Hypermnesia

Hypermnesia is an abnormal exaltation of memory , generated by a functional increase in it. This psychological phenomenon produces an increase in memory function, which is caused by related attempts to recover previously encoded material.

This is one of the less common psychological phenomena, and to date only a small percentage of the world’s population has been diagnosed with this disorder.

Those who suffer from hypermnesia have a memory capacity superior to the rest, and over time they tend to recall their memories with greater precision. It is estimated that this memory impairment occurs mainly in patients suffering from episodes of mania or patients with schizophrenia.

Although the exact causes that cause hypermnesia are not yet known , it is estimated that some of them may be: differences in brain structure or the constant use of areas of the brain associated with memory.

Ballard and hypermnesia

Ballard (English psychologist) was the first to observe hypermnesia , using the tool of multiple recall – the same tool with which he himself discovered reminiscence (as opposed to hypermnesia) -.

The research where the first results of hypermnesia were found was based on experimental psychology , where using scientific methods, it was tried to verify with different types of tests and experiments, that children from marginal schools in southwest London had a poor memory.

In the research, 5000 students – at different times and of different ages – were asked to memorize a poem; After asking the children to memorize the poetry, they retested their memory retrieval skills a few days later, where they found that the class had improved 10% over the initial recall level.

Research on this psychopathology has not yet finished, as scientists do not know enough about it and they hope to learn more about the ways in which the circuits of our brains process memory.

Autobiographical memory

Autobiographical memory is the type of memory that is associated with the phenomenon of hypermnesia. This memory is related to the memory of things that have happened to us during the course of our lives.

The memories of the autobiographical memory refer to events, general events that have happened to us, and specific knowledge of those events – dates, images , conversations and precise details.

In autobiographical memory, memories are classified into two types: episodic memories and semantic memories .

Episodic memories help us remember dates, places, and people, unlike semantic memories. They only deal with general facts.

All the information contained within this type of memory is related to ourselves, including the knowledge of the type of person we were, are and will be.

Hypnosis hypermnesia

Hypnosis is one of the treatments used to generate hypermnesia in patients who need it, for example: patients with memory loss or Alzheirmer principles .

Although hypnosis has generated a great deal of controversy, some psychologists claim that it can be a powerful and effective therapeutic technique for a wide range of conditions, including depression , anxiety, and different types of disorders .

According to research carried out in the 19th century, there were cases of people with delusional episodes, who under hypnosis spoke fluently a language that they had only had the opportunity to speak when they were young, and then they had stopped speaking it, which is why it was already forgotten. After this event, the psychologists and scientists in charge of the investigation affirmed that, any person under hypnosis could remember events with an invariably greater efficiency than in the waking state.