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The Conversation
The Conversation
Gabrielle Principe, Professor of Psychology, College of Charleston

Photographic memory is a myth – here’s what research really says about remembering

Your memory is not a camera. F.J. Jimenez/Moment via Getty Images

Hollywood loves a superpower. Not all involve capes or cosmic rays. Some are cognitive: characters who can remember everything. In movies and on TV, viewers repeatedly encounter those with extraordinary minds who glance once at a page, a room or a face – and later recreate every detail with surgical precision.

You see it everywhere: “Suits,” “Sherlock” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Even in children’s literature there’s fifth grader Cam Jansen, who activates her photolike memory by saying “Click!”

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