I'm sorry, what was your name again? A guest post by Dr. Yana Weinstein

One thing that I feel is part of my professorly duty is learning my students’ names.

Last semester, my first time teaching a large group, I approached the task of learning approximately 67 names – spread across two very different classes – with the zeal and fervor you would expect from a cognitive psychologist armed with all the right mnemonic tools. I created memory cues for each student, and tested myself frequently, after every few names that I learned – just like my own research recommends. Within a few class sessions, I had all the names down, except for those of a few people who attended class only infrequently.

So this semester, imagine my surprise when my same strategy was far less successful. Six weeks in, although I can just about manage handing back students’ quizzes while peaking at my “memory cues” (basically, hints about who’s who – more on those later), when it comes to producing students’ names while staring at them in the face, it’s pretty hit or miss. My latest desperate strategy involves standing a few yards away from a student whose name I am about to possibly get wrong, saying their name loudly with an inquiring intonation, and seeing whether that person looks up.

What has gone wrong? Have I aged so much from the stress of my first semester on the tenure track that my mental faculties have now been significantly compromised? Well, probably not, although some days I can’t help wondering. So, what are the barriers standing in my way this semester?

·         Reduced novelty.

Last semester, everything was new. My job was new, the classrooms I taught in were new, the student population was new, even the whole state of Massachusetts was new to me. This made all the new students I met very distinctive and thus, easier to remember. This semester, it’s the same thing all over again. Same state, same university, same class, similar students. Which leads me on to the next point.

·         Interference.

As we know, memory for previous information can interfere with the formation of new memories. If you park your car in a different spot every day, today you might go looking for it in yesterday’s spot. This is also why it is hard to remember whether you locked the door or turned off the stove, which are actions you repeat very frequently. It is the same with name-learning. Even though I do not explicitly think about last semester’s students when I am looking at my current students, it is inevitable that I am going to be less efficient at learning the names of a new group, especially while I still remember many names from last semester.

·         Ineffective Cues.

The interference and reduced novelty factors come together in making the “memory cues” I use much less efficient this semester. What do I mean by “memory cues”? These are little hints I give myself to help me remember which person each name belongs to. Some of them I am happy to share, such as “colorful bag” (I had to ask the student if she was planning on always bringing this bag to class, and luckily she said yes; when I asked another student if she would always be wearing the particular sweatshirt she had worn to the first class, that question was less well received). Other hints I’m a little less ready to disclose, so I live in fear of losing the list of student names where I scribbled the hints. None of these are particularly incriminating, but suffice it to say, that if you are in my class and you have three noses or wear a plant-pot on your head, that will be my memory cue. Unfortunately, it turns outthat there are multiple students with the proverbial plant-pot on their heads, so I’m having to re-use memory cues from last semester, and they are a little less effective each time I re-use them.

So, if I get your name wrong this semester, blame it on cognitive psychology.