In this fascinating article, Gary Marcus (now better known as a Deep Learning critic, for better or worse) profiles Jill Price, a woman who has an exceptional autobiographical memory. However, unlike others that studied Price, Marcus plays the role of the skeptic and comes to the conclusion that Price’s memory is not exceptional in general, but instead only for the facts about her life, which she obsesses over constantly.
Now obsessing over autobiographical memories is not something I’d recommend to people, but reading this did make me realize that to the degree it’s cultivate-able, continuously mulling over stuff you’ve learned is a viable strategy for remembering it much better.
It seems not that conscious. I suspect it’s similar to very scrupulous people who just clean / tidy up by default. That said, I am very curious whether it’s cultivatable in a less pathological way.
How to remember everything (not about Anki)
In this fascinating article, Gary Marcus (now better known as a Deep Learning critic, for better or worse) profiles Jill Price, a woman who has an exceptional autobiographical memory. However, unlike others that studied Price, Marcus plays the role of the skeptic and comes to the conclusion that Price’s memory is not exceptional in general, but instead only for the facts about her life, which she obsesses over constantly.
Now obsessing over autobiographical memories is not something I’d recommend to people, but reading this did make me realize that to the degree it’s cultivate-able, continuously mulling over stuff you’ve learned is a viable strategy for remembering it much better.
I would love to see her cognitive strategy modeled in more depth. What are the beliefs and emotions that are sustaining that constant mulling?
It seems not that conscious. I suspect it’s similar to very scrupulous people who just clean / tidy up by default. That said, I am very curious whether it’s cultivatable in a less pathological way.