Quote:
Originally Posted by dds_ks
Just a - maybe stupid - question:
Is the name of the advantage the right way round?
I always thought that a photographic memory would mean: You remember everything you ever have seen.
And an eidetic memory would include everything you ever have noticed, whether you have seen, heard, smelled or noticed by any other sense.
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Nope. IRL they
both mean "brief recall of a visual image at near perfect detail for a short period of time" (minutes or less). Where the terms are distinguished, photographic memory means being able to e.g. read a full page of text, huge list of numbers etc in the visual image and eidedic memory can't do the whole thing - photographic memory is "better".
Neither is much like the GURPS advantages, what with the rather short duration and the fact that photographic memory appears to be a complete fiction. Eidedic memory is a thing that only happens in young children - neural reorganization around the age of 6-12 destroys it, in favor of much better archiving and organization of information over the long term. The memory is also disrupted and distorted by trying to verbalize; it's basically a party trick for people too young to need a party trick :)