ringing a bell

[chins]

where does this come from

[answerbok]

suggest that there are many bells that ring to remind or instruct us to do things; doorbell (open the door), telephone bell (pick up the phone), school bell (come to class), toaster bell (take out the toast), clothes dryer bell ( take out the clothes), and so. So, if something such as a face, a name, a number, or a date "rings a bell," it causes you to remember something. Either that or bomb disposal research maybe :-)

[chins]

I am new here..am I allowed to say thank you, so far?

[Quizmonster]

The first time the phrase was used in the sense of 'awakening a memory', it referred to the experiments carried out by the Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov. He was a physiologist who studied conditioned responses in animals. One of his tests was to feed dogs whilst ringing a bell at the same time. The dogs began to salivate because of the food initially, of course. However, later he found he could make them salivate merely by ringing the bell without providing food, as they had come to associate sound and food in their memories.

Hence, we now use the phrase: "that rings a bell" to signify the fact that our memories have been stimulated into action.

[Phantaxus]

Chins - you can leave feedback by rating the answers using the star system (from 0 to 3) but a thankyou is always appreciated.

[darth vader]

Mike Hammer. That name rings a bell too (can you pass em my coat please?)

[chins]

Einstein. you'll get nowhere with that bell. If you want to get ahead...Big Ben's the one you want...It' all about time and space you know...