Broadcaster Brad Williams, 51, excels at pop-culture trivia such as Academy Award winners, but he stumbles on sports. Photo: Dinesh Ramde/AP____________________________________________________________
By Dinesh Ramde
The Associated Press
LA CROSSE, Wisconsin (The Seattle Times), February 23, 2008:
For as long as he can remember, Brad Williams has been able to recall the most trifling dates and details about his life.
For example, he can tell you it was Aug. 18, 1965, when his family stopped at Red Barn Hamburger during a road trip through Michigan. He was 8, and he had a burger, of course.
"It was a Wednesday," recalled Williams, now 51. "We stayed at a motel that night in Clare, Michigan. It seemed more like a cabin."
To Williams and his family, his ability to recall events is a regular source of amusement. But according to one expert, Williams' skill might rank his memory among the best in the world. Doctors are studying him and a woman with similar talents, hoping to achieve a deeper understanding of memory.
Williams, a radio anchor in La Crosse, seems to enjoy having his memory tested. Name a date from the past 40 years and, after a few moments, he can typically tell you what he did that day and what was in the news.
How about Nov. 7, 1991?
"Let's see," he mused, gazing into the distance for about five seconds. "That would be around when Magic Johnson announced he had HIV. Yes, a Thursday. There was a big snowstorm here the week before."
He went on to identify correctly some 20 other events.
"I've always been this way," Williams said. "Growing up, I never really had reason to think I wasn't like everyone else."
How does he do it?
"You want the Nobel Prize right now? Tell me that answer and I'll publish it," said Dr. James McGaugh, who has studied Williams since last summer. "We don't know. We do know that he carries this information with him, that it's detailed, that it's just there. That's what we want to know — why is it there?"
Williams' brother contacted McGaugh, a research professor at the University of California, Irvine, after the neurobiologist published a case study of a similar person in the journal Neurocase in 2006.
That woman is in her mid-40s and was identified only as A.J. She told McGaugh that whenever she hears a date, memories from that date in previous years flood her mind like a running movie. The phenomenon, she lamented, is "nonstop, uncontrollable and totally exhausting."
McGaugh and his colleagues subjected A.J. to psychological tests. Given a date at random, she was nearly flawless in recalling the day of the week and what she did that day.Scientific literature documents people who could memorize a series of 50 to 100 random letters or digits. One person read a 330-word story twice and reproduced it nearly verbatim a year later.
But those research subjects remembered meaningless information. What distinguishes Williams and A.J. is their "superior autobiographical memory," an above-average ability to remember dates and details, McGaugh said.
"In subjects we regard as having this ability, they do better than 90 percent on the tests we provide," McGaugh said.
The tests typically involve reproducing information that can be corroborated with old scrapbooks, yearbooks and diaries, sources McGaugh often tries to obtain from family members without the subjects' knowledge.
Other tests involve naming a notable public event and asking for its date.
Williams and A.J. performed better on topics that interested them. Williams excels at pop-culture trivia such as Academy Award winners, but he stumbles on sports.
A lifelong bachelor and self-described Scrabble addict, he finished second when he appeared on "Jeopardy!" in 1990.
Because a person's interest in the information is a key factor in recall ability, some researchers doubt Williams and A.J. are unique.
"If it's a truly amazing memory that just sucks things up, it shouldn't be based on how interesting something was to you," said Stephen Christman, a neuropsychologist at the University of Toledo in Ohio.
The number of people with comparable memory skills has been hard to pin down. After publishing his research with A.J., McGaugh heard from about 50 people claiming they had the same skill or, like Williams' brother, knew someone who might.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
