This proposal is a request for funds to undertake a long-term examination of the unusual memory ability of S.M. He is cited in the Guiness Book of World Records for reciting Pi to 31,811 places in just under four hours. S.M. has just begun his work as a graduate student in our department. Preliminary investigations have established that his current digit memory span is 50 digits and his current letter memory span is 17 letters. This exceptional memory ability is worthy of study. The major purpose of this grant would be to provide S.M. with funding so that he can participate as colleague and subject in these studies without interfering with his normal progress in psychology. (He will probably be specializing in physiological psychology.) The primary focus will be on three major projects during the three to four-year duration of this project. However there will also be a number of short-term projects such as those described by Hunt & Love (1972) in their study of V.P. The major projects anticipated will focus on memory span, memory for everyday events, and memory for large groups (specifically, 500-digit groups) of numbers. The results of these studies should be of great interest to the general public as well as to psychologists. The data will be particularly interesting to psychologists specializing in memory and cognition.
