Not the kind that allows its possessor to reel off the New York City phone book, but the autobiographical kind. In this piece, Amy Ellis Nutt talks about a couple of people who possess this sort of memory and about what researchers have learned from them. Here's an extract:
"If you take a random date," Williams said, "I can usually tell you what town I was living in, whether I was in school, what job I was working at, and then I can cross-reference to something else."
McGaugh asked, "So if I say the year is 1987, the month is July and the day is the 15th?"
"Well, I was working at the radio station at La Crosse and I had already been working on a play, backstage, on a production of 'Peter Pan.' But that particular date doesn't bring anything specific to mind."
"You didn't give the day of the week," said McGaugh.
"It was a Wednesday."
"So how did you know it was a Wednesday?"
"The Fourth of July was on a Saturday that year."
"How did you know the Fourth of July was on a Saturday?"
"Because it was two days after 'Peter Pan' closed, which was on a Thursday."
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