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[TIL-6] Ever called your friend by the name of another friend?

harmonyPosted for Everyone to comment on, 5 years ago3 min read

There are times when I blurt a wrong name when I try to call someone whom I've known my whole life. I just scratch my head and wonder how I did that because it doesn't make sense. I laugh and I end up being teased instead. LOL. So I took a little research and found about the psychology of misnaming.
Misnaming is the way our body tries to organize the data in it. We mentally categorize everyone to metaphorical folders of how perceive them. When we place people in the same folder, we have this tendency to unintentionally switch their names. This is where things get interesting.

A study at Florida conducted a survey to 1,700 individuals and concluded that mixing up people's name is more common than we know. It is common across all ages. It isn't an indicator of ageing nor any cognitive decline associated to Alzheimer's. More than half of the participants have been called by the wrong name mostly from someone close to them, which is 95% their family. The researchers discovered that mothers are most likely to mix the names the child with their siblings. This is where the "offspring" folder of the parents' brain come in. It simply could imply that your mother thinks of you the same way as she thinks of your sibling.

Part of the research explains about the concept of a "mental semantic network" which stores information about related people, places and things. When we instantly have to remember something, our brain must reach the needed relevant parts of the information we need to remember. This 'reaching out' process is called the 'spreading activation' to when our neurons try to reach out the necessary parts on the location of the information and causes other data under the same location to be picked up and activated. If the information that was picked up reaches a threshold, we remember it.

So if a person calls you by another person's name, it could just simply mean that your information is connected on the same semantic network to the wrong name that you were called. Your existence stands on to the same way of that other person. Now if your mama calls you by your brother's name, then it could also imply that you are equally loved. :blush:

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Till next time,
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