There it is...again

[Riptide]

Hey does anyone else have this happen to them?

Well whenever I learn new words or see something or think about something really hard then i usually end up seeing or hearing it or doing something that involves it again a lot for instance:

I just recently learned a word and then all of the sudden I keep hearing that word all over the news, in school, and by friends to the point that it creeps me out.

Same thing happens with names of people.

And:

Sometimes I see pictures or hear about places and then a few days later someone i know goes there or i do or i might hear people talking about it.

And sometimes:

I see an object and then strangly I start doing things that I use that object or i get leaded back to the object a lot or i hear people talk about it.

I had to get that off of my chest and tell someone because its been bothering me for about 5 months that ive been noticing stuff like that happen. Its gotten to the point that when it happens I always say to myself "there it goes again"

Sorry if this is hard to understand. Im not that great at explaining stuff

Edited December 25, 2008 by Riptide

[Razer0]

Sometimes I see pictures or hear about places and then a few days later someone i know goes there or i do or i might hear people talking about it.

Its called Deja Vu. Lots of people have it.

For the others.. Everything that exists is happening both sequentially and simultaneously. Its just that you are noticing it more frequently because you are making yourself aware of it

[eight bits]

No, deja vu is the compelling impression that what is happening now happened before, just the way it is happening now, typically a false impression.

What the poster reports is a change in his or her selective attention. The similarities in experiences (not identical experiences, but experiences related by meaning) are real and correctly observed.

We cannot and do not pay conscious attention to everything we perceive. We pay attention to what we think is "important," which comes in several flavors, like pretty, or threatening, or ..., or relevant to our recent activities.

You learn a new word. New to you, that is. It is a word, other people use it, and have been using it all along. Before you learned it, when you heard it, this word was yet another sound which somebody was making that had little to do with you.

Now, you hear somebody use the word, and it's "Hey, dude is talking about something I know about." You listen up, you pay attention. You didn't before, because there was no point to doing so. Now there is.

It is great that we work that way! Merry Christmas .

[Pelican_Eel]

Oh, there is a name for this...aahh I can't remember it... "the ghjkbhjb effect", something like that... I remember reading an article about it, it said "chances are very high, that after reading this article, you will soon see term "the bhjebhvk effect" somewhere else"

Sorry I can't remember the term itself.

[idontcare]

What's more, if you EXPECT to see it again (hear, see, bleh!) or anticipate its arrival, it doesn't happen. Although, it may happen WHEN YOU FORGET ABOUT IT!

[samz ish magical x]

I think that what's causing this is that, now that you know the word, you will recognize it and it will seem like it's being said more often. The brain can only recognize something if it knows it ;]

Or maybe the whole world is alerted when you learn a new word! Hehe.

[Phillee]

It happens to me too. You don't really realize the use of a word you don't know until you know it, thus you see its context used sensibly from there on.

[NoTC]

It's the same thing as when you buy a new car. You notice everyone else on the road with the same car.

[JurassicForest]

The main reason is because usually it happens coincendently, and then you become more aware of the fact that what you just witnessed was related to what you were thinking. I'ts normal.

YES! That happens to me almost all the time. I learned that Ibuprofen was a drug, then suddenly I was walking around the street, kids were talking about Ibuprofen. I decided to watch some TV and settle down, and there were various shows that mentioned the word "Ibuprofen" a lot! Then I saw some online ad about Ibuprofen.

Edited December 28, 2008 by JurassicForest

[Riptide]

The main reason is because usually it happens coincendently, and then you become more aware of the fact that what you just witnessed was related to what you were thinking. I'ts normal.

YES! That happens to me almost all the time. I learned that Ibuprofen was a drug, then suddenly I was walking around the street, kids were talking about Ibuprofen. I decided to watch some TV and settle down, and there were various shows that mentioned the word "Ibuprofen" a lot! Then I saw some online ad about Ibuprofen.

Thats exactly what im talking about

[John07]

It's the same thing as when you buy a new car. You notice everyone else on the road with the same car.

Yes! This happened to me and my sister. I was riding with her when she went to buy a new car. She got a Ford Taurus, and suddenly, I started seeing alot of Ford Taurus's, lol.

This happens to me when I learn new words as well. So you're definitely not alone, Riptide. I had wondered about this as well.

[fenris1011]

Same thing happens to me ALL the time.

I start listening to a certain band, then all of a sudden I see them more on the internet or television.

Same with words, cars, anything.

[Insight]

The brain is designed to recognize patterns, and it constantly seeks them out. We are exposed to a myriad of images and sounds during a day. If we have one in mind, we will naturally start to mentally log each time we see it.