On Cruz and auditory memory
This tidbit about Cruz (from commenter “Orson”) is certainly interesting, and it explains a lot:
According to Sean Hannity, Cruz has eidetic aural memory. He remembers everything he hears ”“ and thus, at the debate, segmented his complaints with perfect reference to the targets and what was said to them in proper serial order.
Hannity further explained (on his radio show) that this helps to explain how Cruz can seem robotic in stump speech delivery. Because Cruz, almost literally to himself, inserts a given audio file and simply performs it.
His apparent lack of spontaneity is in direct contrast to Trump’s style. People speculate on whether Cruz can reach populist appeal, given this difference in style.
“Eidetic” means: “an ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory after only a few instances of exposure, with high precision for some time after exposure, without using mnemonics.” The word is usually applied to visual memory (for passages in books, for example), but I suppose it could apply to spoken words. Cruz was indeed impressive in that debate passage, which was done without notes.
I have to say that, although I’m not in Cruz’s league, I have some pretty decent skills in that area myself. In terms of visual memory for passages in books, when I was back in school I often used to be able to remember where on the page I had read a certain fact. And it was the bane of my husband’s existence (and my mother’s, I might add) that I was usually able to remember conversations—if not always verbatim, then at least in terms of what generally had been said and in what order.
That certainly assists with arguments. But it was particularly useful when working with clients, a situation (especially with couples or groups) where the ability to process conversations and remember who said what and when is extraordinarily helpful. It also is good to be able to remember something a client said—an important story from his/her life, for example—from many sessions earlier, and to be able to relate it to something new that the same client is saying now.
I have no idea what gives a person this skill. But I’ve always thought it has something to do with intense concentration on the exchange. For some of my memories of my own conversations, it also has to do with intense emotion. For many people, the more emotional they are during an exchange, the less likely they are to remember what happened and when. For me, strong emotion has usually heightened the ability to remember.
When the early settlers negotiated with the Indians they learned that the Indians, who not having a written language, always had a secretary who could recite verbatim both sides of the negotiation of the day before. They were amazed at how exact the recollection was.
There’s a range within which each of us can develop our memories, but I’ve never heard of anyone acquiring an eidetic memory. That seems to be one of those mental abilities that a tiny portion of the population is blessed with. Well, “blessed”, but I imagine it also makes people easily bored and short-tempered.
There was a professor of biology at Utah State that had eidetic aural memory. At faculty meetings he could be asked about topics that had been discussed ten years before and repeat the conversation verbatim.
Above a rather low base level, I think odd talents like that are more interesting than IQ. Even unusual sensory talents like eyesight, smell, hearing, etc., can be pretty amazing. For instance, I knew a fellow who could see the brighter stars in the sky in the daytime.
I’m not impressed. I could’ve done the same thing in like circumstances, and I don’t claim to have an especially good memory. In fact, I have a poor long-term memory for what people say, but in the context of a debate I could easily do what Cruz did. I don’t understand what the big deal is. He didn’t even remember it all correctly.
I have always been able to remember where the location on the page was of something I have seen or read. I had no idea it was associated with the eidetic memory styles. I do not have eidetic memory but my grandaughter “confessed” to me that she didn’t want people to know she actually remembers everything. This was when she was graduating from high school with high honors, SAT scores and scholarships. She explained she was not as smart as everyone thought just lucky to have that memory.
It is was interesting to me when I went to her “white coat ceremony” at medical school this past weekend one of the speeches on what was going on with the students was “they all think they aren’t as smart as we think they are, they think they are just lucky and one day will be found out.” Her whole speech described so well what my granddaughter had said to me, so after the ceremony I hugged her and said, “Guess what? You’re normal!” We both laughed.
I also can often do the remembering the location of something on a page trick. Is that unusual? I definitely don’t have an eidetic memory.
Also, in reference to Hannity’s comments on Cruz, people who give speeches have to remember them. A good speaker learns to remember a speech and not to seem robotic in speaking. That’s just Speech 101.
Neat post & neat comments. Imagine if the electorate could keep all the pronouncements straight and consistently rejected candidates who were disingenuous — perhaps the quality of candidates and campaigns (and the coverage of same) would improve dramatically. I think today’s media counts on us being the opposite of eidetic, and it encourages us to keep shortening our attention spans.
As a youngster Ted memorized a shortened version of the constitution and he used to travel around Texas and recite it. At least that’s what he said in Council Bluffs, Iowa last month.
“an ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory after only a few instances of exposure, with high precision for some time after exposure, without using mnemonics.”
Sounds like a skill interrogators pick up when watching body language and hearing voice tones.
What’s a shortened version of the constitution? The constitution is already short. Again, not an impressive feat of memorization, though I do think it’s a good thing for a candidate to know the constitution.
I think today’s media counts on us being the opposite of eidetic, and it encourages us to keep shortening our attention spans.
It’s easier to mind control people if one uses short trigger phrases and constructions. The police generally like asking the same question over and over again, because they lack the skill to notice minute differences to different ways the answer is given to the same question. They are looking for inconsistencies and tells, or emotional triggers, and the number of repetitions are normally done because of inadequate skill sets when recognizing voice tone and body language signs.
There was a fascinating interview with the actress Marilu Henner that I saw years ago. She has some kind of special memory that only a few people (only 6 are documented) in the world have — where she can remember everyday of her life in detail. It’s like she has a file box in her head. I don’t know what the term for the memory is. I do remember that she, and others who had the same ability said that the main drawback was that they could never forget very sad or tragic memories — that the memories never even fade a little, ever.
Here’s a clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlNB7dAXQEc
It’s like she has a file box in her head. I don’t know what the term for the memory is.
Everyone has that ability in their subconsciousness, but normally they are unable to form the neuron connections to make it into a database to sort and download.
Under adrenaline, memories are extremely exact and precise, with little loss in fidelity over time.