It's difficult to decide what my first post should be, but I suppose it should be the words that inspired me to start a blog. The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon.
The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon 'occurs when a person, after having learned some
(usually obscure) fact, word, phrase, or other item for the first time,
encounters that item again, perhaps several times, shortly after having learned
it.' (wikipedia).
This is great, because a) I never knew there was a word for this and b) the way in which I came to know it's meaning was in itself an example of the phenomenon: First there was a book and a film (The Baader-Meinhof Complex), then I noticed people using it in blogs ('Augmented reality is this year’s Baader-Meinhof Syndrome' zzzzz) and then I looked it up. The film is named after a group of freedom fighters (of sorts), which is where the phenomenon got its name, as it was in relation to this organisation that the phenomenon was exemplified.
There are two main theories which aim to explain this occurrence.
The first says that once you are aware of, for example, 80s canadian power trio 'Rush', the brain will lend particular prominence to 'Rush' so you become more aware of their eclectic, lyrical motifs. This is called the recency effect.
The second theory has to do with the psycological connection of concepts and words. If your mind can't connect a word to a concept, the mind will ignore it, sometimes even convince you that you have heard a different word. However, once the word and concept are connected (ie you find out what it means) the word will appear to gain undue prominence in everyday life.
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