How often do you forget stuff instantly?

[offTopic]

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OK, three scenarios here:

1) You are talking to someone. You introduce yourself. 10 seconds later, you realize you have no idea what their name is.

2) You decide to do something (grab a bottle of water, maybe) on the way out of the house. You realize you forgot something and turn around to grab it from your room. You forget your initial task and leave.

3) You are watching something on TV. Commercial comes on, you flip channels and watch something for a few minutes, then totally forget about the first thing you were watching.

Just curious, how many of you forget stuff like this, and how often?

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1) All the time. I'm pretty bad with names. If I'm playing golf, I will write the people's names on the scorecard. If they are not immediately discernable by name, I'll add some type of description ("yellow shirt" or somesuch).

2) Rarely, but it has definitely happened. If I had to guess, maybe a couple times a year.

3) If I was intently watching something, almost never, but if I'd stopped on a ballgame or something that was only half paying attention to anyway, then sure, maybe 10% of the time.

[Soul Daddy]

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4, I remember this one song where, everytime it came on the radio, I'd ask my buddy who sang the song. I didn't even realize I was doing this until a few months later (after asking him everytime we heard the song), he shows up with the CD in hand, complaining that I had asked him who sang that song at least 8 times.

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Do you still not remember the name of the performer?

[jba]

how embarrassing is this:

You check your watch, someone immediately asks you what time it is, and you have to check again. I do this all the time.

[Badger]

I met some random dude at a college party once. We did the quick intro thing and I was already moving on in the conversation and he was repeating "Ross, nice to meet you, Ross" while still shaking my hand. I gave him an odd look and he explained to me that he likes to repeat someone's name while looking at them in order to better remember them. It kind of blew my mind that something so simple could be such an effective solution for a problem I have. So I started using a similar technique.

I don't make the intro awkward or say there name three times, but I do make a conscious effort to be more aware of what is taking place at the moment of an introduction and repeat the person's name to myself. Since then I've had incredible accuracy with remembering people's names. In extreme cases I'll remember somebody's name from one meeting 6+ months back and they don't even remember meeting me. This can weird people out so sometimes I don't use a person's name and instead say "Hey I'm Ross, I think we met a while back."

This doesn't apply to the OP, but an odd thing that I forget is my age. I don't think this should happen to someone who is 25 years old. It first happened when I was 23 and had to do the math on my birthday to figure out if I was 22 or 23. It gave me a pretty good cover for when I had to ask my girlfriend of 3 years how old she was after her birthday 2 weeks ago.

[Gordon Scott]

1) I thought I was the only person on the planet that could forget a name in 5 seconds. I'm really bad with names.

2) I’m very easily thrown off task. Example. I go to the kitchen to get a beer and notice the dogs bowl is low and decide to get Fido some fresh water. 10 minutes later I’m back watching the ball game wondering what I did with my beer. Really bad when the wife ask me to do something similar.

3) Not as much since the invention of Tivo but I’m pretty bad.

I'm really glad I'm not the only one with these problems especially question #1.

Thanks ElD

GS

[testaaja]

1 and 2, very, very very [censored] often. It's almost sad.

[DarrenX]

1) It's been said, but if you don't remember the name of the person, it never registered in the first place. There's a few memory techniques to help reinforce initial retention, one of which is simply stating their name a few times immediately after you hear it: "Jim... nice to meet you Jim."

And oh yeah, almost forgot to give my %age- 90% of the time I forget the name, and 100% of the time I forget to use the technique!


2) 33% of the time. Always very frustrating because it's usually when I'm in a hurry.

3) I don't completely understand this question. I'm guessing you're saying you were watching something you wanted to see, then flipped channels with the intention of only watching during commercials, then forgot to go back (quickly enough). I'd have to say this completely depends on whether or not the first thing I was watching was interesting. If it wasn't interesting, why would you consciously remember 'forgetting' about the initial show?

Assuming the initial show is something we had intended to watch all the way through, I'd say very rarely (<5%).

4) Constantly. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[gusmahler]

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[ QUOTE ]
4, I remember this one song where, everytime it came on the radio, I'd ask my buddy who sang the song. I didn't even realize I was doing this until a few months later (after asking him everytime we heard the song), he shows up with the CD in hand, complaining that I had asked him who sang that song at least 8 times.

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Do you still not remember the name of the performer?

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It was irrelevant to the story and I didn't want the thread to degenerate into a "your favorite band sucks" thread.

But it was Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine.

[TonyDanza]

1) Always unless I make a point of repeating their name or consciously make an effort to remember (i.e. a hot chick)
2) Occasionally
3) Frequently

[kipin]

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I forget the names of people so much that I've just stopped listening when they tell me. I then realized that names are pretty meaningless so its not a big deal. I'd rather remember some good thing about the person or where I know them from than their name.

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I can usually rattle off a bunch of random facts about someone whose name I have forgotten. So in the process of asking someone for their name a second time I will also tell them random facts about them that I still remember. It seems to break the ice a little bit and people appear more forgiving when you tell them you can't remember their name.