Forgetting names is not a character flaw and it is not a sign that your memory is going. Names are a genuinely harder kind of material than almost anything else you learn about a person, for reasons that memory researchers have studied for decades. These guides explain why, and what to do instead.
You recognise the face but the name is gone. The reason is that a name is the one thing about a person that means nothing — and meaning is what memory runs on.
A five-step routine that fits into a real working day, plus what to do about video calls, group introductions and the colleague you have already met three times.
Cramming on the day you meet someone barely helps. Recalling the name after a gap is what makes it durable — and there is a simple schedule for it.
Twelve introductions in ten minutes is not a memory task you can win. How to win a smaller one, and how to salvage the names on the way home.
The findings that hold up, the ones that get overstated, and the claims we deliberately do not make.
A free face-and-name memory game built on the ideas in these guides. Meet people, wait, then try to remember who was who. Plays in your browser.
Play in your browser Get it on Google PlayThese articles summarise published memory research in our own words for a general audience. They are about study technique, not medical advice. Individual results vary, and memory training has not been shown to prevent or treat any medical condition.