Memory and S vs. N

[garbage]

I can sum up things such as conversations that I've had, but I can't often provide specific examples that led me to my conclusions about them. It can be very, very annoying.

 

[sonata]

what I do remember is fuzzy and vague...mostly impressions of what I felt at the time.

Yes, that's pretty much what I remember too. Add that to a tendency not to trust my feelings at all...

So yes, I consider it a problem.

I can sum up things such as conversations that I've had, but I can't often provide specific examples that led me to my conclusions about them. It can be very, very annoying.

Yes.
Me: X happens all the time!
Other person: Really? Name one time.
Me: Uhhh... *epic fail*

I can sometimes come up with random numbers, like people's license plates, seemingly out of nowhere. But this doesn't happen reliably. Usually I have to try to remember a number to do so. I have to look up my mailbox combination pretty much every time I try to open it.

I have a good memory for appointments/due dates, or at least that there IS one of these things coming up and I should check it. There is no way I could know that people were wearing Y and Z at X, unless Y and Z were really, really atrocious.

 

[Valiant]

I kind of remember all things I find useful or interesting. There are people that I will never, ever remember. There are conversations about mundane things that I will not be able to recall later... If I am interested in someone in any sense, however, I will remember everything about them. I have found that I have some kind of built-in value system for everything.

For example, I remember what Bambi ate in the evening like three weeks ago and I remember what we were talking about. That's just because she's got 100% of my attention most of the time.

I think memory, at least for me, is just about focusing really hard on what I am doing.

 

[ThatGirl]

Im sorry, what thread is this again?

 

[AfterHours]

My memory is pretty vague, too. It does bother me, and can be quite frustrating, but I'm less concerned about it than I used to be.

My short-term memory is terrible unless I happen to be fascinated by a particular subject. Like a few other people have mentioned, I seem to have better access to emotionally-charged memories. When I try too hard to remember things I risk inventing a few facts.

I think that I am just too involved in the constant flow of thought to be fully aware of the present. If I don't typically experience clear and detailed events, then I probably shouldn't expect to remember them that way.

I thought my sister was the only one keeping tabs on my wardrobe.

 

[Cimarron]

When I try too hard to remember things I risk inventing a few facts.

Yeah, I suffer from this. Good way of explaining it.

 

[King sns]

I have an excellent memory. I attribute this to paying attention all the time.
So yes, this would be related to my strong sensing function.

I can remember a lot of my life in vivid detail, to very early ages. I can remember people, names, conversations, places, events. Phone numbers and birth dates. I try not to creep people out by remembering exact words from a conversation three years ago or remembering everything about someone on the second meeting.

When I was a kid in middle school all my friends and I had different schedules and I managed to memorize everyones without trying. So they'd ask me where they were going.
"you have gym, you have art, you have home ec."
I remember crawling out of my crib and jumping onto the floor, what the crib looked like, what the room looked like.
I just have a strangely sharp memory.

 

[Travo7]

My memory isn't very good with the details, like color of clothes, as some have already said. I mostly remember what I was thinking or feeling about more than the actual events/conversations. Not to say I don't remember them at all, but just not as they were in and of themselves. Also, my view of the world, my own thoughts and philosophical ruminations seem to dictate a lot of my memory of exterior events.

I am aware that what I said may sound cheesy and may not even make sense.

 

[AfterHours]

When I was a kid in middle school all my friends and I had different schedules and I managed to memorize everyones without trying. So they'd ask me where they were going.
"you have gym, you have art, you have home ec."

At some point my little sister (ESFP) took it upon herself to manage my life. She knew before I did where I was supposed to be and when.

 

[sonata]

Also, my view of the world, my own thoughts and philosophical ruminations seem to dictate a lot of my memory of exterior events.

I am aware that what I said may sound cheesy and may not even make sense.

Not very cheesy, and does make sense. I get something like that too. A 'feeling' about a certain situation, not a specific emotional response, but something annoyingly difficult to put into words. Sounds like a Ni thing.

 

[Jeffster]

Me: X happens all the time!
Other person: Really? Name one time.
Me: Uhhh... *epic fail*

This reminds me of some conversations with a co-worker of mine. One example recently was when she said that I have occasional "fits of selfishness." When I asked her for examples, she couldn't come up with a single one.

 

[Travo7]

Not very cheesy, and does make sense. I get something like that too. A 'feeling' about a certain situation, not a specific emotional response, but something annoyingly difficult to put into words. Sounds like a Ni thing.

Yeah, I think that's about the best description of "it" and it's complexity that I've heard.

 

[Gamine]

I actually have the opposite problem. I remember most details of every conversation I've had. Sometimes it's daunting, because I always see when a person contradicts himself, or when he decides something that can conflict with another decision he's said he wanted to take. I say that it's daunting because, very often, these contradictions and conflicting decisions are about very minor happenings (say, I prefer tomatoes over carrots, etc).

I also remember in detail faces of people I've only seen once, and what they were wearing too. Again, it can be a bit scary: if I get to know somebody that I have already seen before somewhere else, I may ask him "so on the 5th of november, at 12:15 you were at place X wearing Y and Z?".

Yup, yup and uber-yup. Not sure about the relation to MBTI type, but I'm EN with 65/35 F/T and 60/40 P/J. I usually get called up by friends who need to remember things, misplaced objects or contact information (names, phone numbers etc) if I was with them at the same event. I use it for networking and team leadership (the development of leaders from within the team "followers") because it assists in the objective and subjective comprehension of their capabilities and possibilities.

Other than the "useful" memory, I also tend to remember the most inane comments and ideas. it also makes forgetting unpleasant memories more difficult.

Cool thread!

 

[placebo]

Yea I don't remember years of my life. Well I remember some events happening, but I'd have almost absolutely no idea what year they happened or exactly any details. It's kinda a terrible feeling, and I don't trust my long long term memory very much. I tend to keep impressions of things--how I felt about it at the time, but not a lot of details. When people talk about past events we've shared, I sometimes tend to need a lot of prodding to remember exactly what they're talking about.

 

[penelope]

I was definitely thinking of starting a thread on this recently.

I have a very, very clear memory. Picture-memory, or however it's termed. But that may be influenced by my extreme fear as a child to get amnesia, so I would turn anything I could write on into a journal, from my desk, to chairs, to clothes... everything. I would write what I knew. I've kept written journals since I was 9 years old and everything is very detailed. So, perhaps that's also why.

The only things I don't remember vividly were the years between 7 and 9 years old, because there were some really severe family problems going on and I've learned that I blocked those memories out, except for a few.

 

[Simplexity]

I have surprisingly good associative memory, I have a knack for recalling concepts, ideas, arguments and contradictions. It's very dependent sometimes on having a reference point to assist me. I'm especially good at sort of running parallel with some of the more historical, informative, and documentary style channels on TV. My friends are somewhat annoyed and amazed by my inability at times to shut up and not explain in vivid, descriptive, and informative detail about all the ideas that are being presented.

I think once I've sufficiently outlined the scope of a particular topic and can assess where the integral parts are I can really get comfortable. I almost have an internal scale of how to fluctuate, scratch that, stop in terms of how informative I get. I always like to introduce complexity and by effect more detail into everything so I can understand it more thoroughly, both in the moment and for future purposes. I have exceptionally good recall of some of my more philosophical ruminations. A fact that I have to sometimes be reminded of, specifically that others might not know where the hell it originated from.

 

[nolla]

Sometimes I think I have no memory at all.

I have this four digit bank account number and I still don't remember the actual numbers, I have memorized the pattern my finger moves on the keypad. But, on the other hand, I remember patterns really well. If I have heard how some things work logically, or if I have figured it out myself, this never goes away. It is usually just there waiting. I am also good at remembering words, like foreign language words, but poor remembering grammar. The only way for me to learn grammar is to remember the sentences, not the rules. I can't really say I remember people's faces, either. I couldn't bring many faces into my mind right now. I'm bad with names too, very bad, actually. But, I do remember facial expressions of certain people in certain moments very accurately, but I think this means that I remember my interpretation of how they felt. Because, if I don't remember their face, how could I remember the expression?

My childhood is just a big blur with a couple of highlighted moments. I once did a timeline of my life and it looked like it went through a shredder and half of the stuff was missing, the other half in wrong places. I don't really see this as a tragedy. Ok, so I don't remember my first day in school. It wasn't probably that interesting anyways. The irony is that I most likely remember all of the stuff they ever taught me better than the things that actually happened to me.

 

[Purple INFJ]

I think most iNtuitive dominants tend to generally suck at remembering stuff like roads they've gone through or where they put personal belongings, that seems to me like stuff that has to do with Sensation.

Intuition is abstract by nature, so it's pretty much at odds with the quotidian.

Something as simple as picking out approppiate clothes for going out can at times be an issue for me because I can ignore the details regarding it until someone else points them out.

 

[Purple INFJ]

I usually get called up by friends who need to remember things, misplaced objects or contact information (names, phone numbers etc) if I was with them at the same event.

Have you considered that maybe you're not really an ENTP? My understanding is that iNtuitive Doms generally tend to be "absent-minded professor" types, so if you tend to be skilled at remembering where physical stuff is, you might at least have a Tertiary Sensing function.

 

[Yama]

My memory sucks.