Understanding the gift of endless memory

And that's what's so baffling: these people do remember the ordinary, non-emotional events the rest of us routinely forget. Lots of sports fans can remember highlights from particularly exciting games.

Bob Petrella, a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, remembers every game.

"When was the last time the Redskins beat the Steelers?" Stahl asked.

"Let's see. They played 'em in 2004, and the Steelers won. They played 'em in 2000... ," he said.

We sat there as he scanned back through 19 seasons in 19 seconds. His final answer: Nov. 17, 1991.

We tried even further back.

"What were the last two games in October of 1979?" Stahl asked.

"Let's see. The 22nd they played Denver on Monday night. And I think they won 42 to seven," he replied. "They played, oh, then they played Dallas on October 28th, Sunday. It was on CBS, so you could get that game."

And 31 years later, he was able to describe plays.

"Staubach was scrambling, and LC Greenwood just slammed right into 'im. It was in the fourth quarter," he remembered.

He even remembered specific images from the broadcast. "I remember Staubach just sittin' on the bench. You could just tell he was out of it," he told Stahl.

When Stahl tried to trick him by asking about a game on Nov. 11, 1990, Petrella caught it immediately - the team didn't play that day.

But he did remember the day. "I was depressed. I had broken up with this woman, and I was going out to rent a couple videos. And I was thinking about her," he said.

"There's a quote that I love. It's by the great psychologist William James. He said, 'If we remembered everything, we should, on most occasions, be as ill off as if we remembered nothing,'" Cahill said.

And that's what the field of memory has always considered a given: that a healthy dose of forgetting is crucial to our ability to think.

"You abstract and generalize in part because you forget. When you have a trip to work and you have the same trip every day, you abstract and you generalize a typical trip to work because you don't remember every single detail of every single trip. So a little forgetting is needed to help you abstract and generalize," Cahill explained.

"Well, that's what I always thought until I met your five subjects today," Stahl replied.

"Do you ever get the feeling that all these memories are cluttering up your mind, that it's just too much up there, and I need to sweep this away?" Stahl asked Henner.

"It's organized, you know what I mean? It's organized, so it's called on when you need it, but it's not like they're coming in all the time," she said.

Bob Petrella added, "It's not overwhelming."

"Surprising thing is that these people don't appear to have cluttered brains. They can pull out the right information at the right time, and that's the puzzle," McGaugh said.

"It kind of takes everything we've all assumed, scientists and ordinary people and said, 'Come on guys. Rethink it,'" Stahl remarked.

"Yeah, got to do some rethinking, but that's fun. That's part of the fun part of science," he replied.

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[nhr53]

Simply facinating. I would want to know how good is their "dream memory" recall is?

[jimoerike]

Dream memory would in fact give a person a choice to be here or there, I'd at this state of my life would choose there if it was discovery I was into looking for the memory of knowing your having a dream yet not to be pulled from it & to have endless powers over the negatives in your life would be break through.

[lulujubie]

I found this story fascinating and had a student on my special needs school bus who was a high functioning austistic person with this gift. I am not so gifted, but have recall of my childhood back to approximately 16 months of age. I believe that this excellent recall of most of my childhood could in fact have something to do with traumas and upheavels suffered over a 4 year period of my childhood between age 10 and 14. I lost my entire nuclear family between age 11 and 13. I always thought others could remember their childhood on an day to day basis the way I could, but have learned since this is not the case with most people. I now wonder if the traumas some of which resulted in my family's deaths had to do with this. I had very ritualistic behaviour in childhood I do not have now and I also have wondered if I retained these memories so completely as there was no one to remember my childhood for me as most parents will do for children and so my mind knew it had to retain these for me. The memory and how the mind controls it is such an interesting subject.

[babooph]

I still remember too much of High School..

[Floretta52]

Dr James McGaugh
Phone: [phone], 5250
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

University of California, Irvine
334 QRL
Mail Code: 3800
Irvine, CA 92697-380

[bfgking]

Our father who passed 6 years ago at the age of 93 had this type of memory. Over the years he would comment on something that had happened in the past and would recite the day, date, place, and sometimes the time. We always thought it was amazing but didn't realize it was a gift and didn't encourage it. He was quite a remarkable man. WV

[bfgking]

Our father who passed 6 years ago at the age of 93 had this type of memory. Over the years he would comment on something that had happened in the past and would recite the day, date, place, and sometimes the time. We always thought it was amazing but didn't realize it was a gift and didn't encourage it. He was quite a remarkable man. WV

[remant]

I can understand being able to remember what happened on certain days, but how many ppl ever know exactly what the date is? These ppl knew it in every case. They must keep diaries or calendars pasted on their refrigerator doors. I'd like to know why the investigators or Ms Stahl didn't find that odd. For the rest I'd say they do not organize things conceptually, according to a philosophy, or rule. They are particularists. The organization no doubt takes the place of concepts without which they couldn't function. The comment that they simply "see" things is I think very suggestive.

[majesticmini]

I agree with both of you. My father was the same way. I thought he had Aspergers as I somewhat followed. He could master Jeopardy, explain history and science for a long time, and acted professionally. We don't know what the cause is, as Autism/Aspergers or OCD, but a use is to exercise an journal.

[skeezix06]

After seeing this story I am grateful for my forgetfulness for the first time in my life.

[fronbauer]

I teach philosophy. I found this program on superior autobiographical memory most interesting. William James wrote that memory is a mystery. The experience of these people just deepens it. But, it is still important to be reminded that correlation is not causality. Adding one more correlation will not help to dispel the mystery for anyone who has not understood he mind-brain relation. Otherwise, Dr.Cahill's prediction that the MRI research wouldn't lead to any new discoveries may have been more right than even he realized. Or did he realize it?

Fred Bauer, Worcester, MASS