3. The Russian ‘S’
In the early part of this century a young Russian journalist (in The Mind of a Mnemonist, by A. R. Luria, he is referred to as ‘S’) attended an editorial meeting, and it was noted to the consternation of others that he was not taking notes. When pressed to explain, he became confused; to everyone’s amazement, it became apparent that he really did not understand why anyone should ever take notes.
The explanation that he gave for not taking notes himself was that he could remember what the editor was saying, so what was the point? Upon being challenged, ‘S’ reproduced the entire speech, word for word, sentence for sentence, and inflection for inflection. For the next thirty years he was to be tested and examined by Alexander Luria, Russia’s leading
psychologist and expert on memory. Luria confirmed that ‘S’ was in no way abnormal but that his memory was indeed perfect. Luria also stated that at a very young age ‘S’ had ‘stumbled upon’ the basic mnemonic principles (see pages 39ff.) and that they had become part of his natural functioning. ‘S’ was not unique. The history of education, medicine and psychology is dotted with similar cases of perfect memorisers. In every instance, their brains were found to be normal, and in every instance they had, as young children, ‘discovered’ the basic principles of their memory’s function.