Speaking of Cordelia Fine and irrationality

Her book before Delusions of Gender, A Mind of Its Own is a good introduction to "irrationality studies."

I loved the lecture you posted! I should read her, but it's one more thing in a long list that will not be filled till after the new year.

But then!!! you jsut watch how much reading i get done! (though i work full time, my job stress is very seasonal).

Yes, more homework assignments! And that's only the tip of the iceberg. But I've collected whole stacks of books just on this "topic."

I've got some 2009 cognative linguistics articles I need to read, but I find that i have to go really slow with them, cause the linguistics - i know. the "congative", i don't. So i'm always looking at wiki or online libraries for "what the hell does some chemical have to do with thought".

I also want to read some of the more academic texts on the theory of Language Evo, but not sure where to even start. I've read the pop stuff, so maybe i should just do a lit search and jump in.

I wish I could go back to school, but i think your mind turns to concrete at 27, and from then on, it's a process of either trying plug up all the holes so things don't leak out, or just replace what you knew once, with very trivial stuff.

I told you (a joke of course) that i think the brain has a limited capicity to know things, so for every lady gaga lyric that is stuck in your head, a quote from Sagan or DeBeauvoir trickles out never to be recovered again!.

Wrong. :P

Or, actually, I should say "I think you'll find it's bit more complicated." The more you learn, the more there is to interfere with existing memory.

I don't buy it. this writer is like 10 or 19 or something. wait till he turns 40, and the only thing he can remember is lada gaga's lyrics. ;-)

oh ye of young minds and little faith. ;-)

BTW, aren't you dyslexic? And studying linguistics...?

I am dyslexic. I can't really "see" words, their spelling, the way most people do. I have to memorize each and every spelling per word. And the place I miss is vowels. not sure why. Most people will read a new word and by and large, know how to spell it. sighs... sucks. Oh, and that rule about commas, not sure if this is dyxlexia, but they say "put a comma when you take a breath. I , would be, writing, like, Kirk, Speaks, if that, were, the, case. So yes... that's my world.

I also have never visualized teh way most people do. When i read a book, i hear the words in my head, but have never had that magical sensation of the words becoming images and "losing" yourself in the book. Studies suggest those are related. It's quite strange. I wish i could do that. sit down and "imagine" things visually. when i imagine (say for writing a book) i either act it out to figure out how things look, or say it in my head...

i'm envious of you all. ;-)

Not that this has anything to do with lada gaga taking over my brain and infecting me with "bad romance" which i can't even stand. :-)

I must have some kind of reverse dyslexia. When people talk, I actually "see" words like they're being written out by an imaginary typewriter. Probably why I never understood the appeal of audiobooks.

Now that's just fucking weird.

It made spelling tests really easy in elementary school.

you are the bane of my existence.

try reading at a high school level when you are in 3rd or 4th grade, but spelling at a 1st grade level and being put into remedial reading. ARRRUUGGHHH...

so are the words flashign "one at a time", or sentence by sentence, or letter by letter. and do they ticker tape across your head, or do they flash into the center, or appear at teh botto like sub titles. these are serious questions.

i've never heard of anyone who "saw" language, unless that's how they learned to communicate in that language, like a deaf person with english.

Maybe I'm an ultra-high functioning aspie, because this always made perfect sense to me.

Visual thinking is NOT a sign of aspie; all aspies do not visually think, nor do all visual thinkers have "some" aspie in them.

My husband thanks you. he was trying to explain to me when i asked "do you think with a french accent" that he doesn't think in words. you posted this, and he said THAT'S IT!!!! (so thanks, he has a name for it).

I envy visual thinkers. I'm very auditory, and wish i could see things like that. pouts.

by the way, it is hardly worth stating that most visual artists are visual thinkers - but actually, most designers, most engineers, archatects, etc., are visual thinkers.

Math is also (apparently) a very visual thing... i have NO idea what that means. but I have heard it said often by high high high end math maticians.

I actually sucked at math until we learned graphs.

freak.

The human mind blows me away. I want to talk with a native deaf person, and ask them if, when they think to themselves, the "see" a 3rd person signing, or "see" their own hands as if from their own perspective, or "feel" their hands forming words.

i'm guessing it's one of the latter two, or both, since (at least i) most people hear their thoughts in their own voices, not in some 3rd person's voice.

My inner monologue isn't in my own voice, or at least it doesn't have the strong accent, which confuses me when I do talk and realise I still have it. Can't really say who's voice it is, though occasionally it sounds a little like Ben Goldacre for some reason. As I tend to read fiction "in character" (hence I read far slower than my other half) it does vary. For instance, while I'm going through G.E.B, Achilles is Patrick Stewart and the tortoise is Ian McKellen, and I can't help but read anything by Stephen Fry in his voice. This sort of thing has pretty much rendered by inner voice very interchangeable, and absolutely nothing like I sound (I've thought most of the second half of this post in Stephen Fry's).

It would be interesting to find out what a deaf person's view on it would be. I mean, would you even have a clue what words even sound like?

Hey, if i really think about it, that's how voices are when i read fiction. Not non-fiction, which is in my own boring voice, but yeah..i hear women as women characters, and males doing the male voices, and a male or me narrating. never noticed that till yo point it out.

and for the deaf, that's my point. of course they would not hear anything. they would see the conversation. But i was curious if it would be from their point of view as teh signer, or would see some generic person in front of them signing, or not see it at all, but "feel" their hands moving. (when i am practing sign on the bus, i imagine or "feel" my hands moving.)

i really want to know why your inner dialogue is less accented.

Did somebody say Kirk?! :D

Damn, I find the idea of a "comedy cell" so attractive...

Actually, I have certain experience with the idea that memory formation and recall work similarly and reinforce each other. There are several instances (although, conveniently, I can't recall specific ones right now) where I've remembered a film quote incorrectly. Of course, the gist is right, just that specific wording is wrong - such as substituting "all the time" for "constantly" or something similar. Obviously, every time that is recalled, incorrectly, it is strengthened. So much so that even when watching the film again and realising that my recall of the quote was wrong (and even deciding to endeavor to remember it right this time) I still get it wrong at a later date. All the repeated incorrect recalls, which may number in the dozens or more, seem to have overridden the power of generating the correct memory, which may have been 2-3 times or so.

Similarly, it's a well known teaching fact that if someone comes with a misconception, it's important to address it thoroughly before bringing in a new fact. If you merely mention something correct to someone, they'll still go away believing their preconception.

It's like you have to chew through and destroy the existing memory before replacing it with a new one that's correct.