Putting the Name to the Face: Improving Name–face Memory Associations Through Concepts of Bizarreness and Production

Abstract

Memory for names and faces is especially unpredictable. We have all experienced the embarrassment of failing to remember an individual’s name despite meeting them only minutes before. Many theories have been suggested to explain these frustrating moments (Burton & Bruce, 1993; O’Mahony & Newell, 2012). However, despite value of these theories, many neglect to explain how to improve name–face memory. Mnemonic devices are powerful memory aids that improve encoding and subsequent memory recall (McCabe et al., 2013). Given the effectiveness of mnemonics, name–face memory recall may be improved with a novel mnemonic device. Previous research by Patel (M.Sc.) at McMaster University investigated one such mnemonic device: the house bunny effect (HBE). The HBE combines elements of the bizarreness effect (Cox & Wollen, 1981) and the production effect (Quinlan & Taylor, 2013) and predicts that repeating an individual’s name in a bizarre voice at the time of encoding (i.e., when meeting a new individual) improves name–face recall. However, contrary to this prediction, bizarre name production did not improve name–face memory recall compared to a normal voice production control. More importantly, a non-statistically significant trend in the opposite direction was observed—bizarre name production at the time of encoding hindered name–face memory recall (Patel, 2020). Given this finding, we present two studies: an online conceptual replication of the HBE and a study that further elucidates the mechanisms behind the HBE. The results of these two studies will help determine how name–face memory is influenced by bizarre name production at the time of encoding (i.e., the HBE mnemonic).