Thursday, April 19, 2012

Random stuff: Gestaltzerfall phenomenon

Motto koe wo kikasete yo
Motto koko ni itai kedo
Sayonara kokoro kara aishita

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Otherwise, enjoy.



Do you know the Gestaltzerfall phenomenon?




You've probably experienced it before. Try to look or listen to a word from somewhere. Yeah, pick any word. Now look at it. 



Keep exposing yourself to that word. 



More.



Keep doing it.



Go on.



The word's starting to look/sound weird, huh?

You're now starting to question its spelling and/or pronunciation. "Is this how its supposed to be spelled?", "Wait, is this how we were saying it?", etc...

THIS is the Gestaltzerfall phenomenon. Or the English version of it, to be exact.

The Gestaltzerfall phenomenon happens when you are exposed to words or character patterns for a prolonged period of time. After a while, it wears out the parts of your brain that stores the information for this "character" (like how it's spelled). Basically, your brain is saying "I'm so tired of looking at this, I don't even know what this is anymore."

This phenomenon is related to the Japanese kanji, where one may forget how to write the strokes of a kanji character, after exposing yourself too much to the kanji.

Since English use only the alphabet for its words, the equivalent for it is the words' spelling, instead of strokes.


References: Detective Conan 786, page 7-9 and Dear ol' Google.


...and that was the random trivia for tonight.

15 comments:

  1. Omg i love you for using that Catherine reference at the end.

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  3. oregairu volume 5 chapter 3 brougth me here.
    "Well, whether it was a movie or something else, seeing the same things didn’t mean having the same impressions.
    At most, they’d be similar.
    But to be similar meant there was something definitely different.
    We always looked only at the things we wanted to see.
    Interpretations was defined only by the numbers of people, whether if it was for the impressions of a movie or of a person.
    That’s why it’s ridiculous to understand them, or even try to. It’s a sin and an evil to think you had understood.
    But unless we acted as if we understood something, we wouldn’t be able to live.
    Understanding and being understood by someone would cause the both of you two have a mutual, vague realization of each other; either that, you’d be unable to live on unless you redefined that person every time and talked about it.
    Otherwise, your “self” would disappear like thin air.
    That “self” was vague and uncertain. Just like the phenomenon of gestaltzerfall, the more you thought about something, the less you understood it.
    Every time you stopped understanding, you’d gather all sorts of information again and construct an image of yourself and the other person. It resembled simulacrum; no matter what you constructed, the only images you’d have were child and primitive ones.
    That’s what I’d call horror."

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  4. Hiromiya chapter 26 brought me here: "Father is already Gestaltzerfall with the 'How long are you gonna be here'".

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  5. The narrator from Space Dandy told me to Google it. Here I am.

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  6. Vine por Space Dandy Jajaja
    Y también por Jafar de Magi

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  7. Blood Blockade brought me here, 10/10 😂

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