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Remember Faces by Focusing on a Feature

   

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Try this today
  1. When you meet someone new, commit to trying to remember his or her face and name. 
  2. Ask yourself: What’s the first thing you notice about the person’s face? Is it a prominent chin? Freckles? Scan the person’s face and pick a feature that stands out to you. 
  3. Once you’ve identified the feature, fixate on it for a few seconds (without being too obvious, of course). 
  4. In your mind, link the facial feature to the person’s name: Sue has sharp cheekbones, while Doug has a crooked nose. Connecting the facial feature to the name can help strengthen both in your memory, making you more likely to remember the face and name the next time you see the person.
  5. For bonus points, create an association between the facial feature and an existing memory, object, event or other person. You’ll be able to remember the face — and the name — more easily if you associate meaning to it. For example, you might notice that Deb has green eyes like your sister’s. Meanwhile, Adam’s wide jaw reminds you of the actor John Travolta.
Why

Think you’re bad at remembering names? Well, it turns out you’re probably worse at remembering faces — at least, according to research from the University of York.

 

Our ability to remember names better than faces may seem counterintuitive, but it makes sense if you think about it. After all, faces look slightly different every time you see them, whether due to a different hairstyle or a change in lighting, while names generally remain the same. In fact, you probably walk past many of the same faces during your daily commute to the office or weekly grocery trip without even realizing it. And we don’t usually realize we’ve forgotten a name until we’ve recognized a face.

 

Thankfully, you can improve your ability to remember both faces and names by using a simple strategy every time you meet someone new.

 

The strategy? Fixate on a facial feature that stands out to you, like a large nose, thick eyebrows or pale blue eyes. Research from McMaster University in Canada reveals that fixating on a facial feature when you encounter a new face can help you recognize that face when you see it again.

 

And chances are good you’ll get better at remembering names at the same time. By using simple methods to improve visual memory, you can make significant improvements in your ability to recall a name after you see the person’s face, says psychiatrist Gary Small, director of the UCLA Longevity Center and author of The Memory Bible.

 

Plus, using visual learning strategies is more effective for memory than hearing the same information, according to research from the University of Iowa.

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