How come we can't recall words that we know?

Question

Ok, so heres the argument between me and my Dad:

He says that if I were to seriously remember and know 3000 words, and to test that I really have it in my long term memory then I would be able to pretty much just stand there and recite every single word I know. And yes I do believe you guys agree with me that this notion is garbage. I remember from Anatomy and Physiology class that somehow our brain doesn't just let the information out but rather the info. is brought up by association. So if I had all 3000 words in front of my then I would be able to write out the definitions. But I can't list all the words by mind, just like we can't say all the words we learned ever since we were born! Right?

Answer 1

i agree with you.  no way someone can just recite 3000 words and their defintions in one sitting.  our minds are not programed to react like that.  plus who could perform under that kind of stress anyways.

Answer 2

I agree with your dad. It is not a big deal to remember 3000 word and their definitions. But there is a big BUT. The professional memory guys who recall huge lists of names for entertainment have developed systems for remembering those words or names. So, the trick for you would be to devise a strategy to recall all those words in some structured way.  Akira Haraguchi can recall places of pi to 10,000 places, Lord only knows what system he uses but it works.

Answer 3

yeah but big brother tried that one to his housemates here in the phils

Answer 4

Neither long-term memory nor verbal skills work like the hard disk on a computer, and require the coordinated action of multiple areas of the brain. 3000 words you could probably handle, because it's such a small percentage of your vocabulary, but 50,000 would be challenging, to say the least. Think of the "tip of the toungue" phenomenon!