Eidetic imagery, widely but mistakenly known as photographic memory, has been studied for decades with a picture-description technique. Heavily dependent on subjects' reports of vivid images, this method has produced widely varying estimates of the prevalence of eidetikers, inconsistent reports of eidetikers' accuracy, and evidence that eidetic images in fact resemble visual memory images as much as they resemble perceptual images. Objective methods, which involve superimposing eidetic images, have only produced additional confusion. Theoretical accounts of eidetic imagery include: Jaensch's comprehensive, but largely unsubstantiated, ontogenetic theory; the view that eidetic imagery is a primitive, concrete mnemonic system; the notion that it is a symptom of psychosis or of brain injury; and the possibility that it reflects abnormal perceptual functioning. No theory has proved to be satisfactory. In addition, there are two major viewpoints concerning eidetic imagery and other perceptual-cognitive abilities. The more popular view is that eidetic imagery is unique; the other view, which suggests that eidetic imagery differs from other types of visual imagery in degree only, not in kind, seems to provide the more promising approach.

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