Name Game

I always forget my homunculus' name.

I can't stop picturing it: my homunculus in the form of a orangutan, wearing high-heels, doing a risque dance on my kitchen table.  Unfortunately, this is the Week of Memory, not the Week of Forgetting, so I don't have any idea how to get rid of that image.  I guess I'm going to just have to live with it.  But, that's ok, because I'm very excited to distract myself with today's Daily Mind Game.  The name of the game today is the Name Game, and the goal is to try to help myself with a small cognitive deficit I've been dealing with: remembering people's names.

It happens to me all the time.  I meet someone for the first time, a mutual acquaintance introduces us, says the person's name and I immediately start thinking about other stuff.  "I wonder what his spirit animal is?", "Metacognition is a nifty word to say out loud.", "Man, I'm really hungry."  Then, I realize, "Poseidon's beard, I've forgotten his name already!"

It all comes down to a lack of attention, up front.  My attention is not directed at the process of remembering the name, it drifts to other topics.  The name evaporates from working memory.  Then, I'm up a stinky creek without a paddle.  The key, is to make the effort, when the name is fresh, to make it stick.

By now, you have all the tools to do this: your memory palace and some creative imagery.  But, let's add one more little trick to the mix: rhyming.  Things that rhyme are much more memorable than things that do not, so a great strategy for making names stay put is to rhyme the person's name with some strange activity in a place in your memory palace. For example, let's say I just met some dude named Chris Hall.  I might say (in my head, not out-loud) "Chris Hall: Swing and a Miss for Chris Hall, playing wiffleball in my front hall, he put a hole in the wall! Chris Hall." Of course, I would also visualize this very scene in my memory palace.  Done.  Name committed to memory.  FOREVER.

Name Game

Task: Remember a new name.

Info: I gave you a pretty good idea above of what it takes to create a lasting memory.  However, some names are harder than others to rhyme and create scenes for.  In those cases, try using alliteration to add some memorability.  Also, if the person possesses some quality that reminds you of an animal or object that starts with the same letter, use that.  Do whatever it takes to create a bunch of memorable links to the person's name in your memory palace.

Goal: Use a combination of rhyming or other word-play, novelty, and your memory palace to commit a name permanently to memory.  You will be quizzed at a later date.

Aren't these memory tricks the bee's knees? Finding memory a breeze? Leave a comment to let me know, if you please ;) Geez.