Total Recall - Rebecca's Sharrock's phenomenal memory

Skim the text quickly and find out…

 

1. How many people in the world have a memory like Rebecca’s

2. What is Rebecca’s earliest memory?

3. Why is Rebecca not a straight-A student?

4. Why is it hard for her to forgive people for things that happened in the past?

5. Why is it hard for Rebecca to enjoy some foods?

6. Why is it hard for Rebecca to go to sleep?

 

 

 

Read the text carefully and put these extracts into the correct place in the text.

 

1. "I have been taught how to forgive by my therapist, but I can never forget,"

2. Then there's the issue of food.

3. But Rebecca Sharrock can remember every single day of her entire life.

4. or H-SAM

5. It takes three months for Rebecca's memory to 'encode' so to speak

6. The 29-year-old can recall what it was like in her mother’s womb.

7. She also remembers leaving the hospital after she was born.

8. She can relive her first ever dream as clearly as the day she had it.

9. Rebecca also finds it hard to sleep.

10. children are truly smarter than adults give them credit for.

 

 

 

 More here

 

 

What’s your earliest memory?

Maybe you can distantly remember the bright colours and sense of excitement of your first children’s concert. Or recall a particular park where you really liked the swing.

I think my first memory has something to do with my fairy bed sheets. But I can’t quite work out if that’s just because I’ve seen photos of it as an adult.

The point is, you can probably only remember snippets or moments from your early childhood – if you’re lucky.

A)_____________

She is one of just 60 people in the world with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory, B)____________.

Rebecca is the only person in the world who can remember life before she was born.

C)_____________

“I can remember having my head tucked in my legs and being in a dark environment. I was comfortable and content but I didn’t really think much about my surroundings or my existence,” she told Mamamia.

D)_____________

"I was wrapped up all the time and the blanket covered a lot of what was going on around me. At that age I didn't understand what a hospital or a home was. I remember the different environments. At that age I was just excessively curious as to my surroundings, but life was a novelty," she said.

As Rebecca describes what life is like through a child's eyes but with an adult lens, you start to get a handle of why young kids act the way they do.

"As a young child I didn't think in words. I just thought in pure feeling and senses. It was much quicker to think that way. I've tried retraining myself to think that quickly now and I can't. I can't not use words when I think now," she explained.

From learning how to talk to deciding she "might try walking now" to what it felt like to be held by her mother as a baby, Rebecca remembers it all.

E)__________.

"It was a cold night and I was one and a half," she told Mamamia. "I found myself in a room with ball and shoot machines and funny noises and balls running down tunnels. I woke up crying and thinking where am I? But not in words, in feelings."

When Rebecca was three and had developed the vocabulary, she asked her mother why every night she was taken away from home. Her mum explained that she was dreaming and it was "in her mind".

Most of us would struggle to recall how we felt and what we did every day of our lives when we were this little.

Rebecca can recall every single school lesson she's ever had. So you'd assume she was a straight A student, but that's not how it works.

F)_______________. So her short-term memory isn't that amazing, it's her long-term memory that's crystal clear.

If you ask her what kindergarten was like, it's too hard for her say. There's too many memories to harness in her mind. But if you ask her what she did on her first day of kindergarten, she can focus her mind in an instant.

She'll tell you what she was wearing, thinking and doing from the moment she woke up and excitedly put on her new school uniform to when she lay down her head on her pillow that night. Hell, she can even tell you exactly what her bedroom looked like at that point in time and what the weather was like outside.

But emotions and feelings are hard when your brain refuses to give you the gift of being able to 'forgive and forget' as the saying goes.

G)_____________ Rebecca said.

For example, if Rebecca sees someone years later that she had a fight with as a child, she will relive that fight as if it's happening today. Her mind will be thinking "I hope the teacher gets that person in trouble for breaking my toy" but then her conscience and reasoning will remind her, "this is ridiculous, why is this an issue right now, that was ages ago."

H)_____________ You know how your tastebuds mature? Rebecca remembers exactly what it tasted like to eat Vegemite for the first time when she was three. It wasn't pleasant. Now as an adult, that first experience gets in the way every time she takes a bite of her Vegemite toast.

I)_____________ She has to play soft classical music to give her mind something else to focus on, otherwise she gets too distracted by flashbacks.

To calm her mind and focus her thoughts Rebecca draws, reads and writes.

She knows every single word of every Harry Potter book by heart. Give her a chapter and she'll just start reciting.

But one of the most interesting takeaways is the truth behind the fact that J)____________

For at least a year before her father left the family, Rebecca knew he would eventually go. She was only a toddler. And when Rebecca's mum said to her age two "we're leaving now," she knew that meant to a new house. She'd been expecting it.