President Biden introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as Russia’s President Putin. Donald Trump named Nikki Haley when he meant Nancy Pelosi. And getting some comedic mileage out of such flubs, the writers of “Friends” had Ross call his bride-to-be Rachel. Her name was Emily.
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The brain remembers information by linking new bits of data with existing information of similar meaning or context. That makes proper nouns, which are arbitrary “nonsense words,” harder to learn, said Neil Mulligan, a cognitive psychologist who studies memory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Though it occurs nearly instantaneously, recalling a name is a multistep endeavor. A memory cue—perhaps a child’s backpack left on the couch—triggers a search for the child’s name. The memory system offers up multiple potential responses, then rejects all but the correct answer.
The ability to reject wrong responses gets worse with age, which is one possible reason older adults more frequently mix up names, Mulligan said.