"At first glance, having perfect recall might seem like a gift from the heavens. No more embarrassing lapses in which you forget a name seconds after shaking hands, and gone are the grocery hauls where you come home with everything but the eggs you specifically left to get. But think deeper and you'll find that perfect recall is a curse, not a blessing. We know this because of people like Jill Price, the first person ever diagnosed with highly superior autobiographical memory"
"The truth is, forgetting is a function we desperately need. Our brains are designed to filter and discard, not retain and recall. What we really want is not to remember everything, but to remember exactly the right things at the right moment.And the good news is that with a little training, we can do just that with the right amount of effort and the right techniques."
Perfect recall can be overwhelming and emotionally exhausting, as experienced by individuals with HSAM such as Jill Price. Forgetting is an adaptive function that filters irrelevant information and protects mental health. Memory evolved to prioritize emotionally salient and relatable information tied to survival. Emotion strengthens memory selectively: negative emotions sharpen intrinsic details while positive emotions yield generalized impressions. Dry, abstract study material lacks salience and fails to engage memory effectively. Targeted training and techniques can enhance selective recall, enabling retrieval of the right information at the right moment.
Read at Psychology Today
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