43 Reminders as Triggers
H
ave you ever truly analyzed a conversation? What typically
happens is someone talks to you about an event in their life.
They are sharing their story.
That’s simple enough. But what happens next is you look
through your memory banks for something similar to what you
just heard. You might then say, “Something like that happened to
me once, too!” And then you take your turn in the conversation.
As the person listens to you, they are doing the same thing. They
might even get so excited when a thought or memory occurs to
them, that they interrupt you and tell their next story.
What is happening here?
Roger Schank, writing in Te l l M e a S t o r y, says, “The question to
think about is how, after someone says something to you in con-
versation, something comes to mind to say back. Even the simplest
of responses have to be found somewhere in memory.”
In short, stories contain elements—usually specific words—that
triggermemories in people. When I tell you about my experience
of having lunch today, and mention that an attractive young
blonde-haired woman waited on me and seemed to flirt with me, I
am setting you up to drift off, mentally, from the conversation.
The word lunchmight remind you that you haven’t eaten yet,