Effectiveness of techniques for the learning of face-name associations

Research has shown that people have a particular difficulty recalling the names of faces, (McWenney, Young, Hay, & Ellis, 1987). This study compares four mnemonic techniques created for learning and remembering face name associations in healthy young adults: basic repetition, repetition with presentation of the face at different angles, spaced retrieval, and pre-exposure technique. The results of the study indicated that learning names under spaced retrieval, in which information is learned and retained through increasing or stable intervals of time dependent on individual performance, produced the greatest recall of names. Combining the pre-exposure technique with spaced retrieval did not improve recall of names. This study also found correlations between face name recall performance and performance on various neuropsychological measures. Face name learning and recall was positively associated with measures of facial recognition, attention, verbal and figural fluency, word memory, and executive functioning