Following a brain injury many survivors face great struggles in the realm of memory. This can be especially embarrassing when a brain injury survivor has difficulty remembering the name of a person with whom he or she is already well acquainted. Utilizing techniques that make use of unique characteristics can make it far easier for survivors to remember important names in their lives.
Each person possesses many different characteristics. These can include height, weight, eye color, tone of voice, expressed clothing preferences, etc. Trying to remember a person’s name while matching it with all these disparate features can be a daunting task. When meeting someone for the first time, it is often easier to find the one unique characteristic of the person that stands out most and pair that with the person’s name (e.g. “Paul is the tall guy” or “Susie has a rainbow tattoo on her neck”). In this way the survivor only has to remember one characteristic in order to recall a person’s name rather than contend with the confusion that would accompany recalling many characteristics. Unique characteristics can include aspects of physical appearance, dress, voice and behavior. Let’s give a few examples in each category, using celebrities as examples, to demonstrate how one might execute this technique.
Physical appearance can include height, hair, size/shape of facial features, scars and tattoos. For instance, former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal has brown eyes, a shaved head and a bright smile. None of these features necessarily make him stand out. However, if you were to meet him on the street and were picking one unique characteristic to match with his name, you would likely pick that he is over seven feet tall. The pairing between height and name would clearly provide a more memorable association than anything involving those other mentioned characteristics, and would make it far easier to recall Shaq’s name at a later time. Similarly, comedian Carrot Top is of medium height with fair skin. Again, these common features would not be useful to pair with his name as an aid to memory. However, his striking red hair is quite unique and by pairing this unique characteristic with Carrot Top’s name, a survivor would be more likely to later recall his name.
Some people dress in a manner that is simply different from everyone else. These differences in dress can also be paired with a person’s name in order to make it easier to recall that name. Michael Jackson was known for wearing one white glove. No one else was known for effecting that particular fashion choice. If a survivor would have met Michael and wanted to remember his name, he or she could have paired Michael’s name with the one white glove. Another example of this can be found in former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Albright always wore pins on the upper left shoulders of her jackets. A survivor could pair the pin with her name in order to better recall her name, rather than attempt to utilize any number of additional characteristics she possesses.
Just like a unique physical characteristic or a unique manner of dress, a unique voice can be paired with a person’s name to help remember him or her. A voice might be recognized as unique due to a distinct tone, a particular accent or use of a singular delivery. Actor James Earl Jones has a baritone voice which makes him a favorite choice for voice-over work in commercials and the like. By pairing his deep voice with his name, a survivor could more easily identify him by name at a future meeting. Similarly, actress Fran Drescher has an unmistakable New York accent which she played up in the television show “The Nanny.” If a survivor was to meet her for the first time, the survivor could pair her accent with her name to help remember her at a later time rather than trying to remember any other likely more common of her features.
Sometimes, a new acquaintance may demonstrate a behavior that is so different from that of others that it can be used as one of these unique characteristics to aid in memory. This can sometimes prove a little harder to use for memory unless the person in question demonstrates the identified behavior all of the time. For instance, Elvis Presley often had a lip twitch/snarl when speaking which other people do not have. In a different vein, John Wayne walked with his legs spread in a wide gait. Both a constant lip twitch/snarl and idiosyncratic pattern of walking can be paired to names to more easily remember a person at a later time.
Survivors should not worry about whether the characteristic being used is complimentary to the other person. If pairing the name “Julie” with “giant nose” helps the survivor remember Julie later, then this is fine. There is no need to share with the other person that this technique is being used to aid memory. The key is whether the characteristic is so memorable to the survivor that pairing the characteristic with the name will make it easier for the survivor to remember. Further, this technique does not prevent the survivor from adding other, more mundane characteristics to his or her memory of the other person. This technique is primarily designed for when a survivor is first trying to learn the other person’s name.
Hopefully this method will help survivors remember others’ names and be spared the embarrassment of forgetting!
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