Do SJs Have The Best Memories?
People typically describe the SJs (ISTJ, ESTJ, ISFJ, ESFJ) as having the best memories. At this point, good memory has basically become a requisite for being one of the SJ personality types. There are reasons for this, but as per usual, what was originally a decent concept has been taken to an extreme. In this article, I intend to discuss how memory relates to the SJ personality types, including why people think what they think, what’s true, and what’s not. This article will probably be somewhat short, but regardless, I think the topic deserves a straightforward explanation.
Let’s Talk About Memory
Before we delve into this, it’s important to realize that multiple factors play into memory. First, people can have bad memories for medical or health-related reasons. People have found that their memories improve with certain supplements, while certain medical conditions negatively impact memory. These factors are entirely separate from personality, meaning they can impact anyone, regardless of personality type. Second, memory can be exercised and improved to some degree. Third, people remember what’s important to them. Someone can have the best memory in the world, but if they just don’t care to remember when your birthday is, they won’t.
Why Is Memory Associated With the SJs?
Si has become known as the memory function. For those who are new to the cognitive functions, all SJ types have Si high in their cognitive function stack, with the ISFJs and ISTJs specifically having it as their dominant function. In other words, Si is a function that SJs prioritize.
So, how does Si tie into memory? Well, Si causes SJs to rebuild reality, detail by detail, inside their minds. They form specific preferences for reality based on their experiences. As they go about their life, they compare their current experiences to experiences they’ve had in the past, to see if those experiences measure up, to prepare for future events, and to avoid making mistakes. As a result, they have a default desire to catalog the past and remember it, for practical reasons.
Subsequently, people have observed a tendency in SJs to remember a lot of details, especially in regard to past events. The ISTJs and ISFJs especially have this reputation.
Do All SJs Have Amazing Memories?
Here is where the misconception comes into play. As I mentioned earlier, many personality type descriptions make it sound like all SJs have amazing memories. However, rationally, since there are factors beyond personality that affect memory, that conclusion doesn’t make any sense. In addition, memory is not part of the core definition of Si. (See our overview of Si here: Introverted Perceiving Functions (Ni/Si).) There is a trend in regard to their memory that we will discuss, but a trend is not the same as a rule. When dealing with trends, you have to focus on the core process that’s bringing about the trend, or you risk drawing inaccurate conclusions. So, to answer the question concisely, no, SJs do not always have amazing memories.
Do SJs Have Better Memories Than Other Personality Types?
I was once talking to another ISTP about memory, one who doesn’t actually know anything about Myers-Briggs or the cognitive functions, and she made the observation that bad memory in some people seems more like a personality trait than an actual, physical problem. In my opinion, that was completely on point.
It all comes back to what different personality types value. Obviously, we know that memory involves the past. We can’t remember something unless it’s happened. So, since SJs value past experience, so they can consciously use it to inform their present and future, they want to hold onto a lot of that information. Since they strive to have this information on hand, it can make them appear to have better memories than other types. However, this is only because the information they value is practical and useful in their daily life. In other words, you’ll encounter more situations with an SJ that will “show off” or prompt their memories, because the information they value is frequently in action. (SJs can certainly have bad memories, but they’ll probably be sensitive to this fact because they feel like they’re missing a lot of necessary information.)
For the sake of understanding, I’ll give you a comparison example using the SPs. (As an ISTP, that’s a type grouping I understand well.)
Memory In The SPs
SPs (ESFP, ISFP, ESTP, ISTP) don’t value past experience like the SJs do. SPs value gaining a wide variety of experiences and living in the present, but they don’t particularly care about holding onto the past. They prefer to approach every experience like it’s new. As a result, SPs often seem like they have bad memories, even if they technically don’t, because they’re not very concerned about storing and re-accessing a bunch of past details to handle the current situation. SPs frequently act instinctively, using memory in a more subconscious way. Obviously, we all have events in our past that hold meaning to us, and an SP is no exception. They will remember those, but they will not catalog the past to the same degree that an SJ will. It’s just not as important to them.
To use myself as an example, my memory has always been terrible, or so I’ve said. However, back when I was in school, I had no issues memorizing information when the class required it. In my daily life, though, I forget things constantly. I can rewatch the same movie or series and not remember how it plays out the second time around if I put enough time in the middle. (People in my life like to mock me about how I can re-experience movies as if I’d never seen them before.)
Personally, if I’m being completely honest, I just find a lot of stuff to be too much effort to remember, or not worth it. Remembering movies is pointless, and getting to re-enjoy them is technically a perk. Repeating mistakes doesn’t really bother me that much, unless it’s something drastic. Otherwise, I shrug things off quickly. I don’t worry too much about the future, which means storing a lot of information to prepare for it is relatively low on my mental list of priorities. There are just so many things that seem unimportant, so why bother to commit those things to memory? I’ve got enough clutter up there.
(This reminds me of a scene from BBC Sherlock that you can check out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fedC7Pv08Ms. We typed Sherlock from this series as an ENTJ.)
In Summary…
So, to sum this article up, I would surmise that if you take two people of equal memory capacity and intelligence (one being an SJ), the SJ may appear to have a better memory simply because the SJ will often strive to remember information that is practical, or relevant to daily life. While the SP is shrugging off past failures, the SJ will be analyzing that failure in detail to ensure it never happens again. SJs sometimes will even seem like NPs in the sense that they pick up or remember a broad range of information, because it either was relevant once, or might be some day.
Whereas, the other personality types (NJs and SPs) will focus their memory on more specific or narrowed areas of interest or relevancy. When it comes to those interests or specific areas, they’ll be able to remember a wealth of information, if they indeed have a good memory. However, if you ask them about something that falls outside of it, like a non-impactful past experience, they may appear forgetful because they simply didn’t care to commit that to memory in a concrete way.
Hi there! If you enjoyed that article, leave us a quick comment to encourage us to keep writing, and check out our Updates and Current Projects. In addition, if you've found our content helpful, please consider Buying Us A Coffee to help keep this website running. Thank you!
I’m an ISTP and I always thought of my memory as being “Save” instead of “Save As” like as in saving files on a computer. I’ve always admired the way that the Si users I know can just recall detailed information with ease.
Is having detailed memory a good thing if the information being stored is inaccurate? I am reminded of a discussion with our HRIS department when compiling data to report for federal compliance. They said the data in our system is not wrong. It’s the person(s) entering the data incorrectly that results in it being wrong. I agree wholeheartedly with this notion and see Si users in the same vain since what is stored is only as reliable as the function used to bring in the information (Ne).
I am reminded of Mara’s work on explaining Si/Ni and Se/Ne in the cognitive functions section. “Si is not memory storage, but Si users tend to have detail-oriented minds because Si is striving to create a detailed version of reality inside their minds (whether accurate or not).”, and “Ne ties the user to the current external reality, and they use that to generate possibilities based on what they see now. These possibilities can range anywhere from very likely to happen or not likely at all to happen.” I am always asking my most likely SJ spouse and dad is that what was actually said, or is that what you heard?
As an ISTP type as well, I think having information be accurate is more important than having detailed information stored if it colored by the biases compiled with not taking in what actually occurred but how the user interpreted the information using Si/Ne. JMHO!
Yes, having detailed memory is a good thing even if the information is inaccurate.
If you’re going to be wrong either way, more info helps you correct yourself and figure out exactly what caused your mistake.
True, except there is that nagging auxiliary function which for ITJ types may be used to defend the dominant function from outside influence once their mind is made up.
To paraphrase a description I read many years ago about INTJ types, Te at the auxiliary role is a workhorse. Closure is the payoff for efforts expended. Evaluation begs diagnosis; product drives process. Thinking tends, protects, affirms and directs the dominant function’s offspring. In other words Te may may be used to prevent Ne from gathering the correct information once Si has made up its mind. At that point they seek closure instead.
It was probably an ITJ who coined the phrase, “I know what I know, and I know what I don’t know.”
My opinions on this thread:
-All perceiving functions take in information. To relegate it to just the extraverted perceiving functions would like saying an ISTJ takes in less information than the rest of us or inferior information, because their Pe function is in the inferior position.
-Si is neither inaccurate nor accurate. All functions have equal capacity for both.
-Auxiliary Te when healthy will balance out Si/Ni, making the IXTJs more objective and realistic. Sure, their instinct will be to use Te to protect and affirm Si, but part of the way it can do that is by ensuring Si/Ni remain accurate and in sync with reality.
This pretty much clears things up, I wonder how ENPs with inferior Si in terms of trends or tendencies remembers past details or any sensory information compared to SJs outside of factors?
hi! enxp here (I think, I self-typed myself so I could be wrong)
In my experience, my inferior Si works like a malfunctioning computer. Sometimes it works really well, and by that I mean that there are these random details that I’ll remember intricately (like the fact that the distance from the tip of the St. Paul’s Cathedral in London to the ground is 365 feet, and I also can remember the pattern of a video game character’s clothes, if I was any good at drawing I’d replicate it) but I don’t remember them purposefully and they’re all pretty random due to dom-Ne, so these things that I remember in intricate detail tend to be pretty useless (unless you count the very vivid sensory memory I have of a particularly painful dental job–that sensory information persuades me to brush my teeth very vividly). On the other hand, there are a lot of details I end up completely forgetting. I realize this because sometimes when I talk with my older friend (an Si-dom), they’ll mention a specific conversation we’ve had, and they’ll remember every word we’ve said, but I can’t remember having that conversation at all.
As an example of inf-Si working with dom-Ne, I’d also mention this particular example. When I try to remember something (a), I think of something else (b) that (a) reminds me of, which leads to a tangent of things I relate (b) to (c), so in the end I remember (c), and when to do need to remember (a) I think of (c), which makes me think of (b), which then makes me think back to (a).
I’m not sure if this is helpful, but I hope it helps anyway (?).
Thanks for the information! And actually it’s kinda refreshing hearing other people share their experiences about their type and cognitive processes. Means a lot either way