I remember a scene in Honest Abe when MacGyver was first introduced to the helicopter, Abe was fussing around it and MacGyver just grabbed the manual and started reading it, which was when he found out about the light sensor being used to unlock the doors etc.

Anyway, later on, he proceeded to use a combination of controls through the light sensor to activate the gas and then start the chopper up etc.

So I started thinking.. he remembered those commands from just a quick read of the manual?

I've known a few people who have had what we generally refer to as photographic memories, and I've even known an instance very similar to this scene, where a new piece of equipment arrived and this guy read the manual while the rest of us played and then was able to recall everythign in the manual.

so all this lead me to wonder if MacGyver has a photographic memory?

What da y'all recken?

off topic note: All humans have photographic memories, thats how our brains work. thats why we dream in pictures and vision is our primary sense. The term photographic memory is actually describing Eidetic Memory

I think Mac did have a photographic memory. He would almost have too. To remember that kinda stuff.
I know from experance. I have dyslexia and I have made up for that by haveing a photographic memory .


Also remember when I posted the stuff about what his name ment.
It said "I will never forget" .


Pretty cool huh.

I always thought so. Think about the case with Dr. Zito--Deadly Dreams and a Lesson in Evil.

Eeer.. what about them?

Eeer.. what about them?

MacGyver had to remember lots of little details---he was able to recall tons of information and events and details even 2 years later in a Lesson in Evil. Proof of a pretty good, if not photographic memory.

A couple of observations:

Memory isn’t just visual, which seems to be implied in the term ‘photographic memory’: we remember sights, sounds, smell and taste, sensations (including motion – kinetic memory – which extends to the memory of how to do things). We also remember abstract information and interrelationships (such as patterns, sequences, and associations).

Western civilisation has been strongly oriented towards the visual since the Renaissance, but I was taught that this is cultural rather than purely genetic – other eras and cultures have favoured the auditory or the kinetic. Visual memory tends to be very powerful, especially when trained. Since a great deal of key information is essentially non-visual, a lot of memory tricks involve translating non-visual data into visual, or putting a visual ‘tag’ on it. This is the mental equivalent of making up for a weak muscle by using one that's stronger -- as opposed to strengthening the weak muscle so it will bear more weight.

The term ‘photographic memory’ is generally used to indicate when all details are remembered, and remembered accurately – not so much because photographs are visual, but because they are reliable records that are correct in every detail. It’s the informal term, and ‘eidetic memory’ is the formal one. But the word ‘eidetic’ was apparently coined in the 1920’s to describe the phenomenon of photographic memory, which makes the etymology somewhat circular.

Getting back to Mac, I’ve always had the impression that he not only had an eidetic or near-eidetic memory, but a very high level of innate and constant observation, both conscious and subconscious (you can’t remember data if you don’t observe it) and a preternatural ability to process the information and come up with new relationships. In addition, his memory was strong at all levels, not just visual – think of the scene in “The Heist” when he’s using the wineglasses to reproduce a set of tones heard only once.

Cool question.

I want to give Mac an IQ test to see how much he'll get. Well we can all assume that Mac was a straight-A student, considered his amount of knowledge on practically everything.

Those were just the dit-da's, right?
Mac's a quick learner with a high level of intelligence.

I don't think you'll easily forget things like that. Run-ins with Zito while doing an investigation. But than again it's not said that Mac read the files on what happened during the Cross-investigation and what it's connection was to Dr. Zito to freshen things up a bit before his testimony.

That's probably not the best example, because we know MacGyver was pretty musical, so remembering a sequence of notes wouldn't be too hard to do in a short period after hearing them.

But he did seem to have pretty good recall.

Which is kinda what I'm asking I guess. Is he a quick learner because he has instant recall? can you be a quick learner without quick recall?

I don't know. From my school experiences I know that I'm a bad learner. My specialty are dates of birth.

I think you can be a quick learner even without a quick recall. If someone asks you a question, you have to think about the question and remember the answer practically at the same time, that might take a few seconds.

But then why do we only dream in pictures? Isn't it generally accepted that dreams are how our brain processes and sorts out the days information?

Visual must surely be our brains primary processing tool if it uses it for the daily processing run. I can't recall ever tasting or smelling anything in a dream. I can't recall ever hearing anything in s dream either, but I know I've had dreams where I talked to people, so I must have been able to hear their replies.. or maybe I just "knew" what they where saying.

Something else I just thought of too. When you recognize a smell, don't you recall what it reminds you of as an image? If the smell remind you of a certain food, you think about (and image) the food, or if a sound reminds you of a certain time and place, your memory take you back to that time and place visually, you remember where you where, what you where doing as an image?

It's not just pictures, Rock.

These memory champs often say that they remember things by associating them with pictures, sounds, sensations, feelings, smells or tastes, for example. Sometimes, the crazier the association the better.

Like, for example, I could remember your user name here by associating you with Rocky the Flying Squirrel or The Rockateer movie.

The brain's a really complicated organ. We dream a lot in pictures, but I think there are sounds and feelings there too. I don't know for sure as I haven't been able to remember my dreams on waking for many years now.

Yeah your right.

I have a sneaking suspicion that dreams have at least sounds as well as pictures. I'm pretty sure I've heard talking or sound in dreams before.

The only 2 memory techniques I've ever heard about (Pegging and association) both rely on images as the primary tool, and my understanding of memory is somewhat limited to the explanations given around those two techniques.

They did make quite a lot of sense when I heard them though, which is why I've since thought of images as our primary memory tool.

having said that though, I don't use images to remember tunes.

I think photographic memory is used way too often as a plot device. I also meet people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder who think everyone listening will think they are cooler if they say they have it

As far as remembering the light sequences and stuff, we know he knew morse code, plus to a technically minded person technical info is easier to remember, i.e. you remember the stuff that is up your alley more than things you hate. So, I don't think it's impossible he had it, but unlikely or it probably would have been directly referenced to by someone.

My side hurts!!!!! Ever have a day where you hear something weird that strikes you as funny?

Er, I hope you're laughing with me...

There are 2 types of memory: recall and recognition. To illustrate: In a testing environment, recall is utilized when answering essay questions. Recognition is utilized when answering multiple choice or true/false questions. I think people confuse having a photographic memory with having excellent recall capabilities. People with photographic memories do not have this in regard to everything they see or do. Just because a person can remember something with such clarity doesn't equate to the application of that memory in regards to problem solving. Mac was just all-around intelligent, with a creative knack and an ability to always apply what he knew.

According to Wikipedia photographic memory, or total recall, is the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme accuracy and in abundant volume.

And just thinking about this some more, we have seen two instances of total recall from MacGyver.

The first in The Heist where he recalled the musical notes to open the safe; And the second was in Honest Abe where he had read through the manual for the helicopter and then later in the episode recalled the specific light sequence to certain functions of the chopper via the light sensor on it.

So that might actually lean towards a yes to the question.

I remember first hearing about Photographic Memory after watching Quantum Leap. Sam could do SO much that most couldn't even with his swiss cheese memory and so I looked into it. To have it is extreemly rare and many who have it usually give up other parts of their intellegence( common sense, easy conclusions in every day life). I was told when I was younger that I has "selective" photographic memory. If it was something I liked I took all the information in not matter how small but if I didn't then I wouldn't retain much if any. After years of looking into it I don't think it is the same as typical P.M. so I'm in luck:)

Do I think MacGyver had it? No. I think, like others have said, he had typical recall and just paid attention to things like we call should. His genius comes from his creativity and improv:)

I've always had exactly the same, and I've been mystified by it. Years back when I was a huge Star Trek fan I had an almost encyclopedic knowledge of all the episodes (which is now almost gone due to lack of practice), but I was always having trouble remembering anything in History class. It's just like you say, if it interests me I'll remember every detail, but otherwise it just refuses to go in. So glad to finally find I'm not the only one who does this.

By the way, yes, I'm new. I'll post a full introduction tomorrow when I'm not about to go to bed.

I think you'd find that a lot of people have good memories for things they're interested in.

Humans seem to generally tend towards enjoying things they have a natural aptitude for, so the fact that you remember things you enjoy is tied back to the fact that your naturally inclined to be good, or be able to remember those things.

And taking that point to MacGyver. He said he took physics because it interested him. So I guess it could well be that he too remembered things he was interested in. Although that doesn't necessarily explain how he was able to recall the smoke commands on that helicopter.

Welcome aboard by the way

You're probably right. I just never realized it would work the same for others. I always just thought my memory was the anomaly.

As for MacGyver, could be that it was unusual enough that it stuck in his mind. I haven't seen this particular episode recently though, and don't have access to it at the moment, so I might be completely wrong.

It's funny because I forgot about the tests I had to take when I was younger. I wasn't doing well in second grade and it was because my teacher was a horrible person. My parents took my to a research place that studied these types of things because they weren't sure if I was telling the truth or just making excuses. All I remember was my mother telling me it was going to be ok and trust the people in charge. All I kept think about was the McDonalds I was going to get when my mom came back to pick me up:) As they ran the tests I remember them whispering and leaving the room. Some times I had things hooked up to me, other times not. This went on for a few days. Some was history related, some Math, others puzzles. Then one day a whole bunch of people came in and asked me questions. Then I had to put puzzles together. First but looking at it all together then others by not knowing how it got together. I mean mechanical puzzles as will as the fun, flat kind:) They also timed me. I remember the one lady saying that I was breaking records but I just thought "Ooook, I don't know what that means." I ran the gambit but wasn't concered because they didn't make me feel like the lab rat I was.
Even when they explained all this to my mom I remember thinking that she'll explain it all later. It wasn't until years later that not only did I remember the outcome of those test but that I had perfect pitch which come in handy now since I'm a singer/songwriter:) I ended up moving to a new school and never had to deal with that horrible teacher again.

I realize that this would have all happened a number of years ago, but I can't help thinking that your story is a great example of how everything these days has to be "labeled" and has to be "because of something."

It couldn't just be that you had a grumpy teacher who was throwing your off your work.. there had to be "something more" some deep seated reason for it.

So was the end result that you're the scientific phenomenon they were hoping for? or are you in fact just a "normal" kid who didn't like his teacher?

I honestly don't think they knew that I would have to go through all of that. I think they just wanted to know if it was that I had a problem learning or if it was the teacher. I imagine they were ticked when finding out all I went through.
They knew that it was the teacher and not me but also learned,accidently, about that odd level of photographic memory (glancing at something and remembering every detail even years later). However it made the other side of it a pain because I would struggle with school subjects I hated. I think they were frustrated because they knew I could do it and be a sraight A student but they couldn't figure out how to get me to enjoy certain subjects.
For example, when I was younger I hated to read because all I knew were text books and they bored me to death. For years they would buy me "fun books for kids" and send me to classes trying to find a way to spark something. Then one time after coming home from camp I asked my mom if I could get a bag of comics.
Since then I've gone every week to get my books. My father would take me before I drove in any weathe and never complain. Now I not only read my comics but many other types of books as well and am now a writer as well.
However I still tend to absorb subjects I love easier then others but I think that's normal.

I do believe MacGyver has a photographic memory thats how he learned so fast in doing almost everything he was a jack of all trades so to speak.

Could be. But I always thought he was just very intelligent and dedicated to learning.

There are instances where he forgets things, such as in Silent World, he can't remember some sign language and he also has trouble with other languages, only (seemingly) knowing a few phrases of some. So that kinda indicates against the "instant recall" we associate with photographic memory.. but on the other hand there are also instances, such as in the first post of this topic, where he seems to have that instant recall... more inconsistencies of the writing team?

ok, I've now found that this is actually a totally different skill called absolute or perfect pitch and has nothing to do with photographic memory.

Everybody has a photographic memory. It's just that some people forget to load the film.

Not sure, but I think language processing may be different... photographic memory may not apply to it. Sign language is probably an exception, but I just don't know. Another possibility is that Mac's messing up the sign language was the writers' way of reminding us that no one's perfect... even Mac.

The brain is amazing; psychologists are still studying how it works. I was terrible at most higher math, and yet my mental math abilities are good enough to sometimes astound even my dad (a mathematician by training and a retired computer programmer analyst). Also, I'm currently taking medical coding classes, and the coding process made immediate sense to me in my first class, whereas most people in the class were stumped. Of course, I may get stumped later on, but so far, so good.