[MBTI General] NFPs: do you have a good/ accurate memory?

[Sophie]

Hi there!

I'm curious to know if other NFPs have an accurate memory, because, I don't know if it's a over-developed Si-function thing, but I can remember things very easily: facts, dates, addresses, phone numbers, varied information, sensory information in general, feelings, and detailed data (for example, about conversations, happenings), etc... even if it is in a distant past. It has been a characteristic of mine since I was a child.

Do other NFPs experience anything like this? Do you know someone similar (if yes, what's her/ his type)? Does it has anything to do with functions, or it's something (tottaly) apart of this?

Waiting for feedback!

 

[stalemate]

When I was younger say like 7 or 8 up through my teens I could remember everything, if I bothered to notice it in the first place. Ideas, concepts, concrete details of the world, everything.

Now, not so much. I remember ideas very well. The way things hang together (networks of people, interfaces between computer applications) and the implications of all those little hangings together.

What someone said to me or something I did yesterday? No chance.

 

[Standuble]

It's easy to say I have a good memory compared to others but its possible that the reasons for this may be that I am just remembering less, my brain choosing to remember only a few key elements in depth which are of relevance to the present day.

From what I recall the long term memory is in a different part of the brain as the short term. I often forget details which happened minutes ago, sometimes seconds. If the data can survive long enough it finds itself stored in the archives, where it is remembered for years.

 

[skylights]

i have a very good visual memory. if i write it down, then it's pretty much permanent.

experiential memory, kind of blows.

 

[Southern Kross]

I have a shocking memory overall.

This is mostly about everyday things; names, faces, dates, things to do, "OMG where I put my sunglasses/keys/water down less than 30 seconds ago?" etc. I've learn to just accept that there isn't anything I can do about it so I've stopped trying to remember. If someone tells me the date and location of some event I'm going to, I just nod and pretend like it's registered but in reality it's gone in one ear and out the other. I then wait for the email or text or official invitation to arrive (or will ring up someone else that's going at the last minute to find out) because if I don't have it written down where I can check it multiple times, I'd never manage it.

It's so bad that if there is crucial information I must remember or something I must do, I get extremely anxious and totally overcompensate. When I was bridesmaid for my friend, on the day of the wedding I got up 2 hours earlier than I really needed to; stressed about every detail on a list I had written myself; and quadruple checked that I had the all the things I needed. I didn't actually have much to do but I was so incredibly stressed at the level of responsibility and the total lack of room for error, that I was in a complete state of terror leading up to it. I basically have to assume I'm a total incompetent idiot in order to make sure things get done.

I do have a knack for remembering useless information though - this makes me good at things like pub quizzes. I will also remember strange details about people before I will remember their name. Novelty and relational information (ie. how things all fit together) is the only way to override my sieve-like mind. Basically, if my Ne isn't sufficiently engaged, I'm going to forget.

 

[011235813]

I have a selectively good memory. I remember things that are interesting enough to stand out or have personal significance, and to hell with all the rest.

My short-term ability to remember things that I'm trying to remember is excellent. Makes cramming for tests super easy.

 

[Riva]

@op - Are you/xnfps absent minded? They seems to be forgetting things all the time, misplacing things, burning places down - literally, etc.

This is probably a Ne thing. Infact all NPs seem to be guilty of being absent minded which could be easily explained through the Ne-function.

Maybe NPs who are Sp doms are not prone to it?

Hmm.. Come to think of it SPs seem to be absent minded/forgetful too. Istps not as much as the rest.

Oddly enough the most clever people i've met are xnfps, though they might not be interested in utilizing their talents to the extreme.

 

[31january]

I've got an awesome memory for personally significant dates (and tons of things count as significant), and other random emotionally significant things/ interesting trivia, but when it comes to remembering tasks and deadlines my only hope is pretty much a notebook/smartphone

 

[Seymour]

I have a great memory for things that are meaningful, interesting, conceptual and/or quirky. I have a terrible memory for mundane collections of facts that lack a unifying concept or theme. Also, I find numbers somewhat difficult to hold onto exactly (dates, years, exact totals and percentages, etc).

I always thought I was terrible at rote memorization until I was in a study group in college (I almost never did study groups). Turns out I memorized just fine, I just hated and resented having to do so.

 

[Sophie]

@op - Are you/xnfps absent minded? They seems to be forgetting things all the time, misplacing things, burning places down - literally, etc.

This is probably a Ne thing. Infact all NPs seem to be guilty of being absent minded which could be easily explained through the Ne-function.

Maybe NPs who are Sp doms are not prone to it?

Hmm.. Come to think of it SPs seem to be absent minded/forgetful too. Istps not as much as the rest.

Oddly enough the most clever people i've met are xnfps, though they might not be interested in utilizing their talents to the extreme.

What you said is really true for me. I'm really absent minded about this kind of mundane things... Except that I never burned anything down... just one little cloth accidentally. Oops. This can seem paradoxal due to the good memory, but it's what happens... But I can say that my ISFP brother is even worse than me! haha

I don't know my e-type and instinctual variant accurately to say, by experience, if it's related or not.

 

[Sophie]

I have a selectively good memory. I remember things that are interesting enough to stand out or have personal significance, and to hell with all the rest.

My short-term ability to remember things that I'm trying to remember is excellent. Makes cramming for tests super easy.

With me is kinda like it too... I remember things that I find personally interesting and/ or related with people I care, but things that aren't like it, I may ignore, because it wouldn't be interesting for me to do it. I forgot to specify the personal thing on the OP...

In short term, it's exactly like you said.

Things that I find unnecessary or don't pay close attention... I'll surely forget.

 

[Southern Kross]

@op - Are you/xnfps absent minded? They seems to be forgetting things all the time, misplacing things, burning places down - literally, etc.

This is probably a Ne thing. Infact all NPs seem to be guilty of being absent minded which could be easily explained through the Ne-function.

Maybe NPs who are Sp doms are not prone to it?

Hmm.. Come to think of it SPs seem to be absent minded/forgetful too. Istps not as much as the rest.

Oddly enough the most clever people i've met are xnfps, though they might not be interested in utilizing their talents to the extreme.

I'm very absent-minded. I don't register a lot of the little things I do; like if I have something in my hand, I'll put it down without fully realising and walk off. Sometimes I may have absolutely no memory of doing so.

I do think most NFPs I've met are a least a little absent-minded. Not all are forgetful but they do tend to have a distracted nature. I think what it comes down to for me is whether my Ne is engaged in the present moment or if it's mentally moving off in tangents, where I end up lost in more interesting thoughts. Of course my mind is always moving off in tangents but if the present subject is interesting enough my mind will circle back and make the connections necessary to form a strong memory.

I don't know if it is related to a lack of Sp, though (I'm Sp second for the record). As for SPs, I must say my ISTP dad is probably just as bad as I am in terms of forgetfulness - but he isn't at all absent-minded. He's usually very focussed on the task at hand and isn't easily distracted or inclined to lose things. The thing is this can look like absent-mindedness, because he can only properly do one task at a time; consequently he'll often mess up or forget about the secondary task.

 

[kyuuei]

REALLY Good at remembering things that may or may not be completely useless.

Awful at memorizing and retaining things short term. "Can you tell so-and-so I called?" Nope, I can't. I will forget the instant I hang up the phone with you. Every. Time. "Just text me and let me know what you're doing in a week." You'll never hear from me. "Your appointment is at 9am." Hold on, I must write this down immediately in 5 different spots to include my hand.

 

[Bardsandwarriors]

I once spent 2 days looking for my favourite mug, and got people on my blog to suggest where it might be. We reckoned it was a wormhole in the time-space continuum, and some alien had suddenly had a gigantic Homer Simpson mug materialise in front of them. I hunted everywhere in my flat for it, several times, and it had literally evaporated.

Then I found it in the microwave, where I had heated up some water in it and completely forgotten. Since then, I always check the microwave first.

But if we are talking about something, and I say that 3 years ago you said "such and such a thing", in precisely a certain tone of voice, with a particular inflection on one of the vowels which recollected specific memories or emotions in your mind, and it meant very specific things had happened or were about to happen in your life, you should believe me.

 

[tkae.]

My ability to recall specific things is above average, but my frequency in recalling them when I'm supposed to is beyond pathetic

I can bring up memories from back before I was two. I remember being in a crib and thinking that the racecar shirt my mom had put me in smelled like crayons (the ones that smell bad as opposed to the ones that just smell normal).

But remembering to do something someone's just asked me to do ten minutes ago? Or remembering to do something in an hour?

Fuck that, it's not gonna get done

Sometimes I start walking somewhere and forget where I'm going. Or wait in line to buy something and forget what I'm waiting for, then start walking out of the store. I drank a Coke waiting in line while talking to someone because I forgot I was standing in line to pay for it...

 

[PrincessButtercup]

I love technology. My clinic is now online so I can go check when my appointments are for myself instead of calling there once a week to make sure my appointment isn't that week.

But I can still sing along to my 80's music, I can still quote several SNL's from when I was 5, if I could draw I could recreate the entire floor plan complete with furniture from the house we lived in when I was 4 and I can rattle off all sorts of health-related studies and statistics (natural health is a passion of mine.) My coworkers call me Cliff Clavin. (the postman from Cheers) My head is full of useless trivia.

 

[Kitsune413]

If you compliment me I'll remember it forever.

I cannot for the life of me do anything but paraphrase a conversation. Whenever someone needs to know 'exactly' what was said its hopeless.
If I'm trying to remember something I'll always think of something else and forget.

if its something meaningful I'll remember it forever.

I assume most ENFP's are absent minded but I also assume that all the other ENFP's are also constantly thinking of other things.

 

[Kitsune413]

quick reply isn't so quick!