The following exercise, developed by Dr. Pascale Michelon for sharpbrain.com, will help stimulate the connections or associations between words in your temporal lobe. Below are pairs of words. Your goal is to find a third word that is connected or associated with both of these two words. The first pair is “piano” and “lock.” The answer is “key.” The word key is connected with both the word piano and the word lock: there are keys on a piano and you use a key to lock doors. Key is an example of a homograph. Go through the list below and see how many others you can come up with.
1. LOCK – PIANO
2. SHIP – CARD
3. TREE – CAR
4. SCHOOL – EYE
5. PILLOW – COURT
6. RIVER – MONEY
7. BED – PAPER
8. ARMY – WATER
9. TENNIS – NOISE
10. EGYPTIAN – MOTHER
11. SMOKER – PLUMBER
Solutions are below. Please scroll down.
Solutions
1. LOCK – PIANO > Key
2. SHIP – CARD > Deck
3. TREE – CAR > Trunk
4. SCHOOL – EYE > Pupil (Exam and Private are also possible)
5. PILLOW – COURT > Case
6. RIVER – MONEY > Bank (Flow is also possible)
7. BED – PAPER > Sheet
8. ARMY – WATER > Tank
9. TENNIS – NOISE > Racket
10. EGYPTIAN – MOTHER > Mummy
11. SMOKER – PLUMBER > Pipe
Popular Brain Tips 
The temporal lobe is your word warehouse. It is the part of your brain that facilitates speech, memory and learning. It is also where you form associations between words with different meanings. For example, take salt and pepper. Did you think of the definition for salt or pepper? Or did you think shaker? In many cases, the associative word is a homograph—a word that has more than one meaning but is always spelled the same.
