VISUAL MEMORY. COLORED VISUALISATION. MENTAL CALCULATION. L.Manouvrier

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July 2 1908
VISUAL MEMORY. COLORED VISUALISATION. MENTAL CALCULATION
(Notes and observation on Miss U.Daimandi)¹
By L. Manouvrier

Foreword

Miss Urania Diamandi is the twenty year old sister of the well known calculator Pericles Diamandi. She possesses the same aptitudes towards mental calculation as does her brother and the same (visual) type of memory with, as well, quite remarkable colored visualisations.
She presented herself in November 1907, after a meeting at the Anthropological Society and kindly accepted to repeat her brilliant mental calculations at my teaching session at the Anthropological School, which brought her legitimate success anew. She then kindly made herself available for numerous interviews at the Anthropological Laboratory at the Superior Studies School.
I thought it best not to waste such an occasion, to study a case so interesting and so rare and until now new. Miss Diamandi, while a foreigner, does speak French fluently, has a good understanding of the questions and demonstrate a generally obvious sincerity in her answer. It was indicated to take full advantage of these happy conditions to extract from her all the possible subjective data that may be acquired from an intelligent subject. It is the task which I undertook not without an intense curiosity about the obscure facts and sometimes bizarre appearance which I had to examine.
In such a situation, only an oral interview possesses the indispensable flexibility allowing for an exact understanding of questions by the subject, and of the replies by the observer. And it is important to give it all the necessary time. I had to, time and again, interrupt the interview and go back to certain points which did seem quite categorically defined, but which were in contradiction with other newer, better defined points. It is possible that that the questions may need to be explained, developped, asked in a different fashion, in order to obtain valid responses (answers). It is also possible that the observer be brought, quite surreptitiously, to ask questions suggested by some of the answers or by budding hypotheses. A great many mistakes, as we know, may be avoided by paying attention to induces of familiar language, and often when the language carries nothing foreign to the pursued topic.
As well, it is through the spontaneous development or provocation of her own responses that the subject sometime offered the observer the most precious and unexpected clues.
¹Seanse was at January 23, 1908.

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For diverse reasons, which are not necessary to explain to psychologists and medical doctors, the direct and sustained interrogation of a single subject who answers with simplicity and docility may have an explanatory range of consequence. This is why I did submit to the test the patience of miss Diamandi During twenty long sessions she displayed puzzlement, rather than amazement at the amount of unusual questions, to which it was sometimes difficult to reply.
This labor was started under improvised conditions, since I originally simply planned reporting to the Anthropological Society, I had neglected all attempts at a bibliography. I had witnessed Inaudi's presentation by Broca in 1880, and Pericles Diamandi's which I had subsequently witnessed on numerous occasions, and I had personally observed certain cases of colored audition. But since I had never seriously considered these questions before this occasion presented itself and excited my curiosity, it is only after writing up the present communication that I acquainted myself with the M.A. Binet book "Psychology of Grand Calculators...", in which the two presented cases are precisely Inaudi and Pericles Diamandi, and with the book by M. Flournoy sur les Synopsies. In this last book the answers to a questionnaire elaborated by M Claparиde were used quite judiciously.
Whatever were the previously published works on the topic, it is my feeling the material would not have been very careful in elaborating a my own observations and it might have been preferable in a certain way that these could have been made independently from all suggestions.
An isolated case would not be sufficient to elaborate a general theory. Very often, however, a single observation may have put on the direction of valid theories or serve as a departure point of eventual generalization attempts. So I hope that I will not be blamed to have used Miss Diamandi in a particular fashion. It is possible that the explanations elaborated here do not apply to all similar cases. But if it appears to be exact in the case of one individual, then it is probable that it will be applicable to a complete category and will be one difficulty less towards the classifying of other types.
My attention, in the case of Miss Diamandi, was primarily focused upon:
1° Facts related to visual memory and the phenomena of visualization:
2° The genesis of schema of calculators and analog schemas:
3° The genesis of mental calculation virtuosity in the subject;
4° The colored visualization.

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Miss Urania Diamandi was born in the Ionian island of Cephalonie, She is the youngest survivor of a family of ten children, of which her brother Pericles is the older sibling. She is of excellent health. In her youth, she was only afflicted by measles. It is smallpox and typhoid fever which took the life of four of her brothers and sisters, in their youth; her brother Pericles appears to be of strong constitution and health.
Her mother accompanies her constantly, is brown haired, of robust built; both calculators would have inherited their memory skills from her. They say that one of their dead brother and one of their dead sister, as well, would also have inherited memory skills predisposing to mental calculation. But this remains rather imprecise. The family does not present anything unfavorable in terms of physical characteristics. Nothing extraordinary would have been present in the ascendants. On the paternal side of the family, commercial professions. the father is tall, svelte, brown with blue eyes; on the maternal side, liberal professions.
Miss Diamandi is a rather pretty lady, of average height, dark skinned, apparently of the Mediterranean type, Hellenic variety. Without the classical fronto-nasal profile of Greek statues, her face is still quite reminiscent of the antique art school type. Eyebrows are horizontal and very long. Short superior lip, fleshy mouth with accentuated lips, round chin. The eyes are not as superficial as would be expected from one of Gall's disciple. She appears vivacious, even more so when she speaks. The gaze is intense and bright.

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The character seems amiable with nothing abnormal. No nervous dysfunction (Note from translator - actually, 'tares' translate more to flaws, but the usage in french has evolved since.) Excellent health. Normal childhood without morbidity except for measles. Emotivity levels, considering her femininity and and meridian background is not excessive. The attention capacity is revealed through mental calculation, during which the gaze loses its brightness and is lowered (translator's note; the busy calculator looks down during calculating.), No timidity; no stage fright during public performances.
Pericles Diamandi, her calculating brother, is tall and wide shouldered, appears bolder than his sister, speaks abundantly and with much gesticulations, but with appropriate restraint. He is of sharp mind, inventive, and of characteristic sthenique temperament He appears quite apt at showcasing his talents and has been using, he says, his visual memory to diagnose temperament according to the tenets of physiognomy. To test his physiognomic capacities I told him to evaluate me. With what he told me, I feel that he could be very successful at that particular trade.
Here are the measurements that I have taken on him and his sister:

Pericles D. Miss D.

Taille
1 m. 775 1 m. 56

Poids
- 56

Tete Diam. antero-post. maximum 206 183

Tete Diam. antero-post. metopique 200 -

Tete Diam. transverse maximum 159 149

Tete Diam. aurieulo-bregmatique vertical 140 -

Tete Diam. frontal minimum 206 116

Tete Diam. bixygomatique 206 153

Indice cephalique (sans seduction) 77,1 80,3

Idem avec le diametre metopique 79,3 -

In one and in the other, the head size is larger than average, considering their height. In the brother, the difference between the anterio-posterior diameter of the cranium and the metopic diameter due to the development of the glabelle and of the frontal sinuses. in relation to the stature.
For this reason the difference between the sister and the brother when considered under the cephalic ratio must be considered as null. Both must be considered as being part of the mixt mesalchephalic class. the brother is brown, as is the sister. Il is much taller than her in relation to normal skeletal development.
These numbers have no role in my demonstration. They are to be considered as accessory.
Miss Diamandi is gifted intelligence-wise.

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classic corresponds more or less to the average degree of young girls school, but it does improve upon o=it in certain fashion. She learned to speak french at a tender age from a french governess (Note from translator: "Nanny") so that she converses in french almost as easily as she speaks greek. She also speaks rumanian which she learned in Rumania. Finally, she does have notions of english and german. She picks up languages easily as well as history. In mathematics, her knowledge does not extend beyond elementary arithmetic, except for classically unusual processes which she uses for mental mathematics. She pretty much like literature, has a moderate interest in music (which she did not cultivate). She has aptitudes for drawing but never seriously pursued that particular interest. One should consider that she did display an unusual gift at the age of 13, something which she did pursue and perfect. So it is understandable that her efforts were less stimulated towards more common interests.
In primary school her academic successes were in arithmetic and history.
She noticed for the first time at the age of 7, in school, that she could complete simple calculations faster than her friends on the blackboard. She made the same observation at the age of 12, and pleased herself realizing that she could perceiver the result before anyone else, but she brought no attention to it until the age of 13. Only then dod the early successes of her brother incite her to feel pout her personal aptitudes, and then to cultivate them. She trained herself through the memorization of squares and to calculate mentally. At 15 she gave a first public performance in her native country, which she followed up with a small tour in Greece. She never experienced fatigue after the shows, never at that time and never since. She only experience tiredness when she tries unusually long operation, such as the recall of an excessively long digit series demanding an uninterrupted concentration of an hour's time. Then she does feel tension on the top of her head.
The absence of stage fright can be explained by the fact that she is sure of her success and that each oof the operations that she does in a public performance will never fail to produce unanimous applause. I feel that she might actually be inclined to prolong a session which already lasted in excess of 45 minutes.
The operations performed by Miss Diamandi are the following:
1° 5 rows of n digits are written on the board. she observes this square for a 1 to 3 minute period, then recites the contents of the square in all directions. She can call out a number in a specific position on demand.
2° Addition of the 5 5 digit numbers, without looking at the board.
3° Subtraction. Two 12 digits numbers were written on

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the board; she watches them for a few seconds, time to read them, and then calculates the difference and makes the proof.
4° Multiplies two numbers of 5 and 10 digits.
5° Squaring up a 4 to 6 digits number.
Example: 67425² = 4546130625
6° Raising a digit to the 20th power
Example: 8²⁰ = 18014398509481984
7° Extracting the square or cubic root of a number from 8 to 10 digits
Cube root of 15352892 = 258
8° extracting the fourth to eight root of a 8 to 12 digit number.
Example: 7th root of 100663296 is 16
9° Writing on the board, non stop, the square of all numbers from 2 to 100.
10° Calculates the number of minutes and seconds since a specific date, for example the year 1453, keeping in mind the leap years.
11° Performance of Day At Any Date, with the day known by the interrogator.
12° After all these operations, the board is covered with all the proposed numbers, all the solutions written up either by the operator by the questioners, independently from the the 25 digit square the total written up in the first challenge. Miss Diamandi looks at the board or boards (at the Anthropological Society there were three) for a few seconds, then she recites the contents of the everything, from the first to the last digit.
The time needed to learn the 25 digit square varies by a third or more, depending on the subject's disposition, more or less preoccupied.
Miss Diamandi can learn and recite "squares" of 30, 36, 40 numbers. But as the necessary time to learn a square increases faster than the number of digits, she prefers to limit herself publicly to 25 digits. Otherwise, the time taken up by the memorization would be too long and the effect would be diminished.
An appreciation for the virtuosity of Miss Diamandi in mental calculation will be given in a special chapter, at the end.
The time taken p for these diverse operations, all performed mentally, is sometimes equal, sometimes faster than that of a calculator of average ability. The number of errors committed was of only two in all the calculations performed in my presence and of 2 only during the recall phase. the correction was prompt.

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II
MEMORY. VISUALIZATION

Visual Memory. - The preceding facts suffice to highlight without a doubt the superior visual memory of Miss Diamandi as well as her attention capacity. In regard to the numbers and for the familiar operations, this superiority appears prodigious and implies, besides the acquired ability, a natural aptitude. This manifests itself outside the realm of numbers and calculations and I witnessed during our many interviews that Miss Diamandi has an excellent general memory. But what she displays there is not more than regular people who are said to have a good memory. It is just enough to be noticed, simply.
We do however note an extraordinary development in memory in a particular direction, and this development, with its diverse particularities, is of high psychological and physiological interest.
The first of the operations mentioned above (the recall), as of all the others, stun the spectators. It seems that the the number square is fixed in a block in the brain as if on a photographic plate. I concluded that it was learned "by heart" exactly as if it were memorized by any other person, row by row, with occlusion of the eyelids once in a while and movements of h lips which seem to indicate the end of each incorporation, and then a glance for review.
The speed of the operation is surprising; but one can track the speed of reading the numbers, obtained through exercise, which must favor the prompt fixation of a very complex image. There is nothing other to note than an aptitude to learn quickly. But we are now about to discuss the particularities of the visual memory of Miss Diamandi with an exceptional intensity.
As soon as learned, the numbers appear to her as if written on an imaginary board in the same order as as on the real blackboard, so that she seems to read the digits off the imaginary board. In other words, as soon as the image is incorporated, mentalised rather than vague and fugitive as in the common people, is sustained in the conscious mind in all of its complexity and and with remarkable clarity. Once disappeared, it may be recalled after a surprisingly long time, considering that the image of the number is devoid of sense and having limited interest are generally forgotten almost immediately. I witnessed that after a week, three week, miss Diamandi remembered all the 7 or 8 digits which were featured in the operations made in the operations