Will probably get some selection bias here but I was just told I’m “not normal” (yeah yeah I know!) and I never knew this ability was not something everyone had.
So tell me: If you look at a large number, say a phone number, SSN, passport number or the like (not your own) how long can you remember it?
Scenario: bf and I are checking in online with our phones for a trip. Have to input passport numbers. Now I don’t have my passport number memorized but I have a pic of it on my phone. So I tap over to the photo, look at it, then tap back over to input it.
Is that weird?
Bf gets to that part and asks if he can send me a pic of his so I can read him the numbers. I’m thinking he’s just being extra cautious. Whatever. So I look at his, go back to what I was doing. When he asks for it a few mins later, I say it. “You’re not looking at it!” “I looked at it a few minutes ago” “how do you know it’s right??” “Bc I looked at it a few minutes ago!!”
Is that weird??
It started a whole discussion about memory. We can all remember large numbers we use frequently like family phone numbers or our SSN. Those seem to get stored differently. I have a short term memory “board” where I can store an image or number or pattern or whatever. It doesn’t stay there long. Maybe 15-30 minutes. Longer if repeated. But I thought everybody had that.
Depends how long and context. I can usually remember a 10 digit phone number, because I can block it as 3-3-4, so it’s really only 3 numbers to me. But something like a passport number or license plate, I generally can only do 5-6 numbers total.
I can only do it with numbers that naturally group in context for some reason. Like SSN, I can do, but I’m struggle with my SIN because even though it’s 3-3-3 my brain doesn’t see it that way.
I almost never studied in HS or college. I did the homework but just read the material the night or a few hours before tests. It wasn’t until I got past the first couple of actuarial exams that I was rudely awakened to that no longer being sufficient!!!
I grew up with only needing 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 digits for a full phone number depending on where they lived in our area. I had a lot of numbers memorized, though it usually took me a couple times. Now it takes me a couple times before I remember them. Policy numbers that I deal with in work. I don’t really try many others. I have long had my and my wife’s SS memorized. I was a bit sad when they quit using SSN for insurance number but glad all the same.
Also when I was growing up we took Iowa something tests in 5th, 7th and 9th grades. I was in the 99th percentile in Math in 5th grade and fairly high in others but only about 60’s in spelling. I still have difficulty spelling. Then in 7th grade I was 99th percentile in all but spelling where I was in the 80’s. When we were taking them in 9th grade, I read the first question in the math section which was first and I knew that the answer was going to be a specific letter. I worked it out and looked at the answers and sure enough it was that letter. I went through the rest of the test and realized that it had been the exact same test in 5th, 7th and 9th grades and in 9th grade I actually knew the correct letter to most of the questions before I finished reading the question.
I also had the ability to find things I had read knowing roughly where in the chapter it was but also knowing which side (left or right) and where on that page I would find it.
Unfortunately, like @Serena when I got to actuarial exams, except for the Operations Research exam, I had the same type of rude awakening.
Got used to studying my ass off for my Masters Comprehensive Exams.
Numbers, no, that’s all gone. I have no interest in it.
Specific numbers tied to specific interesting (to me) events? Sure. 714 for Babe Ruth’s HR number. 0.367 for Ty Cobb’s Batting Average (might have been updated, though). 755 for Hank Aaron. Bonds? Not interested.
221B.
8675309 just has a nice sing-song quality to it.
6060842, OTOH, is a brash number.
I had that ability when I was younger, but I no longer do.
The very first time I ordered something on the internet (high school age), I used my parents credit card. I remembered the number without trying and knew it for years.
Now, I do not even know my kids cell numbers, I just hit their name on my phone.
Iowa test of basic skills. I think I might still have some of my results in my memory box that my parents dropped off for me when they moved houses. Along with some ACT score sheets. I was destined for actuarial exams.
It’s more of an image I guess. I never really thought about it until we started talking about it. Because I thought everybody could do it. It’s like a whiteboard in my head. I can see the numbers there for a time. Longer if I repeat them or they have a pattern.
I just tried to recite the numbers from yesterday. I got the passport right and one digit off on the cc.
So I’m weird. It’s a “gift”. Not a very useful gift though.
I have an old Rubik’s cube. I occasionally solve it just to recall the algorithm patterns
I have been picking up guitar lately. Guitar tab is basically numbers on fret positions/strings that designate the notes of a song (its a bit cheating past music theory). As I have gotten better over the last year, I have found that I can better capture/visualize the notes for a new song after only looking at it for a few seconds where a year ago I would have to stare at the thing and mentally translate it a few notes at a time.
Underlying all of that is the actual structure of music into individual notes from a chord where the patterns have become normalized into understanding. So I think there is a skill or something that can be developed over time with a specific application, such as remembering or visualizing the music, which likely also applies to your number sequences. I also know from actuarial exams that I often recalled the note cards I memorized there was a strong visual component to it, where I could picture the layout of information on a note card - indentations, number of lines, spacing, etc.
Is a photographic memory unusual? I would guess like everything, its a capability we all have access to, and how we develop that into uses and skills is where the variation exist, with natural limitations on ability.
(yeah yeah I know!) and I never knew this ability was not something everyone had.