Techno Britain forgets how to remember

More than a quarter of the UK population cannot remember their spouse's phone number[1], a survey commissioned by Protectyourbubble.com reports today.

What happens in an emergency if your bag has been lost or stolen? Most people would reach for their mobile ... but if it's gone and you need to use a public phone, who would you call? Whose phone number can you remember off the top of your head?

Stephen Ebbett from Protectyourbubble.com comments: "As a nation, we've become increasingly reliant on gadgets, particularly our mobile phones and it seems the cleverer our technology becomes, the less we use our minds. We rely on our phones for storing our telephone numbers - which is great until we lose them.

"When something goes wrong, we instinctively want to call our nearest and dearest for help, but without our phones, these days, we're lucky if we can remember any numbers to call! We found that men were slightly better at remembering their spouse's telephone number than women, 56% versus 54% respectively. But interestingly, both men and women were better at remembering their parent's telephone number than their spouse's (65% men and 70% women). This is probably because they've known it for longer."

Protectyourbubble.com offers some simple tips to help you recall important telephone numbers:

1. say them out aloud several times 2. try grouping the numbers e.g. 8461 becomes eighty-four, sixty-one 3. look for patterns in the number sequence e.g. 6912 could be multiples of three, so it becomes 6 - 9 - 12 4. look for patterns on the key board e.g. 1379 are the four corners of the key pad.

Help is at hand if your mobile or iPhone is lost or stolen. Protectyourbubble.com provides gadget insurance for mobile phones as well as PDAs, MP3 players, laptops, satnavs, cameras and more from as little as £2.49 per month. The insurance provides worldwide cover for theft, accidental damage and breakdown on all insured gadgets plus accidental loss for mobile phones and PDAs, and Protectyourbubble.com aims to replace items within 48 hours of a successful claim.

For every policy sold or renewed, Protectyourbubble.com donates £1 to the Children's Adventure Farm Trust*, which provides residential activity breaks for terminally ill, chronically sick, disabled and disadvantaged children. Located in a 17th century Cheshire farmhouse, facilities include a multi-sensory suite and garden designed different sensory experiences which can stimulate or calm children with physical and learning disabilities or sensory impairments.

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Notes to Editors

Research conducted amongst 501 UK adults by Aurora Market Research (May 2009)

[1] Based on those that have a partner, husband or wife

*correct at the time of publication