Published on 12, July, 2020
I've not Googlerated this so I'm starting from quite a low point of knowledge.
I know that we can tend to have very good memory in certain areas and I know about the autistic savant.
So, what do you know about how our memories work and why?
Mainly though, what is your memory like?
What do you remember and what do you not so well?
I have an autistic friend and he can quote back to me the day of the week, date and year a lot of events happened - small events, things like the day we went on a day trip somewhere over the whole of his life - he's 63.
I don't have that kind of gift but I have realised in recent times that my memory is quite unusual.
I do remember being in the pram and then the pushchair.
However, what I remember really well is places, events in my life and people and the things that people say, going back all 6 decades.
I can mentally walk through every room of the places I've lived in during my life and even where the furniture is.
How about you?
I thought I'd just bring this back up again (I am the OP) because the thread about phones reminded me of something.
I have a very acute visual memory.
So, for example, I can remember all the places I've lived in (loads) room by room, the furnishings, layout etc.
I remember the colour of my childhood toys etc.
I can remember drawers in a sideboard in a house 50 years ago and what was in them.
Could this be an autistic trait?
Does anyone else here share this?
Yes I also remember where I lived since 18 months of age. I was very attached to some of them. One of them is a safe haven for me to retreat to in times of distress. There is no one in it but me and it feels like "mine".
I have wondered if this is what's generally meant by a photographic memory. In my case I don't remember *everything* I've seen, it's just my best chance of remembering is by sight.
I cannot remember things based on numbers very well (family birthdays, appointments etc.)
I only tend to read non-fiction/text books and it's really frustrating to not be able to retain all that information that I've spent hours ingesting.
I can return to a single tree in a forest that I have only visited once before!
Important things I've heard that I need to remember, I tend to automatically repeat to myself, a way of boosting the memory? (Echolalia?)