I think that Mk and Jon have the right idea-- my DD was one of these "collector" personalities right from the start. It was words and information when she was tiny, then it was CareBears, then complete series of books, then it was Littlest Pet Shop creatures, now it seems to be geeky teeshirts, gaming dice, steampunk attire, and physics formulae.
She hasn't necessarily "hung onto" those earlier phases, much as they delighted/charmed us as parents. Ultimately, though, this seems (at least to me) to be about her need to "collect" stuff in order to satisfy some inner need-- be it for control, for entertainment, or for intellectual stimulation.
It's served its purpose, and once she moves on, she doesn't really have a lot of need for it.
Most of those early memory things are long since gone. She had entire books and scripts memorized when she was two and three and knew all the muscles in the hand at one point, I think. She doesn't know that stuff now (13yo), though. What's very interesting to me is that she DID retain most of that early stuff for a long time, though-- for example, she could cite complete transcripts of movies that she'd seen once or twice even YEARS after the last viewing.
It's as though it faded away very slowly as it was supplanted by other new interests. But until she was about seven, she had TOTAL recall. It was really amazing.
