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[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
While I’m talking, you’re not just passively listening. Your brain is also busy at work, guessing the next word that I will sa…vor before I actually speak it. You thought I was gonna say “say”, didn’t you. Our brains actually consider many possible words—and their meanings—before we’ve heard the final sound of the word in quest…of being understood.
Language comes flying at you at up to five syllables per second. So it was thought that listeners keep pace by anticipating a small subset of all words that the listener is familiar with. Think of how a Google search anticipates words based on the first few letters you type in. But now scientists have used functional magnetic resonance imaging to actually watch the brain consider different words. They report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that you narrow the choices by considering words that begin with the same sound. So if I say, “I tasted the sweetest can…your brain might already be priming itself to hear candy. Or maybe cantaloupe. But not candle. Who needs the Game Show Network? You’re always playing Match Game in your head.
—Steve Mirsky
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8 Comments
Add CommentFascinating. I had always wondered if we all did that, or if only those people with the annoying habit of attempting to finish everyone's sentences did. It seems they're just vocalizing what goes on in everyone's brain. I have to confess, when I find myself in the presence of one of a "sentence finisher", I purposely try to alter my sentences at the last moment. At first, this was just an attempt to annoy them in return, but I've found that about half the time they eventually stop the behavior without my having to ask explicitly. I've never asked one of them whether they noticed what was happening, or if the new behavior was adopted as unconsciously as the old.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow Basil, it's wonder that you have that problem at all - with that attitude, it is amazing anyone talks to you at all, even those of us who have this annoying habit...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReminds me of the "Shaving Cream" Song I heard as a child.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne day I went to go jogging
I like to keep physically fit
But when I looked down at my runners
I saw they were covered in sh--aving cream
nice and clean
shave every day and you'll always be clean.
Many more verses lust like that, great song when you're twelve.
Hi everybody:)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's an interesting story.
Perfect..
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thislolz. At the end, I said "I tasted the sweetest candle."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTake that, average brain.
At the end, I said "I tasted the sweetest candle."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDon't know why. Then I read the part where candle is not supposed to be there and I'm like "Hah. Take that, average brain."
I understand that Autisitcs lack this mechanism and is one of the causes of their difficulty communicating.
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