This was interesting. Historically, my short and long-term memories have both been exceptionally good but after a period of a lot of trauma, I noticed it wasn't as good as before. It's coming back, and is still better than for many others, but it's not "my" memory.

One thing that helps (and is also a curse) is my photographic memory. It came in handy in exams when I could "see" my notes, including all the inserts, scribbles up the sides of the pages etc. And I could recall seeing the words in a text book, remembered where the information was on a page etc. When studying social work, apparently during marking of exams one instructor accused me of cheating because my answers were right out of the text book. He'd never had me as a student so a few others who knew me stood up for me and said it was just my memory.

So I can still see your words, "person, woman, man, camera, TV" and how they looked on the page (so to speak).

Also, in certain things like lists, they become like song lyrics to me. Perhaps because I'm a musician, but saying those five words (or other short lists) a couple of times produces a kind of song, a rhythm, they flow like music, making them easy for me to recall.

I can relate to memory not being as good with stress or lack of sleep, though. So frustrating when I'm used to it being so good.

Thanks so much for another interesting read :)