Supernatural memory ...?

To me, the human memory is a very interesting subject. Every day I’m constantly impressed, but at the same time a bit frightened by my own memory (or maybe lack of memory). My colleagues stare at me like I’m some kind of an alien life form when I remember poker odds, old license plates, the Latin names of muscles and bones or maybe when I try to explain how to solve the Rubik’s cube. I’ve had it handed to me quite roughly that it’s serious indicators of ADHD/ADD or other neuropsychiatric disorders and believe me, it got me rather curious. What makes me doubt my supposed disorder is the other end of the spectra. When I and my girlfriend moved to Norway, we implemented a menu at home, mostly to simplify planning of grocery shopping but also because of economic benefits. I think that this is a brilliant idea even if I interestingly enough never can remember what we’ve decided to eat. I ask her at least twice each day about what we’re having for dinner tonight, although I participated in creating the menu. And when we go shopping I’m screwed if I’m not carrying a shopping list. How come I can remember complex issues with ease while I struggle with the most trivial? Classic ADD or maybe Asperger?

For a moment now, let’s think about chess. Chess players have always impressed me because of their seemingly supernatural memory abilities. It’s not rare to see chess players play full games completely blindfolded. One interesting extreme case is Richard Réti who 1925 broke the record for “blindfolded chess”. He played 29(!) games simultaneously while blindfolded, won 21, drew 6 and lost only 2. This to me is supernatural and borderline alien, even though the record has been broken a few times since.

An interesting study performed on experienced chess masters memory capacity (and non-players as control) that is being discussed in Talent is overrated, really caught my attention. In the study the subjects were being shown a chess board with all the pieces set up as in actual game positions. The subjects studied the board for a brief moment and were then asked to reposition the pieces as they were. The results were expected; the experienced chess masters could with ease place all of the pieces exactly where they were while the non-players could only place 4-5. What really boggled my mind was the second part of the study. Here they repeated the same test, but with the pieces placed randomly on the board, not as in actual game positions. The non-players were still placing only 4-5 pieces, but the really interesting thing is that the chess masters did scarcely better, placing only 6-7 pieces. Does this also imply ADHD/ADD/Random disorder?

Putting it together.
When we’re jealous at someone’s ability to remember something, are we then being jealous at their ability to remember something specific or at their memory capacity in general? I’d say the latter even though it’s hard to find any real evidence that someone with a “supernatural” memory in one field would be better than average in another. If you practice remember something, you will be good at remembering just that. Exactly how to train your memory is not a question that I have definite answers to as of yet, although I’m definitely interested in finding it out.

Question: Is there really something supernatural or special about my memory? Is there something special about yours? Or have they only been trained differently? Regardless of how special you feel when your mother says that you are, or regardless of how many signs of genius you find in your personality, you’re probably just as average as I am. Although my girlfriends ability to remember our menu is to me still supernatural..