Name Recovery Training

[TromboneAl]

Last night I had a wonderful dream in which I was out with a young Cybil Shepard and Kristin Davis. In the dream, I couldn't remember Cybil's name. When I woke up, I still couldn't remember it, despite having watched Taxi Driver the night before.

So the question is this: When you find yourself in this situation, is it good for your brain to try to remember the name yourself, or should you just look it up (or ask someone)?

My conversation with DW this morning started like this: "I'm trying to remember the name of someone; don't tell me the answer. The woman in Taxi Driver last night, who we used to watch in Moonlighting. Yes or no, is her name something like Cicely or Tyson?"

I used to think it was good to train yourself to remember, but now I think it doesn't make much difference. BTW, I gave up on 'Cybil Shepard" after a few hours, and looked it up. I don't think I would have gotten it.

[REWahoo]

I find using word association helps a great deal. Here's an example.

The other night DW and I were with some friends and I was talking to a guy about a great new restaurant we'd tried the previous evening. I could not for the life of me remember the name of the restaurant, so I fell back on using word association.

I asked the guy, "What's the name of that red flower with thorns on the stem?"
"Rose?" he replied.
"Yeah, that's it!" I responded.
"Hey, Rose. What's the name of the restaurant we ate at last night?"

Works almost every time...

[template]

I have begun to forget people's names and even the names of some stores and restaurants. If I don't concentrate on trying to remember, the name just pops into my head later in the day.

[gandalf42]

I doubt I'd ask my DW for help remembering the name of a female star that was in my dreams last night......but that has nothing to do with memory concerns!

[haha]

It wouldn't help with celebrities, but I keep a database of names and pertinent facts, physical descriptions etc about new people I meet. When I plan to go back into that group, I do a quick review. I helps a lot!

Ha

[73ss454]

Originally Posted by REWahoo

I find using word association helps a great deal. Here's an example.

The other night DW and I were with some friends and I was talking to a guy about a great new restaurant we'd tried the previous evening. I could not for the life of me remember the name of the restaurant, so I fell back on using word association.

I asked the guy, "What's the name of that red flower with thorns on the stem?"
"Rose?" he replied.
"Yeah, that's it!" I responded.
"Hey, Rose. What's the name of the restaurant we ate at last night?"

Works almost every time...

I think her real name is Mulva!

[Nords]

Originally Posted by TromboneAl

So the question is this: When you find yourself in this situation, is it good for your brain to try to remember the name yourself, or should you just look it up (or ask someone)?

One of the reasons I married my spouse is because she can answer these questions for me. Google would never be able to handle that.

Google also can't handle the question "What's the name of that song again, the one that goes da-de-dum-de-doo?" Spouse answers those effortlessly.

As for whether you'd ever remember it on your own: when those questions pop up I think our brain spawns tiny Unix daemons to paw through our neurons for the next week or two. It sometimes takes that long, but it seems that if we knew it once we eventually remember where to learn it again.

My favorite Seinfeld line is about name memory: "Ah, Dolores!"

[Khan]

When I was 15, my mother was writing out Christmas cards and she looked at me and asked: "What's what's his name's name?"

[Rich_in_Tampa]

Originally Posted by gandalf42

I doubt I'd ask my DW for help remembering the name of a female star that was in my dreams last night......but that has nothing to do with memory concerns!

Unless you can't remember what to do with the aforementioned movie star.

[MikeD]

I can usually remember names but can't remember faces.

I have diabetes-related vascular dementia. It hasn't affected my ability to reason but has affected my memory to the point of making me be so slow to learn things (1/4 of former speed) that I was unable to keep my job as a real-time programmer.

Apparently, lots of brain functions are measured on a scale like they do with IQ. My ability-to-remember-faces IQ (as measured by a test given to me by a Dr.) is 8. Yup, 8 out of 100.

My arithmetic/math IQ is still 140.

Brains are weird.

Mike D.

I remember Bruce Willis asking Cybil Shepard in Moonlighting about her vacation pics "Any nakes?"

[Khan]

I don't think I have any sort of dementia (yet); I have always been horrible at remembering names.

[gandalf42]

Originally Posted by Khan

When I was 15, my mother was writing out Christmas cards and she looked at me and asked: "What's what's his name's name?"

Just had this conversation while doing Christmas cards today:

"What's Brian's last name?"

"Brian who?"



(still don't know Brian's last name , but hey, at least we are on a first name basis!)

[TromboneAl]

I also will try real hard to remember a name, and then it will pop into my head later.

Normally, when the name pops into your mind, or if someone says it, you think "Oh, yeah, that's right." I've read that as you get older, however, in that situation, you might think, "Yeah, that's it, I think. Is it?" IOW, the "Aha" phenomenon is less strong, and you're less sure you got it.

Since reading that, I've noticed it in myself.

[Achiever51]

Originally Posted by Khan

When I was 15, my mother was writing out Christmas cards and she looked at me and asked: "What's what's his name's name?"

Sounds like we had the same mom. I overheard my mom's phone conversation once where she asked a stranger if a particular address was "on this side of the street or the other side." The funny thing was the stranger answered without missing a beat that the address was on "this side" -- wherever that was!