For several weeks, I've been unable to remember the second of Rudolph Dreikurs' four reasons for misbehavior -- usually, but not always, in children. Today I decided to look it up. As I ascended the stairs to my "extra" room, I was getting set to look for a black and orange spine with a used book sticker, resting flat upon the top of other books. I went to the bookcase with four shelves full of education and psychology books, but failed to see it. I proceeded to the bookcase where my education/psychology section begins, but could not find it there either. Back at the first case, I moved a couple of obstructions and found an orange and black book by Dreikurs, bearing a used book sticker, resting flat upon the top of other books. Perhaps everybody has this kind of memory, I don't know.
Had I learned the four reasons for misbehavior from this book, I would have remembered whether it began on the left or the right page and whether at the top or bottom. As it happens, I see the reasons listed on a blackboard in a specific classroom, a specific professor standing to the left and below it.
Once more I tell the good Lord how much more helpful it would be if I could also see all the words, in correct order, written on a page. Then I would not need to buy and store, as well as reread, so many books. I know there is that kind of memory, because I had a long-term best friend who had one.
To further explain the difference in our recall systems, I have a favorite example. I ran across a description of a god with many arms while researching a topic for a novel. I wanted more information. In my mind's eye, I saw myself in my parents' living room, reading one of the encyclopedias they had bought and taught us to use. I vividly saw a beautiful picture with a somewhat feminine individual with several arms. The arms were poised as though they should be carrying heavy trays.
I remembered lotus blossoms in this picture. I also remembered the word Siam. I simply knew no name, that important label essential for looking up information in encyclopedias and dictionaries. Not to worry, Fred will know. I called Fred and had not finished my query before he said "Shiva". Now it all made sense. The picture had been at the top left of the page. Siam I remembered at bottom left. Shiva I had not seen because it was on the previous page.
Criminal Minds, a television drama, has an FBI team member, a veritable fount of knowledge who professes to have an eidetic memory. I reached for my encyclopedias to find that World Book states there is no such thing as Fred's "photographic" memory. When they define eidetic memory, they define mine. They tell of someone who can look briefly at a scene and describe it with only a few errors, but they say the scene fades soon. They do not describe the Fred's of the world who can recall all the words from the first read until death. And they do not know that my kind of memory, almost without fail, lasts a long time. I read my parents' encyclopedias between 1952 and 1956. I remembered the multi-handed figure and the word Siam in February of 2000. Siam's name had been changed to Thailand by the time I was in college, which I remember because we had two delightful girls from there living in our dorm.
It is my belief that many scientists negate the experiences of others because, they, themselves, and nobody they know have had them. This attitude is also why the more unobservant of us do not believe others when they can detect "clues" that something has gone on around them. A person with and eidetic memory can tell at a glance if someone has disturbed his belongings. Others are reluctant to accept this kind of skill. This is especially so if they don't want to acknowledge a truth. I believe this is called selective memory.
On the long haul, it isn't much to have what World Book calls an eidetic memory. However, an old school, possibly mislabeled, "photographic memory" such as that of Fred and the young fountain of information on Criminal Minds, is a truly great gift. My kind of memory generally gets one labeled as paranoid by people who don't know the first thing about psychology. It may be helpful in finding books and it may lead you to discovering you have had intruders, but it doesn't do much for learning.
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