Maintaining attention while reading lists
Dec. 21st, 2017 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtbcI have become aware of some mental effort involved in giving meaning to words. I had read about semantic satiation in which repeating words can cause them to lose meaning but not really thought about the work I sometimes put into properly understanding the words I read.
These days the usual example is when I glance through television and radio schedules to see what might be worth watching or hearing. There are so many shows that I can easily lapse into a state in which I mechanically pass my eyes over each name but fail to employ sufficient cognition to recognize that the show may be worth my attention. Not only must I comprehend each show's name but I must think on it enough to understand what it plausibly offers.
The above reminds me of restaurant menus. It used to take me sustained concentration to choose a meal because my method is to read about each option and imagine myself to be eating it, vividly enough to determine how pleasurable that experience would be. I don't know how typical that method is. When I enjoyed rather more disposable income then I ate out enough over many years that now when presented with a menu offering reasonably familiar fare, such as at a typical American family restaurant, I can decide rapidly: I have become quite used to judging what the descriptions of the dishes mean to me. It helps that I do not quickly tire of foods so repeated visits do not force new choices.
These days the usual example is when I glance through television and radio schedules to see what might be worth watching or hearing. There are so many shows that I can easily lapse into a state in which I mechanically pass my eyes over each name but fail to employ sufficient cognition to recognize that the show may be worth my attention. Not only must I comprehend each show's name but I must think on it enough to understand what it plausibly offers.
The above reminds me of restaurant menus. It used to take me sustained concentration to choose a meal because my method is to read about each option and imagine myself to be eating it, vividly enough to determine how pleasurable that experience would be. I don't know how typical that method is. When I enjoyed rather more disposable income then I ate out enough over many years that now when presented with a menu offering reasonably familiar fare, such as at a typical American family restaurant, I can decide rapidly: I have become quite used to judging what the descriptions of the dishes mean to me. It helps that I do not quickly tire of foods so repeated visits do not force new choices.
