Intersubjective metacognition is a term that can be used to refer to the infamous "I think that you think that I think" / "I know that you know that I know" dialouge.How good are you at this type of metacognition? See how far you can follow these examples, taken from various comics (they increase in hardness!):
1. Patrick: You mean they're taking the thoughts we think we thought and making them thoughts we think we thought... I think.
-Spongebob
2. White Goodman: Cuz I know you. And you know you. And I know that you know that I know that you know you.
-Dodgeball
3. Captain Amazing: I knew you couldn't change.
Casanova Frankenstein: I knew you'd know that.
Captain Amazing: Oh, I know. And I knew you'd know I'd know you knew.
Casanova Frankenstein: But I didn't. I only knew that you'd know that I knew. Did you know that?
Captain Amazing: *clears throat* ...Of course.
- Mystery Men
4. Zorak: Maybe that's just what they want us to think!
Space Ghost: Hey, you know what? I think that's just what they want us to think!
Zorak: I think, that they think, that we think, that that's just what they want us to think!
Space Ghost: Brak, what do you think?
Brak: I just, I don't even have the slightest idea what you're talking about.
- Cartoon Planet
5. "Yes, but if he knows I know he knows, he may do (X) instead. But what if he knows more than I think he does? He could be acting like he only knows that I know he knows, when in fact he knows that I know he knows I know he knows!"
6. Charlie Brown: Ha! I know what she's got on her mind! Every year she pulls the same trick on me... she jerks the ball away just as I try to kick it... Well, this time I think she has a different idea. I think she's going to try to fool me by not jerking the ball away! This time she knows I know she knows that I know she knows I know what she's going to do... I'm way ahead of her! (Confident, Charlie Brown tries to kick the ball - Lucy jerks it away)
Lucy: I figured you knew that I knew you knew I knew that you knew I knew you knew, so I had to jerk it away!
- Peanuts
Scoring Guide:
1 right - I think you need practice.
2 right - I think you think you're alright.
3 right - I think you think I think you're pretty good.
4 right - I think you want me to think you think you're pretty good.
5 right - I think you know I think you think I think you're good.
6 right - I don't think you think that I don't think that you think I think you don't think you're not good.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Intersubjective Metacognition (1/2): The I Think You Think I Think Dialogue
Metacognition, often defined as "thinking about thinking," is one of the latest buzz words in educational psychology, but what exactly is metacognition (http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/CEP564/Metacog.htm)?
Taylor (1999) defines metacognition as “an appreciation of what one already knows, together with a correct apprehension of the learning task and what knowledge and skills it requires, combined with the [mental] agility to make correct inferences about how to apply one’s strategic knowledge to a particular situation, and to do so efficiently and reliably” (http://academic.pgcc.edu/~wpeirce/MCCCTR/metacognition.htm).
Basically, in educational psychology, metacognition is a sort of learning tool. The term refers to learners’ awareness of their own knowledge and their ability to understand, control, and manipulate their own cognitive processes. Most metacognitive research falls within the following categories: metamemory, metacomprehension, and self-regulation. Metamemory refers to the learners' awareness of and knowledge about their own memory systems and strategies for using their memories effectively. Metacomprehension refers to the learners' ability to monitor the degree to which they understand information being communicated to them, to recognize failures to comprehend, and to employ repair strategies when failures are identified. (Learners with poor metacomprehension skills often finish reading passages without even knowing that they have not understood them, whereas learners who are more adept at metacomprehension will check for confusion or inconsistency, and undertake a corrective strategy, such as rereading.) Self-regulation refers to the learners' ability to make adjustments in their own learning processes (http://education.calumet.purdue.edu/vockell/EdPsyBook/Edpsy7/edpsy7_meta.htm).
Intersubjectivity has become a topic of considerable interest among psychoanalysts and psychologists. The term intersubjectivity refers in the most basic sense to the interaction between two subjects: the self and another person, or self and other. The intersubjective field is an area of common engagement in which one’s individual subjectivity is articulated and communicated (Roger Frie & Bruce Reis - Available http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=CPS.037.0297A).
The impossibility of achieving mutual knowledge—that is to say, a fully reciprocal understanding between two minds—is a familiar philosophical problem. For knowledge to be mutual, not only must you know what the other knows, but the other must know that you know it; accordingly, you must know that the other knows that you know it, and the other in turn must know that you know that they know that you know. As this regress recedes, the likelihood of achieving each of its levels diminishes to the infinitesimal; and still there is no point of rest at which symmetry is achieved between what each knows of the other. The ordinary purposes of practical communication or social interaction, of course, require rather less rigorous standards than this. Still, narrative significance oftentimes hangs upon the ability of characters to penetrate (or not) to the deeper levels of intersubjective understanding (Richard Walsh - Available http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/modernism-modernity/v011/11.4walsh.html).
Intersubjective metacognition is a term that can be used to refer to the infamous "I think that you think that I think" / "I know that you know that I know" dialouge. Check out the other post on metacognition to see how good you are at this type of logic!
Taylor (1999) defines metacognition as “an appreciation of what one already knows, together with a correct apprehension of the learning task and what knowledge and skills it requires, combined with the [mental] agility to make correct inferences about how to apply one’s strategic knowledge to a particular situation, and to do so efficiently and reliably” (http://academic.pgcc.edu/~wpeirce/MCCCTR/metacognition.htm).
Basically, in educational psychology, metacognition is a sort of learning tool. The term refers to learners’ awareness of their own knowledge and their ability to understand, control, and manipulate their own cognitive processes. Most metacognitive research falls within the following categories: metamemory, metacomprehension, and self-regulation. Metamemory refers to the learners' awareness of and knowledge about their own memory systems and strategies for using their memories effectively. Metacomprehension refers to the learners' ability to monitor the degree to which they understand information being communicated to them, to recognize failures to comprehend, and to employ repair strategies when failures are identified. (Learners with poor metacomprehension skills often finish reading passages without even knowing that they have not understood them, whereas learners who are more adept at metacomprehension will check for confusion or inconsistency, and undertake a corrective strategy, such as rereading.) Self-regulation refers to the learners' ability to make adjustments in their own learning processes (http://education.calumet.purdue.edu/vockell/EdPsyBook/Edpsy7/edpsy7_meta.htm).
Intersubjectivity has become a topic of considerable interest among psychoanalysts and psychologists. The term intersubjectivity refers in the most basic sense to the interaction between two subjects: the self and another person, or self and other. The intersubjective field is an area of common engagement in which one’s individual subjectivity is articulated and communicated (Roger Frie & Bruce Reis - Available http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=CPS.037.0297A).
The impossibility of achieving mutual knowledge—that is to say, a fully reciprocal understanding between two minds—is a familiar philosophical problem. For knowledge to be mutual, not only must you know what the other knows, but the other must know that you know it; accordingly, you must know that the other knows that you know it, and the other in turn must know that you know that they know that you know. As this regress recedes, the likelihood of achieving each of its levels diminishes to the infinitesimal; and still there is no point of rest at which symmetry is achieved between what each knows of the other. The ordinary purposes of practical communication or social interaction, of course, require rather less rigorous standards than this. Still, narrative significance oftentimes hangs upon the ability of characters to penetrate (or not) to the deeper levels of intersubjective understanding (Richard Walsh - Available http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/modernism-modernity/v011/11.4walsh.html).
Intersubjective metacognition is a term that can be used to refer to the infamous "I think that you think that I think" / "I know that you know that I know" dialouge. Check out the other post on metacognition to see how good you are at this type of logic!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
What Is Cognitive Psychology?
The term Cognitive Psychology was created by Ulric Neisser in 1967. Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on internal states, such as motivation, problem solving, decision-making, thinking, and attention (about.com). Cognitive psychology focuses more on the internal mental states, while topics such as behaviorism focus mainly on behavior. Up until the 1950s psychologists main focus was on behaviorism until it shifted and they began to use scientific researches to study mental states, so Cognitive Psychology is a fairly new area of study in the field of psychology.
The field of cognitive psychology is one that can go on and on, but generally starts by looking at how sensory input is transformed into beliefs and actions through the process of cognition. Cognitive Psychology is one of the areas in psychology that is known for having a more scientific approach than any other area because of its focus mainly or experimenting.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Synesthesia - Hearing Colors and Seeing Sounds
Synesthesia - A sensation produced in one modality (e.g. taste, vision, smell) when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color (http://www.dictionary.com/).
The following is an article on the reality of synesthesia that was published in "Science Daily" on July 26, 2007.
Hearing Colors And Seeing Sounds: How Real Is Synesthesia?
In the psychological phenomenon known as "synesthesia," individuals' sensory systems are a bit more intertwined than usual. Some people, for example, report seeing colors when musical notes are played.
One of the most common forms [of synesthesia] is grapheme-color synesthesia, in which letters or numbers (collectively called "graphemes") are highlighted with particular colors. Although synesthesia has been well documented, it is unknown whether these experiences, reported as vivid and realistic, are actually being perceived or if they are a byproduct of some other psychological mechanism such as memory.
New research published in the June issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, sheds some light on the veracity [truth] of these perceptions.
Danko Nikolic, a researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, and his colleagues relied on a variation of a classic psychological method known as the Stroop task to test this. In this task, participants must name the color of the font that a color word is printed in. For example, if the word "blue" was printed in red ink, the participant would have to say "red" -- a moderately difficult task that requires some mental gymnastics.
To understand Nikolic's version of the experiment, a rudimentary understanding of color perception is required: When anyone views a particular color, specific neurons in the visual cortex area of our brain are activated. These specific neurons will deactivate, however, if a color from the opposite end of the spectrum is presented. So, any neuron activated when the color blue is present will deactivate when it's exact opposite, yellow, comes into the visual field.
Using this logic, Nikolic presented grapheme-color synesthetes with their five most color eliciting letters or numbers. The color of the letter or number was either the same as its common association (congruent), different but not completely opposite of the color association (incongruent independent), or on the opposite end of the spectrum from the associated color (opponent incongruent). The researchers then measured how long it took the participants to name the color of the grapheme.
As expected, opponent incongruent colors made it quite difficult for individuals with grapheme-color synesthesia to respond quickly. It took participants much longer to name opponent incongruent colors than independent incongruent colors. Congruent colors -- colors that matched the association -- actually facilitated the process of naming the colors.
In a separate experiment, the researchers found that this color-opponency system did not work for memories. They presented the same participants with pictures of objects that a color is commonly associated with (a lemon, for example). But like the previous experiment, the objects were in unexpected colors. Reaction times in this experiment were significantly less impeded by the color change and did not differ from reaction times of control subjects who were not synesthetes. Coupled with the results from the first experiment, these findings suggest that synesthetic colors are perceived in a realistic way, just as synesthetes report.
This article can be accessed at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070724113711.htm
It seems to me that although synesthesia is relatively rare, the people who experience it are genuine: their perceptions are consistent and replicable.
For information on the Stroop effect, and to try the Stroop task, click the following link: http://www.snre.umich.edu/eplab/demos/st0/stroopdesc.html#Static%20Demonstration
The Stroop task demo is toward the bottom of the page. The "return" button mentioned in the directions is the "enter" button on the keyboard.
Also, for an interesting self-report of the synesthetic perspective, check out letter-color synesthete Cassidy Curtis' page. Cassidy has mapped out the letters of the alphabet and numbers 1-9 in the colors that they appear to her. Interestingly, the color Cassidy perceives in a given letter changes depending on several factors, including its context, her semantical understanding of its context, the language in which it appears, word length and composition, etc. Cassidy has provided color-maps for each circumstance: http://otherthings.com/uw/syn/
The following is an article on the reality of synesthesia that was published in "Science Daily" on July 26, 2007.
Hearing Colors And Seeing Sounds: How Real Is Synesthesia?
In the psychological phenomenon known as "synesthesia," individuals' sensory systems are a bit more intertwined than usual. Some people, for example, report seeing colors when musical notes are played.
One of the most common forms [of synesthesia] is grapheme-color synesthesia, in which letters or numbers (collectively called "graphemes") are highlighted with particular colors. Although synesthesia has been well documented, it is unknown whether these experiences, reported as vivid and realistic, are actually being perceived or if they are a byproduct of some other psychological mechanism such as memory.
New research published in the June issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, sheds some light on the veracity [truth] of these perceptions.
Danko Nikolic, a researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, and his colleagues relied on a variation of a classic psychological method known as the Stroop task to test this. In this task, participants must name the color of the font that a color word is printed in. For example, if the word "blue" was printed in red ink, the participant would have to say "red" -- a moderately difficult task that requires some mental gymnastics.
To understand Nikolic's version of the experiment, a rudimentary understanding of color perception is required: When anyone views a particular color, specific neurons in the visual cortex area of our brain are activated. These specific neurons will deactivate, however, if a color from the opposite end of the spectrum is presented. So, any neuron activated when the color blue is present will deactivate when it's exact opposite, yellow, comes into the visual field.
Using this logic, Nikolic presented grapheme-color synesthetes with their five most color eliciting letters or numbers. The color of the letter or number was either the same as its common association (congruent), different but not completely opposite of the color association (incongruent independent), or on the opposite end of the spectrum from the associated color (opponent incongruent). The researchers then measured how long it took the participants to name the color of the grapheme.
As expected, opponent incongruent colors made it quite difficult for individuals with grapheme-color synesthesia to respond quickly. It took participants much longer to name opponent incongruent colors than independent incongruent colors. Congruent colors -- colors that matched the association -- actually facilitated the process of naming the colors.
In a separate experiment, the researchers found that this color-opponency system did not work for memories. They presented the same participants with pictures of objects that a color is commonly associated with (a lemon, for example). But like the previous experiment, the objects were in unexpected colors. Reaction times in this experiment were significantly less impeded by the color change and did not differ from reaction times of control subjects who were not synesthetes. Coupled with the results from the first experiment, these findings suggest that synesthetic colors are perceived in a realistic way, just as synesthetes report.
This article can be accessed at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070724113711.htm
It seems to me that although synesthesia is relatively rare, the people who experience it are genuine: their perceptions are consistent and replicable.
For information on the Stroop effect, and to try the Stroop task, click the following link: http://www.snre.umich.edu/eplab/demos/st0/stroopdesc.html#Static%20Demonstration
The Stroop task demo is toward the bottom of the page. The "return" button mentioned in the directions is the "enter" button on the keyboard.
Also, for an interesting self-report of the synesthetic perspective, check out letter-color synesthete Cassidy Curtis' page. Cassidy has mapped out the letters of the alphabet and numbers 1-9 in the colors that they appear to her. Interestingly, the color Cassidy perceives in a given letter changes depending on several factors, including its context, her semantical understanding of its context, the language in which it appears, word length and composition, etc. Cassidy has provided color-maps for each circumstance: http://otherthings.com/uw/syn/
Want to become a Cognitive Psychologist?
For those of you interested in becoming Cognitive Psychologists here is what they do.
Cognitive Psychologists:
Before you can even enroll in a cognitive psychology training program, you must have a degree in psychology from an accredited college or university. This branch of psychology can be taxing and requires tons of research as daily job duties. This is not a branch of psychology where you work in a clinic addressing patient’s problems day in and day out. After completing cognitive psychology training, the majority of your time is spent researching brain function in an effort to learn how the mind works.
If you would like to find a school that will help you become a Cognitive Psychologists, you could go to http://www.allpsychologyschools.com/faqs/cognitive-psychology.php OR http://www.toppsychologycolleges.com/cognitive-psychology-training.html where the creators help you find the perfect school for you.
(From All Psychology Schools: Your Guide to Psychology Education and Careers & Top Psychology Colleges: Finding your future )
Cognitive Psychologists:
In addition:
- Conduct research on the human thought process
- Teach at colleges and universities
- Work at government agencies
- Work as human factors consultants or industrial-organizational managers
- Study the human brain and memory in relation to computers
- Work with Alzheimer's or memory-loss patients
- Work with children to understand memory formation
- Teach language skills and problem solving
- Work in the legal system and study the mental processes of criminals, witnesses, juries and judges
Before you can even enroll in a cognitive psychology training program, you must have a degree in psychology from an accredited college or university. This branch of psychology can be taxing and requires tons of research as daily job duties. This is not a branch of psychology where you work in a clinic addressing patient’s problems day in and day out. After completing cognitive psychology training, the majority of your time is spent researching brain function in an effort to learn how the mind works.
Cognitive psychology is classified as an experimental psychology and requires a full working knowledge of psychology before you start your cognitive psychology training. Most schools offer cognitive psychology training programs as a doctorate, so you will be required to work hard and take some pretty tough courses during your graduate school participation. Most doctorate programs require four years to complete and also require students to work in an internship with a qualified cognitive psychologist.
Within any cognitive psychology training program, students are required to take advanced psychology classes including cognition, cognitive learning, neuroscience, life-span development, advanced social psychology, and human perception. These generalized courses are only a small part of the courses required with cognitive psychology training. You will also take cognitive psychology training courses in advanced research methods, statistics, analysis, psychometrics, structural equations, and advanced statistics. These are usually taught in the first year of graduate school.
In the next year of your cognitive psychology training program, you will take a twelve-hour psychology lecture covering cognitive principles. In addition, you must take courses to prepare you for teaching. You’ll also learn about cognitive psychology issues before completing your graduate research and writing your thesis. Classes for cognitive psychology training program can seem boring to many, so make sure the field is truly up your alley before enrolling.
If you would like to find a school that will help you become a Cognitive Psychologists, you could go to http://www.allpsychologyschools.com/faqs/cognitive-psychology.php OR http://www.toppsychologycolleges.com/cognitive-psychology-training.html where the creators help you find the perfect school for you.
(From All Psychology Schools: Your Guide to Psychology Education and Careers & Top Psychology Colleges: Finding your future )
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Language
When language is brought up, the first thing that comes to mind is that it is a naturally occurring process right? That is correct because language is a trait that all humans possess in one way or another because all humans speak. Learning a language is something that all children do and many psychologist even speculate that babies can think before they can talk. Although most scientist believe that is false, that is a very intriguing statement.
Language is the most useful and reliable way of communicating with others.Language and thoughts are intertwined as one. When people think they are not simply thinking words, but they are also visualizing images. An example of that is if there were a big basketball game coming up and all you were to think about was basket ball; there would be images of basketballs and things that related to the game not simply words. Yes, language is one of the most complex topics because there are so many mysteries behind it, but it is so fascinating.
While many of us are engaged in conversation with our peers, there are about three levels that speech travels which we are trying to comprehend the conversation. The first level that we encounter is the sound that is present in our ears. Those who have a hearing impairment have difficulties hearing at that level which is also known as "processing disorder." Problems that involve dificulties identifying and also absorbing sound after they enter the ear is known as Central auditory processing disorders. Many people who experience problems like these are often diagnosed with some kind of speech disorder.
Something that i feel is similar to this is when individuals are engaged in conversations and sometimes it seems as if what the other person is saying goes in one ear and out the other. It seems as if they did not comprehend any thing that was said in the conversation. Another case where similar things happens is when someone says something to another individual and at first the individual does not hear what was said but about two seconds later the recall what was said. I find that very interesting.
Dementia - The Long Goodbye
Dementia, one of the primary symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, is a degenerative disease of the mind that results from loss or damage of neurons. As I could not find a video or an article to express what I had in mind, I thought I'd post a personal story about dementia in response to Petra's post regarding falsely reconstructed memories.
Dementia can be frustrating and sad to live with. My grandfather had dementia for the last five or so years of his life and so was slowly claimed by the disease as my family looked on unable to help. In the beginning, my grandpa would forget little things, misplace things, and the like. As the disease progressed, however, his personality changed; he became apathetic and would sometimes have mood swings. In the latter stages, he'd forget the names of people he'd known for a long time, including my name, my cousins names, his children's names, his wife's name, and even his own name. He would forget often where he was, what he was doing, what he had done so far in a day, to the extent that he was convinced he'd been dropped in a strange house with strange people completely out of the blue. Several times, he'd wake up suddenly during the middle of the night unsure of who's bed he was in and try to leave his house - the house he'd lived in for 40 years, more or less. When this happened, he'd typically walk through town several blocks to the location of his childhood home - the home his mind told him he still lived in - to rejoin his parents and brother, who were no longer living. Near the end of his life, he was quiet much of the time, or spoke with some difficulty. He couldn't remember how to do simple things like turn a lamp on, button a button on his shirt, tie his shoe, etc., so he'd just hold the shoe in his hand, or the button in his fingers and look at it, knowing that he had to do something with it but not quite remembering what that something was. When he was admitted into an assissted living center, he'd often forget where he was and occasionally become violent.
Dementia is fatal, as it causes the body of the patient to slowly shut down and stop performing basic functions, like respiration. Most dementia patients die of an unrelated illness - the common cold, for example - as a result of their weakened immune systems.
There's no doubt that dementia is sad, but what can learn from it? As my grandpa reached the latter stages, he'd occasionally slip out of English and begin speaking in Italian, the language he spoke with his parents as a child, although he hadn't spoken it at all in over 70 years. Could it be possible that each of us has within us memories of which we are not conscious? It seems strange to think that in 70 years I might suddenly recall the high school spanish that was so far removed from my mind the very summer after I learned it, or that, e.g. a person who speaks with an American accent throughout adolescence but who develops an English accent after 70 years of adulthood in England might suddenly forget 70 years of enculturation and revert back to his or her primary accent. It seems even stranger to think that someone could be 80 some-odd years old, snoozing in his recliner at home, and then wake up and truly believe that he was an 18 year old boy again, fighting the good fight overseas, or that he was a 10 year old boy again, with a mother and a father and a brother who hadn't yet been killed in WWII, or a house that hadn't been demolished. Surely, the strangest thing is that a lifetime really can flash before someone's eyes in a series of a memories that seem to displace what is real. Can you imagine yourself actively engaging in something - like reading the paper - and then a second later feeling like you had been picked up and dropped into an old memory? Alternatively, can you imagine waking up in an unfamiliar house, leaving to find the house in your memory, and coming back to the unfamiliar house only after you'd forgotten what you were looking for and realized that you weren't at home where you belonged?
Does anyone else find these thoughts interesting, or at least strange? What do you think?
Dementia can be frustrating and sad to live with. My grandfather had dementia for the last five or so years of his life and so was slowly claimed by the disease as my family looked on unable to help. In the beginning, my grandpa would forget little things, misplace things, and the like. As the disease progressed, however, his personality changed; he became apathetic and would sometimes have mood swings. In the latter stages, he'd forget the names of people he'd known for a long time, including my name, my cousins names, his children's names, his wife's name, and even his own name. He would forget often where he was, what he was doing, what he had done so far in a day, to the extent that he was convinced he'd been dropped in a strange house with strange people completely out of the blue. Several times, he'd wake up suddenly during the middle of the night unsure of who's bed he was in and try to leave his house - the house he'd lived in for 40 years, more or less. When this happened, he'd typically walk through town several blocks to the location of his childhood home - the home his mind told him he still lived in - to rejoin his parents and brother, who were no longer living. Near the end of his life, he was quiet much of the time, or spoke with some difficulty. He couldn't remember how to do simple things like turn a lamp on, button a button on his shirt, tie his shoe, etc., so he'd just hold the shoe in his hand, or the button in his fingers and look at it, knowing that he had to do something with it but not quite remembering what that something was. When he was admitted into an assissted living center, he'd often forget where he was and occasionally become violent.
Dementia is fatal, as it causes the body of the patient to slowly shut down and stop performing basic functions, like respiration. Most dementia patients die of an unrelated illness - the common cold, for example - as a result of their weakened immune systems.
There's no doubt that dementia is sad, but what can learn from it? As my grandpa reached the latter stages, he'd occasionally slip out of English and begin speaking in Italian, the language he spoke with his parents as a child, although he hadn't spoken it at all in over 70 years. Could it be possible that each of us has within us memories of which we are not conscious? It seems strange to think that in 70 years I might suddenly recall the high school spanish that was so far removed from my mind the very summer after I learned it, or that, e.g. a person who speaks with an American accent throughout adolescence but who develops an English accent after 70 years of adulthood in England might suddenly forget 70 years of enculturation and revert back to his or her primary accent. It seems even stranger to think that someone could be 80 some-odd years old, snoozing in his recliner at home, and then wake up and truly believe that he was an 18 year old boy again, fighting the good fight overseas, or that he was a 10 year old boy again, with a mother and a father and a brother who hadn't yet been killed in WWII, or a house that hadn't been demolished. Surely, the strangest thing is that a lifetime really can flash before someone's eyes in a series of a memories that seem to displace what is real. Can you imagine yourself actively engaging in something - like reading the paper - and then a second later feeling like you had been picked up and dropped into an old memory? Alternatively, can you imagine waking up in an unfamiliar house, leaving to find the house in your memory, and coming back to the unfamiliar house only after you'd forgotten what you were looking for and realized that you weren't at home where you belonged?
Does anyone else find these thoughts interesting, or at least strange? What do you think?
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