We've all heard of people with photographic memories—the ability to memorize anything just by looking at it.
Rajan Mahadevan, born in India in 1957, seemed to have such a memory.
By the age of five, he was able to remember the license plate numbers of a parking lot full of car.
He was also able to remember a string of 31,811 digits.
One book claimed that his memory power was a natural talent.
Later, however, Mahadevan visited with K. Anders Ericsson, a psychologist who believes that memory is a matter of training, not talent.
They discussed Mahadevan‘s memory achievements, and Mahadevan explained that he had spent 1,000 hours and used memory techniques to memorize the 31,811 digits.
He admitted that it was hard training that allowed him to do it, not a special memory.