Semantic satiation is the effect best summarized by Homer Simpson: “You say that so often it’s lost all meaning.” Ironically, you will be satiated with the word “satiation” by the end of the article. Semantic satiation (also semantic saturation) is a psychological phenomenon in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaningfor the listener, who then processes the speech […]
Category Archives: Psychology
TED Talk: Shawn Achor
A fast, fun, and insightful TED Talk about happiness and productivity from Shawn Achor. Instantly one of my favourites. Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work | Video on TED.com.
Ways Modern Men Are Trained to Hate Women
Cracked has become something far different than its historical goofy publication on the web. This article is not something I expected to be reading on their site, but I’m glad it was written and I’m gladder it was published. Guys, read up! And now you see the problem. From birth were taught that were owed […]
No Titanic Panic
This is an interesting article about, essentially, herd mentality and social mores. Well worth a read. As the Titanic was sinking and women and children climbed into lifeboats, the cellist and violinist from the ship's band stood and played. They died when the ship went down. Men stood on the deck and smoked cigars. They […]
TEDTalk: Great Talks
I’ve long been an admirer of Steve Jobs, not least because he was the best presenter I’ve ever watched. His addresses were so effective the term “Stevenote” was coined in recognition. This TEDTalk by Nancy Duarte is useful for anyone who needs to get their ideas across, and hopes to do it with the same […]
TED Talk: How Babies Think
This TED Talk could stand to be a little shorter, but it does have two delightful moments: The first is watching a four year old testing out hypotheses. The second – and I’m spoiling the ending here – is Alison Gopnik’s summation that, “being a baby is a bit like being in love, in Paris, […]
Backmasking – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backmasking In the late 1970s, during the rise of the Christian right in the United States, fundamentalist Christian groups began to claim that backmasked messages could bypass the conscious mind and reach the subconscious, where they would be unknowingly accepted by the listener… During the same year, thirty North Carolina teenagers, led by their pastor, […]
Train engineers traumatized by fatal collisions
http://www.pantagraph.com/news/article_7d365660-88dc-11de-9d63-001cc4c03286.html This is a side of train travel that I’ve (thankfully) never had to contemplate before: Engineers having to deal with frequent instances of suicide and accidental deaths caused by their trains.
Chaos Begets Chaos & SEEDMAGAZINE.COM
http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2009/01/chaos_begets_chaos.php Broken window theory (BWT), first proposed by James Wilson and George Kelling in 1982, holds that the presence of disorder – in the form of broken windows, litter, and graffiti – can encourage delinquent behavior. BWT promotes a “nip it in the bud” stance toward crime prevention: Fix small problems (like litter) before big […]
Caring for Your Introvert – Magazine – The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200303/rauch A truer article was never written. I’m an Introvert’s Introvert, surrounded at work by some of the yippiest nattering Extros you’ll ever encounter. I’d love to make this article required reading for them, but I’d guess that, one paragraph in, they’d become bored and start talking again. *sigh* Extroverts are energized by people, and […]