History Main / CongruentMemory

* Played for a non-comedic (although somewhat absurd) bent in the Season 4 finale episodes of ''{{House}}'', where the good doctor tries to fight the amnesia that is crippling his ability to diagnose what may be afflicting victims of a bus crash he just survived. Ultimately subverted in that he chooses to just fry his frontal lobe with electricity to induce the memories ([[spoiler:and a seizure -- that should have shredded his brain, what with the wires inside it]]).

* In the tale of Ali-Baba and the Forty Thieves from ''ArabianNights'', a tailor is blindfolded and led to a certain house where the protagonist is hiding. When Ali-Baba's men try to discover the house, they blindfold the tailor and he is able to find it again.

* In the tale of Ali-Baba and the Forty Thieves from ''TheArabianNights'', a tailor is blindfolded and led to a certain house where the protagonist is hiding. When Ali-Baba's men try to discover the house, they blindfold the tailor and he is able to find it again.

* ''SpongebobSquarepants''

* Tatewaki Kunō and his watermelon training in ''[=~Ranma ½~=]''.

[[folder:Comics]]
* There was one ''[[ArchieComics Betty and Veronica]]'' comic where Veronica was studying for a test while lying on the floor of her room. When the day of the test came around, she couldn't remember any of the information -- until she lay down on the floor of the classroom in the same position she'd studied in.

** In the same vein, Jughead was once scouted for the opera thanks to his bombastic singing voice - unfortunately, he only sang well in enclosed spaces because he did most of his singing in the bath tub.

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

* In ''{{Akeelah and the Bee}}'', Akeelah practices spelling while jumping rope. During the spelling bee, she has to jump to remember a particularly difficult word.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* In an episode of ''{{Malcolm in the Middle}}'', Hal goes bowling and gets a strike every time. As the episode goes on, he develops an increasingly elaborate routine for throwing the ball, to the extent that toward the end, Hal refuses to let one of his observers go to the bathroom.

* Played for a non-comedic (although somewhat absurd) bent in the Season 4 finale episodes of ''{{House}}'', where the good doctor tries to fight the amnesia that is crippling his ability to diagnose what may be afflicting victims of a bus crash he just survived. Ultimately subverted in that he chooses to just fry his frontal lobe with electricity to induce the memories ([[spoiler:and a seizure]]).
** ([[spoiler:A seizure that should have shredded his brain, what with the wires inside it.]])
* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', initially Isaac Mendez could only use his precognition powers while drugged on heroin. However, he later learned how to use them without it.
** And since everyone else who's acquired that power since has been perfectly able to use it straight away, one suspects it was a MagicFeather.
*** It was. A different character has a similar problem with alcohol.

* Tedd of ''ElGoonishShive'' is [[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2006-07-28 better at cooking]] when [[GenderBender female]].
** He is, however, fully aware at how absurd this is. (The gender bending part, not congruent memory as a whole.) This doesn't stop him in the slightest.

* In ''[[RedVsBlue Red vs. Blue]]'', Donut tries to recount to Grif the things he did during the day that led to him losing an important part for Simmons' cyborg operation. Among these steps was him asking himself where he could hang out with no pants on.

* In one episode of ''{{SpongeBob SquarePants}}'', [=SpongeBob=] practices driving while blindfolded. When it comes time for him to take his driving test, he finds he can't drive without the blindfold.
** Oddly this one provides a justification: when he can see what he's doing, it terrifies him.

** Possibly TruthInTelevision for anyone who has ever tried to remember the order of the alphabet, and sung the Alphabet Song.
*** Or who find themselves [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNb9AoY5XXE singing the Preamble to the US Constitution.]] (Note: the song *does* omit part of one line to scan better...)
* In ''FamilyGuy'', Peter could play the piano only when plastered.
** That's not true! He could also fall down, vomit, and make lewd calls to Lois's sister when plastered.
** However, it wasn't a straight example of this trope. They didn't suggest this idiosyncrasy was because he learned to play the piano while drunk. Instead, apparently without learning to play or practicing beforehand, he just inexplicably developed a talent for playing the piano that required him to be drunk.

* Played straight in an episode of TheFlintstones, in which Fred took ballet lessons to improve his bowling skills, and then find that he can only bowl perfectly to ballet music.

* Have you ever tried to remember song lyrics with the melody removed? Or tried to recall song lyrics without humming the tune to yourself/singing it?
** Some people can't even recall the order of the alphabet without the song.

** On a related note, you're supposed to only use your bed for sleeping[[hottip:*:and sex, of course]] because if you try studying in bed, you'll find yourself getting sleepy because you've strongly conditioned yourself to associate your bed with sleep.
*** This works both ways. Some people have problems with insomnia because they've stopped being conditioned to associate their bed/bedroom with sleep. The remedy for this is to move things like computers, TVS, and excercise equpiment out of the bedroom and to minimize non-sleeping time spent there.
** This is also why is not a good idea to stoke yourself up on coffee or energy drinks to cram in your revision, as you won't remember it until you're stoked up on coffee or energy drinks - probably not a good idea when you're about to go into an exam.

* Averted with performance under extreme stress. It used to be approached under two theories: learn the action normally and then apply stress -versus- learn action under stress. Extensive research has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the former is a far better way. In the book ''Extreme Fear'' the author goes into the psychology, but essentially your brain shuts down too much in panic mode and focuses only on what it knows will work for it to learn successfully while under duress. So learn calmly, and then introduce distractions.

<<|ComedyTropes|>>
<<|MemoryTropes|>>
<<|TruthInTelevision|>>

* One episode of DharmaandGreg features Larry, Dharma's post-hippy memory trainwreck father, regaining his memory every time he smells Hai Karate.

* In the RobertAHeinlein novel ''Glory Road'', when Rufo gives Oscar a shave, he tells him he can't shave someone who's sitting up because he learned shaving by preparing corpses for burial.

* In ''{{Akeelah and the Bee}}'', Akeelah practices spelling while jumping rope. During the spelling bee, she has to jump to activate the memory.

*** This troper has the opposite problem, and finds it difficult to sleep in bed.
**** Possibly because it works both ways. Some people have problems with insomnia because they've stopped being conditioned to associate their bed/bedroom with sleep. The remedy for this is to move things like computers, TVS, and excercise equpiment out of the bedroom and to minimize non-sleeping time spent there.
*** So those of us living in studio apartments are screwed?

**** Possibly because it works both ways. Some people have problems with insomnia because they've stopped being conditioned to associate their bed/bedroom with sleep. The remedy for this is to move things like computers, TVS, and excercise equpiment out of the bedroom and to minimize non-sleeping time spent there.

* In ''Akeelah and the Bee'', Akeelah practices spelling while jumping rope. During the spelling bee, she has to jump to activate the memory.

* In ''[[OldMansWar The Ghost Brigades]]'', the character Jared is a failed copy of the main villain who gradually recovers the villain's memories over the course of the book.

* This troper can only remember the basic multiplications by silently singing their subsequent multiplications in song. For example, to remember the multiplications for the number 8 (8, 16, 24, 32, 40...), she sings it like a birthday song.