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Now I notice it everywhere...'heightened awareness'
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08-09-2009 10:47amWell recently, I discovered that someone I know is suffering from Alzhiemer's disease. Sad...but that's not what I want to talk about.
Since then...in the last week I've been confronted on the BBC news website with two stories about breakthroughs in the disease and right now Brian Keenan is on Pat Kenny, talking about his mother's demise due to the disease. It seems as though everywhere I look, I spot or hear something relating to Alzhiemer's disease.
This isn't the first time I've noticed this kind of 'heightened awareness' of topics that have suddenly confronted me.
Can anyone explain the psychology or psychobiology relevant to this? I can offer my own 'armchair' view: it's at the forefront of my mind so I'm bound to notice this but is there any academic reasoning for this?
I realise that this probably crosses over with psychiatry and indeed molecular biology but can anyone here answer from a psychology point of view.0
Comments
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I don't think there's anything more to it than attentional bias - it's the same as pregnant people saying they suddenly notice how many pregnant people there are! There aren't actually suddely more of them, it's just that the rest of us don't notice!
We have selective attention because our minds cannot possibly process and store every piece of information coming at us. It just can't. How we select which information gets processed and stored depends on our own opinions, beliefs, experiences and values, and as you say what is important to us or at the forefront of our minds.
I for instance would never notice if there was a sudden increase in the numbers of a certain type of car on the road because quite frankly I don't care about cars. But I would notice when people haven't had their roots done, because this is something I am paranoid about myself! Other people would be the opposite.
I often find that when I learn the definition of a new word I wasn't familiar with before, I then hear it a couple of times in the next week or two and I wonder 'What the hell? I didn't even know what that word meant before and now it's everywhere!' It's probably not 'everywhere' any more than it was before, I just notice it more because it came to my attention in a way that was important enough for me to find out what it means, thereby giving that word more 'weight' to me.0 -
Alzhiemer's disease...
This isn't the first time I've noticed this kind of 'heightened awareness' of topics that have suddenly confronted me.
Can anyone explain the psychology or psychobiology relevant to this?
If "heightened awareness" is the focus, I am reminded of a TV news feature story that occurred earlier today. Unfortunately it was triggered as a followup to a report in the Globe, not a credible source to begin with. The feature story showed various videos of former president Bill Clinton. Shots of his hands shaking, or a tremour of his head when addressing an audience. Based only on these behavioral cues, the report took the leap that he must be suffering from early stages of Alzhiemer's.
So, without digging deeply into the scholarly literature on Alzhiemer's Disease, in terms of new breakthrough treatments, at first blush, I am tempted to think that the recent "heightened awareness" has been created and exploited by a news media tread, not the advancement of medical science. And if this "armchair" view has any merit, it will soon be replaced by a "heightened awareness" of some other problems; e.g., today we have Alzhiemer's, yesterday we exhausted our audience with pandemics.0 -
More than one question? The social psychology of "heightened awareness?"'heightened awareness' of Epidemiology of Alzhiemer's disease? Emergent treatment modalities?
Besides, this is the psychology forum, if I wanted to ask about the epidemiology of disease I'd ask on Bio & Med
So, without digging deeply into the scholarly literature on Alzhiemer's Disease, in terms of new breakthrough treatments, at first blush,Perhaps my use of Alzhiemer's as the example was a poor choice because of the inherent psychology problems with that disease but I don't want to talk about Alzhiemer's at all
I am tempted to think that the recent "heightened awareness" has been created and exploited by a news media tread, not the advancement of medical science. And if this "armchair" view has any merit, it will soon be replaced by a "heightened awareness" of some other problems; e.g., today we have Alzhiemer's, yesterday we exhausted our audience with pandemics.
So, to clarify, using a hypothetical situation: On a daily basis I may never pay any attention to or notice anything in the news about a celebrity, say...Victoria Beckham...
Imagine then, one day I bump into her and end up having a conversation with her. I may find then 'all of a sudden' that every time I notice a newspaper or turn on the radio or walk into a shop. I see or hear about her everywhere I go.
Every time I turn around there's a newspaper with her photo on the front page or some guy on the bus is talking to a friend about her or when I'm in a shop they announce that her latest designs will be in-store next week.
So whereas before I met the person in question, I never noticed anything to do with that person but all of a sudden, now I do. It's almost like the mind 'fixates' on the subject and the antennae are more attuned to any mention of it.
So I'm wondering what is the psychology behind that and what biological factors play a role.
In a similar vein, is this in any way connected to the psychology of mating in humans? We may not notice a person until we get talking to them then 'bang!', they are in our minds everywhere and everything we see reminds us of that person because we are now so 'attuned' to that person?
Hope that's a bit clearer0 -
I don't think there's anything more to it than attentional biasWe have selective attention because our minds cannot possibly process and store every piece of information coming at us.How we select which information gets processed and stored depends on our own opinions, beliefs, experiences and values, and as you say what is important to us or at the forefront of our minds.I for instance would never notice if there was a sudden increase in the numbers of a certain type of car on the road because quite frankly I don't care about cars. But I would notice when people haven't had their roots done, because this is something I am paranoid about myself! Other people would be the opposite.I often find that when I learn the definition of a new word I wasn't familiar with before, I then hear it a couple of times in the next week or two and I wonder 'What the hell? I didn't even know what that word meant before and now it's everywhere!'0
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