They asked participants to point to illustrations of various
familiar objects including a purse, a balloon and a guitar. The
first time, a written message came up asking them to find the
object. The second time, the group members were asked to repeat
the word of the item they were looking for to themselves.
According to the study, “speaking the name of the target
immediately prior to the search display made search
significantly faster and more accurate.” They also sent people
to the store to look for familiar items, and those who said the
name out loud got through the store more efficiently. They
theorize that it works because hearing a familiar word
stimulates your brain and helps to process the information
faster. So next time you lose your wallet, keys or phone,
repeating these words to yourself could speed up when you find
them. Here’s a chart showing how saying the name of an object
out loud helped participants find stuff in the store,
particularly when it was something they were already familiar
with, l