Memory Retrieval System

So, the other day, on the sleigh ride, as we passed the half-pipe at Park City, the woman in front of me asked the sleigh driver the name of that Olympic snow-boarding dude with the red hair.  Sleigh driver can't remember -- comments that his sons would know.

And my brain says, "Flying Tomato."  And then it says, "Shaun . . . Something."

And I tell the woman in front of me, "Shaun Something."

And I keep trying to figure out the last name.  I know it's a name that's another word.  I know it's a name I can get, if I think about it long enough.  I run through the alphabet, as I often can retrieve names when I know the first initial, but nothing is hitting.  I give up.  I stop trying to remember the name.

Sleigh gets up to the lodge.  We get out.  I go inside.  Get my table.  Figure I'll find the ladies' room before the rush.  I find it (it's the door labelled "Cowgirls") and enter an open stall.  And sitting there, my brain volunteers, "Shaun White."

Has anyone actually studied this?  The way that you can remember something if you stop thinking about it?  The brain just keeps working on the problem and finds the solution even when it isn't at the forefront of your thoughts.  It's like spotting something just out of the corner of your eye -- the memory is there, but it only comes forward if you're not looking for it.

Weird.  Cool, though.