Photographic Memory | ADHD Information
I wish!!!I read a study not too long ago describing that some people with ADD compensate for decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex with increased activity in the visual cortex located in the back of the brain. When subjects with ADD concentrated the MRI showed that the visual cortex lit up significantly more than control subjects.
This reflects my experience with school. Instead of memorizing the material I memorize the whole page that the material is written on. In other words I can take a mental snapshot of them material, and recall the picture during the test. I can memorize about 20 pages of information.
The trick is to memorize the location of key phrase on the page. I can then draw a mental map of the page utilizing several points of references. Ive integrated this method in my lifestyle as a way around ADHD.
OpenYourEyes38382.7768981481Are you kidding?! Had I had a photographic memory, I may have done better in school. Who knows where I'd be right now. I can't remember what I just looked up in the TV guide...had to look it up several times.
By the time I figure what's on at 9 pm, the program will be over!
Now, I will say that I'm a very visual person. I visualize just about everything...just don't remember what I visualized. hee hee GypsyWomyn38382.8991203704
wow..I thought it was just me with photographic memory.I have been like that for a LONG time. I still failed in grammar school..just because you have this doesnt make school work any easier.I think ppl have the wrong perception of it
When I worked in a medical records department,I could remember exactly how a chart was written.also could remember out of 20,00 files where exactly that file was..even tho' they were filed numerically.
I can remember how things are written..but definitely not numbers or driving direcytions..lol
Does ADHD go hand and hand with photographic memory?Mine only applies to numbers really. Funny cause I sucked at math lol. . MariaWiteNite...I was a city bus driver years ago in Upstate New York, and learning my routes, I would also use directions like you do. However, once in a while, someone would paint their house a different color, a tree used as a landmark would be cut down, or an entire building would be torn down and turned into a parking garage or something. Then I would just ask my passengers "Where next?"
Sunidesus--My wish is to learn ASL! I have many books on it, and know a couple people who use it. But what I need is to actually take a class, I think. I think it's so much more expressive, too, than speaking, don't you?
Gypsy - Most definately!
I was lucky in middle school and high school because I had a number of classes with Deaf/HH kids and that meant there'd be an interpreter. I would watch the 'terp all class and not the instructor. But I learned a ton that way. (the class material and the signs 
)
Gypsy... me too on the map thing! And the typing. I love IM'ing a conversation, hate having a phone conversation. You've got me beat though, I top out around 85wpm.
And the visualized words... I will frequently come up with the word I want in ASL (sign language) before the English one pops into my head. And English is my first language! I also pick up ASL really fast. I started learning it in middle school and if I saw a sign just once I'd remember it. The language itself just makes more sense to me than English most of the time. I think because it's a completely visual language.
In high school I found that if I forced myself to translate something into ASL I would remember it later. That worked for memorizing Bible passages for confirmation class too! Not exactly something that'll help many other people, but it certainly worked for me!
Wow! I thought it was just me. That's how I remember things... what things I can remember. I had not problems with written text, like in a text book, novel or even in my notes.
For exams I could memorize the entire page so that in the exam, I could just close my eyes and read the information as I needed it! I could "see" the layout, the pictures, paragraphs, etc. and it would all be so clear. I would have to study it though, so I don't think that qualifies as a "photographic" memory.
However, and it's true to this day (I'm 42), I can't remember my multiplication tables. I have to use a calculator for the simplest things. Of course, I was never good in math, except I blazed through geometry.
I have an excellent sense of direction too, but I can't remember street names. I always get my own address wrong. However, even if I've only been somewhere once, I can find my way back (and I've done it as much as 10 years later!)
When I give someone instructions, I have to say, "You'll come to the intersection with the green house to your right and the Shell station... turn left there, and then go until you come to a large road... it's got a divider in the middle and a hotel on the opposite right hand corner from you..." but I can't for the life of me tell them the street names or numbers. Go figure! 
Next strongest for me is kinesthetic. If I do something it helps me to remember. So if I saw the notes on the board, then wrote them down - I was twice as likely to remember it on the test. If I watch someone do something, then do it myself - I'll get it.
But not just from hearing someone tell me. I'm not at all auditory. (I'm the one snoring in church!) You can tell me your name from now til the end of the earth and I won't remember it.
Not unless you let me write it on a name tag. After I've taken a good long look at you. And then it's still a maybe.
But then, that's the beauty of this thing called ADHD. It's full of paradoxes.
Sunidesus...same here. I could visualize where the answer was, but not the information itself.
Wendy, yes, yes, yes. Completely visual. When trying to remember a name, word or place, I need to visualize that person, thing or place before I can get the word from brain to mouth. And even then, it sticks somewhere between brain and mouth. Ugh. Frustrating.
I think that's why it's easier to communicate with typing...my fingers keep up with the brain (120 wpm)!
Ever ask someone what comes to mind when you mention a certain State or Country? I immediately visualize the shape of the state and where it's located on a map of the United States; same with a country.
Being recently dx'd with ADHD (after many, many years of living with it) and fairly new to this forum, I'm still overwhelmed with reading from all of you, and how much we have in common. Realizing that I'm not stupid or crazy! Just crazy enough to survive.
I'm not on ADHD meds yet...does it really help to get those visualized words out of the mouth??? The first time??? I'm sick of stumbling on my words, and losing the attention of whomever I'm talking with while trying. If only we could read minds...how much easier it would be!! But then, again, maybe NOT.
GypsyWomyn38383.4897569444Wierd- I'm completely visual. That's even how I know how to spell words- I can remember their shape. I was a total whiz at organic chemistry bc I could remember a picture of what was supposed to be stuck where on the carbon ring. Can't remember anything to do with numbers to save my life, though!
Wendy
lol,
Yeah, Organic Chemistry was easy for me too. I could paint a mental picture of all those mechanism and retrieve the picture during the test. But, ask me to remember your name 5 minutes from now and I draw a complete blank
Being new to this ADD thing I just keep being amazed by how much makes sense now!
I remember soooo many tests in high school where I could remember exactly what the page that had the answer looked like, what the pictures were, the layout of the page, exactly where the sentence I needed was, but couldn't remember the info itself!
That study about the visual vs. prefrontal cortex sounds really interesting. I know I have a much easier time remembering something I see versus something I hear.