Eidetic imagery can be so vivid as to mimic actual perception of stimuli, which can be much like a hallucination. Some researchers of eidetic imagery have proposed a link between this ability and psychosis, such as in schizophrenic populations.
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It is also hypothesized that eidetic imagery is not exactly related to memory and improves recall for visual details. As such, photographic memory is not useful in the courtroom. The frequency of eidetic imagery is low in adults and shows greatest frequency in early child development. In fact, it is almost non-existent past the age of 7.
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Eidetic imagery and typological methods of investigation: their importance for the psychology of childhood (1930). # Jung, Carl. Contributions to analytical psychology (1928). # Jung, Carl.
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Eidetic memory is typically found only in young children, as it is virtually nonexistent in adults. Hudmon stated, "Children possess far more capacity for eidetic imagery than adults, suggesting that a developmental change (such as acquiring language skills) may disrupt the potential for eidetic imagery." Eidetic memory has been found in 2 to 10 percent of children aged 6 to 12. It has been hypothesized that language acquisition and verbal skills allow older children to think more abstractly and thus rely less on visual memory systems.
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A number of people claim to have eidetic memory, but science has never found a single verifiable case of photographic memory. Eidetic imagery is virtually nonexistent in adults. Most people showing amazing memory abilities use mnemonic strategies, mostly the method of loci. This includes all winners of the annual World Memory Championships and most of the known scientific cases of excellent memories, like Solomon Shereshevsky.
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Extensive research has failed to demonstrate consistent correlations between the presence of eidetic imagery and any cognitive, intellectual, neurological or emotional measure. A few adults have had phenomenal memories (not necessarily of images), but their abilities are also unconnected with their intelligence levels and tend to be highly specialized. In extreme cases, like those of Solomon Shereshevsky and Kim Peek, memory skills can reportedly hinder social skills. Shereshevsky was a trained mnemonist, not an eidetic memoriser, and there are no studies that confirm whether Kim Peek had true eidetic memory.
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It has been hypothesized that evolutionary pressures resulted in the human brain undergoing internal reorganization to develop the capability of human language. Furthermore, this reorganization must have been implemented during early maturity and is likely responsible for eidetic imagery in some adolescents. During early development, the neural connections in prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal lobe rapidly expand to allow capability for human language, while visual memory capacity of human brain would become limited. Biological studies have demonstrated that the lunate sulcus is subject to white matter growth, and dental fossil and tomography studies have shown that the brain organization of Australopithecus africanus is pongid-like.
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Nature, 226, 1267–1268. as is the fact that the researcher married his subject. Additionally, that the tests have never been repeated (Elizabeth has consistently refused to repeat them) raises further concerns for journalist Joshua Foer who pursued the case in a 2006 article in Slate magazine concentrating on cases of unconscious plagiarism, expanding the discussion in Moonwalking with Einstein to assert that, of the people rigorously scientifically tested, no one claiming to have long-term eidetic memory had this ability proven. American cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky, in his book The Society of Mind (1988), considered reports of photographic memory to be an "unfounded myth," and that there is no scientific consensus regarding the nature, the proper definition, or even the very existence of eidetic imagery, even in children.
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