Rajan Mahadevan

Rajan Srinivasan Mahadevan (born 1957) is an Indian mnemonist.

Early life

Mahadevan was born in Madras in 1957 and moved to Mangalore in 1959. He discovered his ability to memorize numbers at the age of 5 during a party hosted by his family. During the party, Rajan wandered to a parking lot and committed the license plate numbers of every guest's car for recitation later.

Education

In 1977, after losing interest in engineering, Mahadevan set to memorize substantial parts of pi. On 5 July 1981, he recited from memory the first 31,811 digits of pi. pi.[1] This secured him a place in the 1984 Guinness Book of World Records, and he has been featured on Larry King Live and Reader's Digest.[2]

Mahadevan received his bachelor's degree in psychology in 1984 and his master's degree in clinical psychology from the University of Mysore in 1986 during his extended participation in memory study. Mahadevan's digit span was found to be nearly ten times the average; it is estimated that, before the effects of practice, it was 15 digits.

Although Mahadevan is adept at remembering numbers, he nevertheless displays only an average memory when it comes to prose passages or geometric shapes.[3]

Mahadevan holds the position of Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Tennessee, where he teaches courses in learning and thinking as well as cognitive psychology.

gollark: If you *do* find it normal it's probably also because of your culture. It's all because of your culture, apiohazardously so.
gollark: Months are limited resources, and must be allocated carefully.
gollark: There are also day/night cycle issues, although I suppose you could just assume one from some convenient point on the ground.
gollark: Specifically the Mecca.
gollark: I expect you'd need some kind of complex gyroscopic chair to point you the right way.

See also

References
  1. Rajan Mahadevan recites 31,811 digits of ã from memory 5 July in History
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 December 2005. Retrieved 17 April 2007.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. DAVID R. SHANKS, Science Spectra, 1999, Number 18. Outstanding Performers: Created, Not Born? NEW RESULTS ON NATURE VS. NURTURE.

Notes
  • "Unexceptional spatial memory in an exceptional memorist", Biederman et al., Journal of Experimental Psychology Learn Mem Cogn, 1992 May;18(3):654-7.
  • "The Man With the Endless Memory;Rajan Mahadevan Is Trying to Memorize 100,000 Digits. For Him, It's Easy as Pi", Washington Post article 18 June 1989.
  • "Memory Search by a Memorist", Thompson et al. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.,New Jersey, 1993
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