{"id":39650,"date":"2018-12-16T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T17:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/?p=39650"},"modified":"2018-12-14T16:10:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-15T00:10:16","slug":"can-you-train-yourself-to-develop-a-photographic-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/psychology-facts\/can-you-train-yourself-to-develop-a-photographic-memory-1216187","title":{"rendered":"Can You Train Yourself to Develop a Photographic Memory?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Photographic-memory.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-39651 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Photographic-memory.png\" alt=\"Photographic memory infographic\" width=\"940\" height=\"788\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Photographic-memory.png 940w, https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Photographic-memory-300x251.png 300w, https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Photographic-memory-800x671.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Infographic Text: Can you train yourself to develop a photographic memory?<\/h2>\n<p>No. Despite what pop culture suggests, humans cannot create perfect replicas of images in their heads.<\/p>\n<p>There is a similar phenomenon called eidetic memory that occurs in 2-10% of children. These kids can look at an image for 30 seconds and then continue \u00e2\u20ac\u0153seeing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d it after the physical picture is taken away. However, eidetic memories only last for a few minutes at most.<\/p>\n<p>While developing a photographic memory is impossible, you can train yourself to improve the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/psychpedia\/memory\">memory<\/a> you do have. You are more likely to benefit from training exercises that constantly challenge you (such as learning a new language) than from playing card games on your phone.<\/p>\n<p><strong>References:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Improving memory. (n.d.). <em>Harvard Health Publishing. <\/em>Retrieved from https:\/\/bit.ly\/2xVe0QP<\/li>\n<li>Searleman, A. (n.d.). Is there such a thing as a photographic memory? And if so, can it be learned? <em>Scientific American<\/em>. Retrieved from https:\/\/bit.ly\/2PBvqKU<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many websites claim they can teach you to develop a photographic memory that can recall as much information as you want. But can such a skill really be taught?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[542],"tags":[1429,690,1428],"class_list":["post-39650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-articles","tag-eidetic-memory","tag-memory","tag-photographic-memory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodtherapy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}