Did you ever experience this strange memory failure?

Sometimes if I am asked about a name, or a word that the asker can’t remember, suddenly I too can’t remember it. It’s like their blank memory is contagious, or like a ‘sympathetic amnesia’ sets in.

Did you experience this too?

I often say “oh, great now you made me forget too!”

What’s happening there? Is it that the forgotten thing is not in normal use as a part of quotidian speech.

In this circumstance it also often feels like the word is just out of reach.