And, I believe having this “richer” taxonomy helps in recall (as it provides multiple paths for getting to the same piece of information). However, it means that storage is quite a bit slower. Before that information can be stored, I need to parse it, understand it, understand how to classify it, make adjustments to the taxonomy (adding/pruning nodes, as required) and only then can it be stored. I cannot do this quickly, as a re-index is an expensive operation in memory.
Second of all, I get really confused (more so than others) when incomplete information is presented to me. I need to have all of the details, before I understand the concept. Essentially, I am unable (or perhaps unwilling and too inflexible) to store partial information. As it seems like too much work to continually and constantly modify that taxonomy as new information comes in. But, once I have those details, I understand everything (the big picture and all of the nitty gritty details) better than anyone else.
I am not certain this makes sense. But those of you who work in computer science may understand what I am talking about.
You could have been describing my mind, this is exactly how I store information. And it's the same with incomplete information too, it confuses me when I don't have all the details, and I will learn basically nothing.
I am the same. If someone tries to explain something to me and I think they're missing details (even if it's not essential information) I have to interrupt them to ask them about the details I need. I get very stressed if I can't ask what I need to ask.
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