Thanks to Jen Martin of Espresso Science, I found new material for this week’s cartoon. Hyperthymesia, is the condition of possessing a superior autobiographical memory and is derived from the Greek, hyper, meaning excessive and thymesis, meaning remembering. Individuals are able to recall the vast majority of personal experiences and events in their life such as what day Easter Sunday fell on and what they wore and did on that particular day.
So, on the topic of memory,
Can you guess which occupation would have the hardest [memory] test in the world?
I would have guessed astronaut. What would you guess?
PS. The answer is in her most recent post What memories are made.
Yay, so excited to have prompted this week’s cartoon:) Thanks! And love the goldfish link.
Hi Jen, Well, as you know I have a soft spot for all things ‘sciencey’ and always on the hunt for inspiration. PS. I also enjoy enjoy drawing aliens… how about another inspirational space post?
This is the condition the actress Marilu Henner has. I heard her talk about it once. Quite fascinating, but not always so much fun for her.
A London cabbie, huh? Very interesting. No way I’d be able to remember 25,000 streets!
The end boggles at 25,000 streets. I think our cabbies here in Australia must be lazy – they all use GPS navigation apps, like the rest of us.
I heard about the London cabbie’s test, but my first guess would’ve been a medical doctor. Of course, with the internet, it does seem like knowing where to find information is now more important than remembering that piece of information.
I think you’re right there. I remember having to memorise all sorts of useless information in school for tests. I thought it was pointless, when I knew that the formula I needed was only a page away in the back of the maths book (I guess that’s an engineer’s approach – pragmatic)
I feel like a cabbie would just learn that stuff spending time in the city… I get there’d be benefits from being able to know stuff early… but if you’re a cabbie for a while, I would think it just becomes second nature to you. I know whenever I’ve been in a new city, it takes an adjustment but then once you know your way around, you know all the secret side streets and shortcuts and stuff pretty well not long after.
On the “instant recall” capability… I could see it being a blessing and a curse… there might be things you’d wish you could forget, but would never be able to do so…
Apparently it takes 3-4 years to learn this stuff, that’s an undergraduate degree 🙂