Rajan: A study of a memorist

Thompson, Charles P.; Cowan, Thaddeus M.; Frieman, Jerome; Mahadevan, Rajan; Vogl, Rodney J.; Frieman, Jeanne

doi:10.1016/0749-596x(91)90033-g

Cited by 15 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…We relied on her own reports when it came to describing her awareness of her memory and the meaning of her memory to her life, as there are no objective tests to measure this. Whereas previously reported cases of superior memory have been described, they are of individuals who are capable of encoding and reciting prodigious amounts of new information, using practiced mnemonic strategies (Hunt and Love, 1972;Luria, 1987;Gordon et al, 1984;Thompson et al, 1991;Wilding and Valentine, 1997;Maguire et al, 2003;Ericsson et al, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Luria's case S, with his rich capacity for visual imagery, used a variation of the method of loci to recall strings of 50 to 70 words and digits, which he could recall both forward and backward depending on where he started his mental walk at retrieval. Ericsson et al (2004) undertook extensive reevaluation of the famous Rajan (Thompson et al 1991), who had superior abilities to remember digits and letters. They concluded that his memory skill was due to encoding techniques he had acquired through extensive practice, and not to an innately superior memory.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Case of Unusual Autobiographical Remembering

2006

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This report describes AJ, a woman whose remembering dominates her life. Her memory is "nonstop, uncontrollable, and automatic." AJ spends an excessive amount of time recalling her personal past with considerable accuracy and reliability. If given a date, she can tell you what she was doing and what day of the week it fell on. She differs from other cases of superior memory who use practiced mnemonics to remember vast amounts of personally irrelevant information. We propose the name hyperthymestic syndrome, from the Greek word thymesis meaning remembering, and that AJ is the first reported case.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Case of Unusual Autobiographical Remembering

2006

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“…The problem of memory expertise has had a small but long and continuous history in mainstream memory research. Ericsson (1985) (Holding, 1985;Intons-Peterson & Smyth, 1987;Noice, 1991Noice, , 1992Thompson et al, 1991). Similarly, Neisser (1982) reprinted several articles on memory experts.…”

Section: Rubin Wallace and Houstonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The problem of memory expertise has had a small but long and continuous history in mainstream memory research. Ericsson (1985), for example, reviewed studies of highly skilled memory experts by Binet from 1884, Mueller from 1917, Bousfield and Barry from 1933, Luria from 1968, Hunt and Love from 1972, Chase and Simon from 1973, Hunter from 1977, and Ericsson and Polson from 1984 Other studies have been added to the literature since the Ericsson article was published (Holding, 1985;Intons-Peterson & Smyth, 1987;Noice, 1991Noice, , 1992Thompson et al, 1991). Similarly, Neisser (1982) reprinted several articles on memory experts.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Beginnings of Expertise for Ballads

1993

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To study the beginning stages of expertise, 14 students. who were inexperienced with ballads, heard and recalled a series of 5 ballads over the course of 5 weeks. Compared with their first recall of the first ballad, their first recall of the fifth ballad had one and a half times as many words, two times as many rhyming words, and three times as much line structure evident in the written recall protocols. Compared with novices, the 14 beginning experts more often filled in blank spaces in novel ballads with words of the correct number of syllables and more often chose the original stanza of a novel ballad that was paired with a changed version of the stanza. The beginning experts were also able to compose, in 20 min, ballads about two thirds as long as the 10-stanza ballads they learned. Thirty characteristics were identified in the set of the five learned ballads. The ballads composed by the beginning experts used over half of these. The beginning experts also explicitly stated about one quarter of these 30 characteristics, but there was no statistical relationship between the characteristics used and the characteristics stated. Memory expertise is viewed as a pervasive aspect of cognition in which people make use of a variety of regularities in the material to be learned.In 1949, Harlow, reviewing this work on repeated choice tasks with monkeys a n d children, noted thatThe variety of learning situations that play an important role in determining our basic personality characteristics and in changing some of us into thinking animals are repeated many times in similar form. The behavior of the human being is not to be understood in terms of the results of single learning situations but rather in terms of changes which are affected through multiple, though comparable, learning problems.. . .This learning to learn transforms the organism from a creature that adapts to a changing environment by trial and error to one that adapts by seeming hypothesis and insight. (p.51)A l l reported effects are significant at the .05 level unless otherwise noted.We wish to thank John Bransford, Arnold Glass, Keith Holyoak and Ian Hunter for their comments, the two professional singers, Margaret and Wayne Martin, and above all, the students for their help. Support was provided by NSF grants number BNS-8410124 and number BNS-9010174.Correspondence and requests for reprints should be sent to David C. Rubin. Department of Experimental Psychology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0086. RUBIN, WALLACE, AND HOUSTONResearch on human memory has concentrated on "the results of single learning situations," but not exclusively. The problem of memory expertise has had a small but long and continuous history in mainstream memory research. Ericsson (1985) (Holding, 1985;Intons-Peterson & Smyth, 1987;Noice, 1991Noice, , 1992Thompson et al., 1991). Similarly, Neisser (1982) reprinted several articles on memory experts. In the last two decades the detailed investigation into possible mechanisms that allow expertise has expanded, including studies...

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“…We report behavioral, volumetric, and fMRI data from PI, who as a young adult demonstrated superior memory by reciting the first digits of the mathematical constant π to more than 2 16 decimal places with fewer than 2 4 mistakes. Previous experimental reports of π recitation focused on Mr. Rajan Mahadevan, who was once the holder of a Guinness Book record for flawlessly reciting π to over 30,000 decimals, and more recently on the synesthete (i.e., an individual in whom stimuli in one sensory domain evoke perceptions in multiple domains), ‘Arithmos’, who holds the European record for memorizing π to 22,500 decimal places (Azoulai, Hubbard, & Ramachandran, 2005; Ericsson, Delaney, Weaver, & Mahadevan, 2004; Thompson, Cowan, & Frieman, 1993). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A slice of π : An exploratory neuroimaging study of digit encoding and retrieval in a superior memorist

et al. 2009

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Subject PI demonstrated superior memory using a variant of a Method of Loci (MOL) technique to recite the first digits of the mathematical constant π to more than 216 decimal places. We report preliminary behavioral, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and brain volumetric data from PI. fMRI data collected while PI recited the first 540 digits of π (i.e., during retrieval) revealed increased activity in medial frontal gyrus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Encoding of a novel string of 100 random digits activated motor association areas, midline frontal regions, and visual association areas. Volumetric analyses indicated an increased volume of the right subgenual cingulate, a brain region implicated in emotion, mentalizing, and autonomic arousal. Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) testing indicated that PI is of average intelligence, and performance on mirror tracing, rotor pursuit, and the Silverman and Eals Location Memory Task revealed normal procedural and implicit memory. PI’s performance on the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-III) revealed average general memory abilities (50th percentile), but superior working memory abilities (99th percentile). Surprisingly, PI’s visual memory (WMS-III) for neutral faces and common events was remarkably poor (3rd percentile). PI’s self-report indicates that imagining affective situations and high emotional content is critical for successful recall. We speculate that PI’s reduced memory for neutral/non-emotional faces and common events, and the observed increase in volume of the right subgenual cingulate, may be related to extensive practice with memorizing highly emotional material.

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Rajan: A study of a memorist

Cited by 15 publications

References 22 publications

A Case of Unusual Autobiographical Remembering

A Case of Unusual Autobiographical Remembering

The Beginnings of Expertise for Ballads

A slice of π : An exploratory neuroimaging study of digit encoding and retrieval in a superior memorist

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