Testing the Efficacy of Name Mnemonics Used during Conversation

Abstract

Previous studies successfully used the face-name mnemonic to improve recall of fictitious surnames of individuals appearing in photographs. Exps. 1 and 2 tested whether this mnemonic could also aid recall of the actual surnames of real people met during conversations. Exp. 1, like previous studies, showed that the face-name mnemonic facilitated recall of surnames of photographed individuals; however, chis mnemonic reduced name recall following conversations. Exp. 2 refined the procedure used in Exp. 1 by including a control group in the design and strengthening the training procedures for the face-name mnemonic group. The results of Exp. 2 paralleled those of Exp. 1, again showing no advantage to using the face-name mnemonic during conversation. Exp. 3 explored alternatives to the face-name mnemonic, and featured use of self-help mnemonics (those initiated by the learner without help from others) and stranger-provided mnemonics (those provided by the person whose name was being memorized). A combination of self-help and stranger-provided mnemonics produced significantly greater recall of surnames following conversation than that achieved by self-help strategies alone, a control group, or the face-name mnemonic.The face-name mnemonic was devised by Lorayne (1957) to enhance ability to remember last names. As described by Hill, Yesavage, Sheikh, and Friedman (1989), "The face-name mnemonic involves three components: (a) identification of a prominent feature of the person's face (e.g., a wide mouth), (b) derivation of a concrete, high-imagery transformation of the person's name (e.g., the name Whealen becomes a whale), and (c) formation of a visual image associating the prominent feature with the transformed name (a whale in the person's mouth). To recall the name, the participant had to (a) identify the prominent feature of the test face, (b) use that feature as a retrieval cue for the image association, (c) reconstruct the name transformation (whale) from the image association, and (d) decode the name from the transformation (whale means Whealen)" (p. 634).The face-name mnemonic has frequently been used successfully to improve recall of common, fictitious surnames assigned to individuals appearing in photographs (

Strategies for learning proper names: expanding retrieval practice, meaning and imagery

“…The response rate from those using the imagery mnemonic was disappointing but it was sufficiently high to give an indication of the lack of effectiveness of the strategy, at least in comparison with the expanding retrieval practice technique, which produced significantly higher name recall. Replicating the findings of Patton (1994) in his two experiments, there was no sign in our data that the imagery mnemonic was improving name recall. Rather, the mean performance was slightly, though nonsignificantly, lower than that for the control participants.…”

“…Morris & Fritz, 2000, 2002. In Experiment 3, expanding retrieval practice and the imagery mnemonic studied by Morris et al (1978) and Patton (1994) were tested in a realistic situation.…”

“…Gruneberg & Herrmann, 1997;Higbee, 2001;Lorayne, 1957) and has been shown to be effective under laboratory conditions (McCarty, 1980;Morris et al, 1978). However, when Patton (1994) studied the mnemonic in conditions where the participants were trying to learn the names of real people during conversations, the mnemonic proved ineffective. This failure was consistent with our own anecdotal experiences of applying the mnemonic and we predicted that, like Patton, we would find little or no benefit of the mnemonic in the real-life pressures and competing demands of the realworld situation.…”

“…Although this strategy is widely advocated in the memory improvement literature (e.g. Gruneberg & Herrmann, 1997;Higbee, 2001;Lorayne, 1957) and has been shown to be effective under laboratory conditions (McCarty, 1980;Morris, Jones, & Hampson, 1978), Patton (1994), in two experiments, did not find this technique to improve recall when attempted during conversations. The task of carrying on a conversation while engaged in the required analysis and synthesis is challenging for anyone unless they are either very skilled in the technique or highly motivated.…”

Learning More About and With the Face–Name Mnemonic Strategy

“…’ Encoded in this fashion, upon next seeing Mr. Duchamp, retrieval proceeds as follows: facial photo ➔ large nose (the prominent feature) ➔ interactive image ➔ duck (the name clue) ➔ Duchamp . A number of studies have generally supported the effectiveness of the technique based on these three encoding‐and‐retrieval steps (e.g., Carney & Levin, ; Carney, Levin, & Stackhouse, ; Gruneberg, Sykes, & Hammond, ; Hastings, ; McCarty, ; Morris, Jones, & Hampson, ; Patton, ; Yesavage & Rose, ).…”