CrowdScience

Does photographic memory exist?


Listen Later

Most people are great at remembering key points from important events in their lives, while the finer details - such as the colour of the table cloth in your favourite restaurant or the song playing on the radio while you brushed your teeth - are forgotten. But some people seem to have the power to remember events, documents or landscapes with almost perfect recall, which is widely referred to as having a photographic memory.

Crowdscience listeners Tracy and Michael want to know if photographic memory actually exists and if not, what are the memory processes that allow people to remember certain details so much better than others?

Putting her own memory skills to the test along the way, presenter Marnie Chesterton sets out to investigate just what’s happening inside our brains when we use our memories, the importance of being able to forget and why some people have better memories than others.

Produced by Hannah Fisher and presented by Marnie Chesterton for the BBC World Service.

Contributors:

Stephen Wiltshire
Annette Wiltshire
Dr Farahnaz Wick
Professor Craig Stark

[Image credit: Getty Images]

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

CrowdScienceBy BBC World Service

  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7

4.7

424 ratings


More shows like CrowdScience

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,430 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,802 Listeners

The Naked Scientists Podcast by The Naked Scientists

The Naked Scientists Podcast

597 Listeners

Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,641 Listeners

Science Weekly by The Guardian

Science Weekly

417 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,761 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,083 Listeners

Science In Action by BBC World Service

Science In Action

342 Listeners

More or Less: Behind the Stats by BBC Radio 4

More or Less: Behind the Stats

892 Listeners

Discovery by BBC World Service

Discovery

967 Listeners

The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

2,079 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,044 Listeners

In Our Time: Science by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Science

725 Listeners

The Life Scientific by BBC Radio 4

The Life Scientific

240 Listeners

Unexpected Elements by BBC World Service

Unexpected Elements

356 Listeners

BBC Inside Science by BBC Radio 4

BBC Inside Science

400 Listeners

The Inquiry by BBC World Service

The Inquiry

757 Listeners

Curious Cases by BBC Radio 4

Curious Cases

764 Listeners

People Fixing the World by BBC World Service

People Fixing the World

246 Listeners

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle by BBC World Service

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

4,198 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

702 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

2,967 Listeners

The world, the universe and us by New Scientist

The world, the universe and us

106 Listeners