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VGopinath's picture

Processing Numbers, Images and Words

     As I mentioned in class, I have read about how the memory of a face can become less accurate and more warped by working with a sketch artist and "translating" the image into words when describing the face.  This led me to consider the differences when storing information as an image versus with numbers of as words.  I also thought Paul's comment about how storing an image without any sort of processing doesn't really fit within our framework of how the brain works.  Therefore, if we are all storing and processing information, I believe there are fundamental differences in which type of information it is.  For example, I found Wiltshire's ability to draw cities after just a few glances to be amazing.  Kim Peek's ability to memorize books is not quite as unfathomable or unbelievable.  Memorizing chunks of text is a necessary part of my education, as is the case for many hard science majors.  Being able to memorize details about hundreds of pictures seems more difficult to me.  This difference was demonstrated perfectly by someone in class who mentioned that he had noted details about the winter scene for the memory test.  That's exactly what I did; I know that I wouldn't be able to memorize the picture and then recall it when I saw the questions.  I anticipated questions and noted the number in the bottom right corner, the number of windows, the different heights of the trees etc.  I think that clearly demonstrates that my dominant mechanism by which I memorize is through words.  Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant who is well-known for his amazing feats of intelligence.  He famously learnt Icelandic in a week and can do insane calculations in his head.  He also has a phenomenal memory and recited pi to the 22,514th digit.  For Tammet, each number is associated with colors and emotions and to recite pi, he thought of pi and a moving landscape would appear in his mind's eye and he would just say the number associated with that particular landmark until he got 22, 514 digits!  This ability to put numbers into images and then store memory as such seems just as amazing as his ability to memorize so much information.  Of all the different ways we have of differentiating between types of memory, I differences in memorizing numbers versus words versus images to me one of the most interesting and least addressed.  

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