Thread by @erikaheidewald

New blog post is up on my Patreon - how the process of memory integration and recall differs by neurotype and creates learning style requirements that are often disregarded as preferences or never recognized at all. #AutismAcceptanceMonth

patreon.com/posts/50163474

This post was inspired by a conversation with my allistic ND best friend in which we found out that despite having photographic memories that use visual representations of words - we're the students who need to take our own notes – our memories are PHOTOGRAPHING DIFFERENT THINGS

And then what our memories do with those photographs and how we use them are completely different and run in precisely the opposite order from each other. Our recall works using completely different information - she can't use my method and I can't use hers

This finally explained to me why I never needed to study in school and couldn't understand what studying was for. I tried to couple times before tests because I felt like I should but I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to be doing and why it would help

The basic difference rests upon if you use the meaning to store and recall the memory or not. we figured this out when I was quizzing her on her flashcards for her citizenship test and she forgot one of them - “What does the Constitution do?” but she definitely knows what it does

So I tried to help spur her memory by thinking through what she knows about the Constitution bc I had made the grievous error I KNOW is an error - I assumed her brain would work like mine because I hadn't considered that might not not be how memory recall works for everyone! 🙈🤯

For me, by thinking through what I know about the Constitution and what it does, I would most likely be able to remember the exact wording I had memorized but if I couldn't, I’d at least have a correct answer that would be close enough because the meaning would be conveyed

It turns out, the meaning is what I actually remember & my memory stores images based on the meaning & thinking about the meaning is how I trigger memory recall. That is not how her memory works at all! The meaning is not involved in processing, storing, or recalling information

She has to access the memory as purely visual information and summon the card in her mind, read it, and then once the information is available, she can use it to think about the meaning. So my method trying to help was less than useless, it made it harder bc it was backwards!

Her memory photographs the entire card, her entire field of vision of the card, and summons it back as a whole photograph. My memory also photographs my field of vision and stores that in my subconscious but create another visualization of only what is relevant to the meaning

In this case, the words. That's the image that would come to my conscious mind. I wouldn't picture information from the card my brain deemed irrelevant to the meaning like the color and size, only the words as standalone images, along with images my mind created about the meaning

I only know the whole picture is stored somewhere in my subconscious bc if I have to search it for meaning I didn't find the first time, my subconscious will deliver it suddenly fully formed - if it feels like it. I make the request but I don't get to decide if & when it's filled

like i’m sorry but HOW FUCKING COOL IS THIS?? Photographic memories that might seem the same but work differently in different order and you would never know unless the process is interrupted and an intermediate step is required. Then suddenly either system can look faulty!

In the blog post I go into the implications for education, communication, and differences in our basic perceptions of reality and why we can often find ourselves unable to find any way to bridge the differences in our perceptions of reality from other people.

I can already see so much more clearly the source of many miscommunications I have and the criticisms I receive that make no sense to me. I've always seen myself as contributing data points and ideas and ways of analysis people can use to build their understanding, if they want

See what applies, how it fits with their existing understanding of their own of their mind, use what's helpful, discard the rest. That's how I take in information and build my understanding piece by piece. I didn't understand why some people thought I wanted uncritical obedience

I didn't understand why some saw it as all or nothing and if my specific examples didn't apply to them, they didn't apply the concept to their own culture and situation. But that’s because my mind works that way, and now I can see better why other people’s don’t!