It’s hard to remember names – here’s how to do it. You’ll use your imagination and some weird imagery – but this works.
Here’s another great use of mnemonics. I’ll give you a bunch of people’s names and describe the images I created to help me remember them. Give your brain a little room to roam and put it to practical use. Also, I look at recent research that provides yet another reason why names are hard to remember. By the way, let me ask you a question: How many of each animal did Moses take on the ark? The answer: 0 (re-read the question…).
I also take a look at that viral video called the “BBC Interrupted Interview”. What’s the psychology behind why many people thought the woman in the video was a nanny when she was the mother. We’ll see how stereotypes develop.
Resources for this Episode
- Why it’s so Hard to Remember People’s Names
- Abrams, L., & Davis, D. K. (2017). Competitors or Teammates: How Proper Names Influence Each Other. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(1), 87-93
- Australian backpacker who jumped in the river to impress girl
7 Comments on “Ep 277: How to Remember Names and the Psychology of that BBC Interrupted Interview”
As someone with a rare name, I’d love to hear what mnemonic you’d come up for mine: Elspeth.
Yes, unique name. Okay, here’s the image that came to mind: an elf spitting. Of course, I don’t know what you look like, so I don’t know if the image of an elf could be attached in my mind to your face or body, but if you were short then this would really work well. Thanks for the challenge – what do you think? 🙂
I thought of “Elves on a path” for the name Elspeth.
Deb Lupo
“Elves on a path” – I can picture that. Love it! So all you’d have to do is imagine this specific person walking along a path along with 5-6 other elves. Works for me.
Those are both great! Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Hi Michael
My dyslexic 13 year old daughter found your mnemonics for learning the names for the parts of the ear and eyes incredibly helpful. Thank you. Can you please let me know which of your apps covers this? Its not clear from the apple store which one it is.
Cheers
Sarah-Jane
So happy to hear that. Thanks so much for letting me know that the mnemonics have been helpful to your daughter. Yes, I’ve got a ton more mnemonics in my Psych Mnemonics app in the iTunes store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/psych-mnemonics-memory-tools/id1158607712?mt=8&ls=1