The fifth stage of listening is recalling, remembering information after you’ve received, attended to, understood, and responded to it. As researchers L. Todd Thomas and Timothy Levine (1994) note, recalling is a crucial part of the listening process because we judge the effectiveness of listening based on our ability to accurately recall information after we’ve listened to it. Indeed, practically every scientific measure of listening uses recall accuracy as evidence of listening effectiveness (Janusik, 2007).

Your recall accuracy varies depending on the situation. When people have no task other than simple memorization, recall accuracy is high (Freides, 1974). But when people are engaged in activities more complicated than straight memorization, recall accuracy plummets. That’s because in such cases, we’re receiving a lot of information, which increases the likelihood of perceptual and recall errors. Research on the recall accuracy of criminal eyewitnesses, for instance, has found that people frequently err in their recall of crimes, something most jurors and even the eyewitnesses themselves don’t realize (Wells, Lindsay, & Tousignant, 1980). Our recall of interpersonal and relational encounters is not exempt from error. Especially for negative and unpleasant interactions, such as conflicts, we tend to recall our own behavior as positive and constructive and the behavior of others as comparatively negative, regardless of what actually happened (Sillars, Smith, & Koerner, 2010).

How can you enhance your recall ability? One way is to use mnemonics, devices that aid memory. For example, when I was an undergraduate at the University of Washington, I delivered pizzas. Many of my deliveries went to the Wallingford neighborhood, a residential area west of campus. Wallingford was different from other neighborhoods because the streets had names instead of numbers: Eastern, Sunnyside, Corliss, Bagley, Meridian, Burke, Wallingford, Densmore, Woodlawn, and Ashworth. No matter how many times my supervisor told me, “No, Woodlawn is between Densmore and Ashworth!” I couldn’t recall the street order when I was out on a run. So I created a mnemonic. I took the first syllable of each street name, in order from east to west, and created a simple phrase, “Eas-Sun Cor-Bag Mer-Bur Wal-Den Wood-Ash.” The phrase was so distinct that it stuck in my mind, and from then on I had no problem locating the streets. The mnemonic was so powerful that even now, nearly 30 years later, I can recall it, even though I live thousands of miles from Seattle and the pizza restaurant for which I delivered no longer exists.

Several other practices can also help you boost your recall ability. Because listening is rooted in both visual and auditory information and memory is enhanced by using all five senses, try bolstering your memory of an interpersonal communication encounter by linking information you’ve listened to with pleasant or even silly visuals, scents, or sounds. To create visual images of an interpersonal encounter, you could write detailed notes or draw diagrams documenting the contents of a conversation. You could also link a new acquaintance’s name with a unique physical feature characterizing him or her. Finally, when you develop mnemonics or notes, review them repeatedly, including reciting them out loud, because repetition aides memory.