title: Uncovering the structure of a memorist's superior "basic" memory capacity.
abstract: After extensive laboratory testing of the famous memorist Rajan, Thompson, Cowan, and Frieman (1993) proposed that he was innately endowed with a superior memory capacity for digits and letters and thus violated the hypothesis that exceptional memory fully reflects acquired "skilled memory." We successfully replicated the empirical phenomena that led them to their conclusions. From additional analyses and new experiments, we found support for an alternative hypothesis, namely that Rajan's superior memory for digits was mediated by learned encoding techniques that he acquired during nearly a thousand hours of practice memorizing the mathematical constant pi. Our paper describes a general experimental approach for studying the structure of exceptional memory and how Rajan's unique structure is consistent with the general theoretical framework of long-term working memory (Ericsson and Kintsch, 1995).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1270, USA. ericsson@psy.fsu.edu
authors.forename: K Anders
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Ericsson
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Delaney
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Weaver
authors.forename: Rajan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mahadevan
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001076:Aptitude; D003463:Cues; D005197:Famous Persons; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011930:Reaction Time