Phenomenal memorizing as a "special ability."

Abstract

A number of cases of great memorizing ability taken from the literature of the subject are explained as being due not to skill or special capacity in memorizing, but to patience in memorizing, aided, perhaps, by mnemonic devices. The author reports the case of K., a phenomenal memorizer, whose accomplishments he has investigated in detail. The salient features of this case are given as follows: (1) Gonadal inferiority: eunuchoid constitution; (2) intellectual and social inferiority; (3) extraordinary memorizing as a mechanism of (a) direct compensatory adjustment and (b) mother identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)