If people keep forgetting your name, your face may be part of the reason. Names attached to highly memorable faces are recalled more often than names attached to forgettable ones.
The study, by Andrew Cook and Deanne Westerman of Binghamton University, was published online in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition on March 26, 2026 (doi.org/10.1037/xlm0001609).
Memorability rubs off on names
Memorability is an intrinsic property of an image: some faces and scenes are reliably remembered by most people, others reliably forgotten. The researchers asked whether that advantage spreads to information paired with the image.
Across 12 experiments, participants saw faces or scenes while hearing a first name or a city name. As in earlier research, they later recognized high-memorability images better than low-memorability ones.
The new result concerns the names. First names and city names paired with high-memorability faces were more likely to be remembered, both when participants were cued with the face and in free recall.
Faces, but not scenes
Scenes behaved differently. City names paired with highly memorable scenes showed no recall advantage in either test. The boost appears to be specific to faces.
The authors suggest memorable faces could be used to help people retain associated information, and point to advertising, education and political messaging as places where that might matter. A candidate or spokesperson with a highly memorable face, on this evidence, may also have a more memorable name.
Study Details:
- Title: Do people forget your name? Your face might be the problem: The effect of cue memorability on recall of associations
- Authors: Andrew M. Cook, Deanne L. Westerman
- Journal: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
- Publication Date: March 26, 2026
- DOI: 10.1037/xlm0001609