When you recall a person's name, what is that like for you? How does it occur?

I attempted to recall the names of a few past teachers. If I can remember their face I can see their face in my mind. Not like a gallery portrait just a fuzzy recollection.

If I cannot remember their face, I see nothing mentally.

@SergeantQueen, recalling former teachers is a particularly good way to come at this question. But tell me, do you remember their names? If so, how do they come to you?

Yes, the last names. Maybe I misunderstood. I don’t visualize/see anything. The name pops up sort of out of the blue, and if I remember the face I see it. But not usually until after I remember the name as I am not the best at remembering either together.

I hope this makes sense, I know how I want to answer but not sure how to explain.

@SergeantQueen, thank you for answering. I was suggesting possibilities. What I want to know is how it works for you. Doesn’t have to be visual at all. I’m asking, when the name pops up, what way is it? How does it pop up? If you don’t see the names, do you hear them? Are they in some kind of perceptual cloud?

This is a hard question, and explaining is likely to be hard, but please try. I am so curious.

I get a profound sense of relief, as I failed a dementia driving test last year, and lost my driver’s license.

I see a picture. Sometimes I ask my brain to remember, and go about my business. It just pops into my mind later.

@RedDeerGuy1, so you picture the name as if in writing?

I don’t tend to visualize my thoughts in general. Unless I try to. I can visualize an apple, otherwise like you said its more like hearing it. Like hearing my voice in my head going “oh, my 2nd grade teacher was Mrs. Shea” if I try really hard I can see their face.

I mainly hear it. Can visulize it. Just not as often and takes effort sometimes

@Jeruba No. It’s like a television on pause.

@SergeantQueen, that’s great. Thanks a lot.

@RedDeerGuy1, you see the name as if on a TV screen?

@Jeruba I see the actress and actor as an image. I usually forget words of celebrities names. It gets so bad sometimes that I forget my age and some basic stuff.

I see a location associated with that person and then their face appears and then the name just comes into my mind. If it doesn’t I try harder and imagine other locations or other people connected with that person. If I still can’t get the name I refer to my diaries.

When remembering school teachers I see school classrooms and corridors, when remembering fellow pupils I see scenes from the school playground. The person’s face then either replaces that image or sits on top of it. If I can’t remember a name, it is as if it were hidden in a mist.

I don’t have any sensory experience. The name is just there. As I have gotten older, there have been many times when I can’t remember a name, and then some time later the name just appears when I am thinking of something else.

I have no idea who they are when I first encounter them and then, it’s as if an invisible, subconscious assistant (who’s been frantically rummaging through overstuffed filing cabinets) hands me a post-it note with their name in it.

This all happens within seconds.

I did an experiment just now. When I thought about various peoples names. Each time I thought of their name a very quick moving blurry vision of each person occurred in my brain. Weird. I new realized that my brain worked like that.

This is the order it happens for me: first: see the name in my head; second: my mouth silently forms the name or says the name silently; third: I have a very quick visual of an event. If it’s a friend that I’ve known for years, it’s a mish-mash of a picture of them plus a bunch of events that have happened.

EX: Mrs. Davanau (teacher), instant picture of her trying to stand on her head
Mr. Fontana (math teacher), instant picture of him frowning at me in exasperation and disgust

This is an interesting exercise.

In most cases a vision of the person’s face comes to mind, usually with them smiling.

I had a tumultuous relationship with one woman in college; our last interaction was a phone call where she was angry. So my initial memory of her is her harsh voice. Remembering what she looked like is secondary.

It is a revelation.
The information is stored in the subconscious. When wanted, it is brought to the threshold of the two minds and is brought over into the conscious mind by logic.
I have read of this in a book, The Random House Dictionary.

I picture the person, mostly their face including their hair. It is in color.

This might be related: supposedly, year ago most people tended to dream in black and white, I think it was studied back in the 1940’s and 50’s, but people today, almost always report dreaming in color. They think black and white movies and TV vs. color TV affected how we dream. Much older people today still seem to answer black and white even though in more recent years they’ve watched color TV and color film. A lot of adults, if you ask today, answer they aren’t sure what they dream in, but assume it is color, because they think black and white would stand out to them.

There are people who have trouble picturing anything, it’s called aphantasia, I am a little like that about imagining scenery, especially if I am just making it up, but I can see in my mind (or one might say my mind’s eye) people’s faces with whom I am familiar with.

Such interesting answers! Thank you. I’ve always been curious about the different ways that minds work, but I never thought of a specific question that might reveal a glimpse.

But some of you are telling me how you recall a person. I want to know how you recall their name: in what form it comes to mind. A sound, a sight, a cloudy presence, a vibration, what? And when you don’t recall the name, what is missing, or what is present in its place?

I want to know how you recall their name: in what form it comes to mind.

When names are unique or unfamiliar to me (I have good work friends named Bola, Aleeha, and Rakeesha) I have various thoughts. Bola is curvy and round like “Bola”. Aleeha is like Star Wars Leia but spelled differently. Rakeesha is Rake+eesha.

I have trouble with words & names with lots of vowels. Aleeha & Leia will always make me hesitate.

You asked:

Is it like seeing a portrait hung in a gallery, with a name caption beneath?
Do you see the face, and hear the name being spoken?
Are the name and the face somehow joined together as one?
Do you see the name as if it were printed or handwritten?

And then said: But some of you are telling me how you recall a _person. I want to know how you recall their name_

I think it may be impossible to recall a name without recalling the person, although it’s very easy to recall a person but not their name, especially as one gets older. I’m not sure exactly how it gets into my thinking…it’s just suddenly there, and a silent inner voice pronounces it. Then I move on to visualization. All of this happens in about 1/10th of a second.

@smudges, I’m not sure why you read my question aloud to me, but that prompter list of possibilities is preceded by this in bold: when you’re recalling the name to mind, what are you experiencing?

In the original question and five subsequent attempts at clarifying and reframing, I have stuck to the matter of names.

I know it’s a hard question. We’re not used to thinking this way. I went back and forth on this with a therapist-friend the other day, someone who is very aware of her thought processes, and she struggled to answer.

So I appreciate all tries.

But I don’t think I have been the least bit unclear about the focus of the question.
 

Oh, and as to this: I think it may be impossible to recall a name without recalling the person—that would be your experience, but not necessarily everyone’s. I know that I, for one, have names in my memory array with no person attached—my late mother’s long-dead Aunt Molly, for instance, and my brother’s ex-girlfriend whom I never met—not to mention all those names in history books, or indeed characters in novels. They aren’t necessarily present by instant recall, but as they take form in my active mind, coming out of a static state in storage, there is a stepwise process.

I rewrote your points because you seemed to criticize how some people answered your question, saying they were talking about the person, not the name. But in your points, you suggested faces. That is the person. For some people, maybe that is how the name comes to mind, and if so, how does one separate a visual of the person from their face when you recall their name?

I don’t know, it just seemed critical of people’s answers when from what I’ve read, they’ve tried to give you what you want, but you don’t seem to accept it. I, myself, spent quite a bit of time on this question, trying to figure out exactly how I recall a person’s name. I think others have, too.

You’re correct regarding my statement of, I think it may be impossible to recall a name without recalling the person. I was wrongly thinking only of people I know, not characters in novels, etc. That hadn’t even occurred to me.

Personally, I don’t think it’s possible to establish what is missing or what is present in place of a name that you can’t think of. What’s present for me when I can’t think of a name are thoughts, lots of them: memories, “sounds like”, looks like, wrote a book called XYZ, “why can’t I think of it, it’s on the tip of my tongue”, etc. There are so many brain functions and science doesn’t have a clue how they take place that it boggles the mind. That’s what it feels like you ultimately are looking for.

I’m not arguing for argument’s sake. Just trying to explain me and understand you. Sorry for the length.

It just BANGS into my head. And like @Reddeerguy I feel a huge sense of relief.

I’m terrible with names. I try to visualize something meaningful to remember new names. I met two guys the other day: Steve and Leonard. I thought of Steve Austin (6 Million Dollar Man) and Leonard E. (a guy I worked with a long time ago). Seems to work.

I tend to picture the written name, but maybe that’s because I’m used to learning student names using class rosters. Often when I’m struggling with a name, I have a sense of the length or how many syllables it has that is pretty accurate.

I recently transferred job departments in a building with 3,000 employees. I returned to an area where I worked 9 months before, with hundreds of familiar faces and hundreds unfamiliar. So I had LOTS of opportunity to recall (or not) names.

Are the name and the face somehow joined together as one?

That is my main feeling. I see a bundle of the visage, the name, the personality, our history together, their notable traits and actions.

Do you see the name as if it were printed or handwritten?

Yes, including times I do not know how to spell the name. My acquaintance Rakeesha (phonetic spelling) is “rake” and “eesha”.

Do you see the face, and hear the name being spoken?

Definitely