GO GO GADGET SUPERPOWERS
Parents, Teachers, and Other Passengers on the Magic Caregiving Bus— Do You Have a Photographic Memory?
And what are the implications, if so?
“Mommmm, where’s my Karate belt?!”
“Lindy, where are my gray work jeans that were in the middle of the folded clothes pile three days ago?”
“Don’t forget, it’s Aunt Rocky’s birthday today!”
“How did you know my frog Squishmallow was underneath the third row of Dad’s car, Ma?”
A good visual memory is both a boon and a burden. One one hand, you’re a rainbow-lasso’d unicorn who can rope to mind a spectrum of misplaced things. On the other, nobody else bothers to remember jack shyte— so long as you’re around.
It’s a Janus-faced affair — like when your seven-year-old, who has the dexterity to build his own Ferris wheel with an Erector Set, “needs” you to wipe his ass.
And it’s not just parents who are endowed with this gift. Teachers remember things tenfold. Not only do they recall students’, colleagues’, and parents’ faces and names — they’re also skilled wranglers of teaching materials, school supplies, and temporal event calendars.
**Sensory overload, children!**
I’m no Ms. Frizzle. But I am a mom of multitudes. And in my experience, moms involuntarily memorize where their family’s stuff is.
Observe:
The whereabouts of my fourth child’s blue Crocs are stored in my long-term memory — in a heavier typeface than the name of my fifth child’s friend’s mom, whom I met forty-five seconds ago.
I probably couldn’t pick that new momfriend out of a lineup of other women I talk with at our kids’ Jiu-Jitsu class, though.
What is a “photographic” memory? Most people recall images better than sounds or smells, hence the handle. But in 2013, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Barry Gordon said that — at least, in the stereotyped, “total snapshot” sense — photographic memory isn’t really a thing.¹
A better metaphor than the camera is the kitchen sink. If you have a so-called photographic memory, says Gordon, you’re probably just blessed with a strong memory all around.
The Handbook of Behavioral Science defines short-term memory (STM) as “the capacity for holding a small amount of information available for a short time.” That is, STM is a system for the ability to recall things within seconds. [external link, via ScienceDirect].²
Okay, it’s been a minute since I’ve been a student in a formal setting. But I have questions, none of which were easily Googlable:
-Which are more accessible, on average — short-term or long-term memories? Does this depend on the person?
-Do teachers, parents, and caregivers have a lower incidence of certain types of dementia?
-How guilty should a parent feel for not helping her child check the Lost-and-Found before everything gets carted off to Goodwill at the school year’s end?
It’s all so confusing. Bonus question: Let’s say you buy your son a jacket from Goodwill, and then he loses it. He forgets all about it and the jacket gets donated back to Goodwill from the Lost-and-Found. Should you buy it for him again if you see it on the shelves?
And the ethics of interference get even muddier when you throw siblings into the mix.
For each item someone in my household leaves in the downstairs bathroom, my brain appoints its own little Jiminy Cricket! I can’t in good conscience ignore the urge to say, “as a matter of fact I HAVE seen your jock strap. It fell between the dryer and the wall, and then your brother kicked it down the stairs with his wet, dirty cleats until I yelled at him to either take them off or go outside. And to STOP SINGING RICK ASTLEY!”
*Rips hair out* *throws hair onto the carpet* *winds up and kicks hair*
My last question isn’t so much an academic one as a practical one: how does a person finally bury the earworms from Rick Astley’s music?
I can’t seem to give that one song up. Especially without getting mud in the house.
References ¹ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/i-developed-what-appears-to-be-a-ph/
²https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128120125000021
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