You were saying something?

I am always extremely impressed with people who have a photographic memory. I've always been very good at analysis and problem solving, but struggled miserably when it came to memorizing dates, names, and places. I can easily recall theorems, because I know how they apply to various problems. But, to Dr. Maskin's great dismay, I'm at a complete loss when it comes to remembering when and where George Washington signed some treaty or fought some battle, and such. Similarly, my friends complain that I don't pay attention to what they are saying, but usually, I just filter out the information that's not important or interesting to me.

However, occasionally I do exhibit a knack for memorization, particularly when it comes to the obscure and trivial.

For example, I have the eerie ability to retain most information in the Bronx Science Alumni Newsletter. This is a totally useless feature of my brain, although it does impress people sometimes. Other times, it just spooks them out. For instance, when meeting Nobel laureate Melvin Schwartz for the first time, "Professor Schwartz, you are Bronx Science class of 1949!!!" can really go either way.

I also have the strange propensity to recall the FIDE ratings for most of my favorite grandmasters, going back to 1952. And, don't even get me started on the obscene amount of brain matter that is wasted on baseball trivia and statistics. Why should I know so much about Fernando Valenzuela? (Why should anyone?) What great scientific discoveries could I have made if so much of my brain wasn't occupied with the play-by-play of the 1998 World Series or the season OBPs for the entire starting lineup of the 1986 Mets?

Well, the reason I've been musing like this is because a colleague just sent me a recent collision detection post, which discusses the results of some current cognitive research into visual working memory. Particularly, they discuss the efficiency with which our brains filter information, and how that relates to memory capacity. The articles that Clive links to are very interesting, and definitely worth a look. (Although, it's always amusing how instead of saying "dumb people" they say "creative people.")

Anyway, I think that this is an interesting subject. Too bad it's so difficult to actually prove anything.