Priming The Mind With Exposure - Part I

Right off the top of my head I can think of three reasons why it is of benefit to go to college.

Exposure to knowledge
Focus of knowledge
Connections

The one I want to talk about today is exposure to knowledge.

As far as I can tell through my own observations, peoples minds have to be ready to see things in order for them to see them. They have to be "primed" so to speak. When I say see I mean that in a literal sense as well as a figurative sense.

Let me give you some examples of what I mean.

Vocabulary Lesson
Ever learn a new word and then see it popping up everywhere? You're likely to say to yourself something like "hmmm...that's funny, I just learned that word now I'm seeing it with great frequency. What a conicidence!". It's no great coincidence. It's been there all along - you just didn't see it! The reason is that you weren't "primed" for it. As adults we can do this "priming" with exposure and that's a lot of what education is about.

Find Your Shoes
If you've ever spent any time with very young kids (maybe 3 or 4 year olds) you may notice there's a tendency to be a problem with them keeping track of their shoes. Shoes do not seem to be very relevant to them. You may say "hey kid, go to your room, find your shoes and bring 'em here". They then saunter off to their room and perhaps return with the look of helplessness alluding to something like the shoes have somehow disappeared or they're not there. At that point it's up to you to go in that room and find those shoes, no matter how deeply buried they might be under piles of toys and clothes. You walk in and there they are. Right there. Right freakin' there. "How could this child be so blind?" you say.

The answer is that the child has to be "primed" to see the shoes. He or she has to have a mental image of what they're looking for in order to match that up with the real thing. For whatever reason, if the child is not carrying a mental image of what their shoes look like, due to apathy or what have you, the shoes are not going to be discovered.

Hey, how did you get here?
I've read somewhere that the natives of the Pacific islands never, in fact, saw Captain Cook coming. For them, it was more like one day he magically just showed up on the beach out of nowhere. Just like that. Poof. Magic. Literally. Well now it doesn't take a lot for us to imagine he showed up in some kind of big sailing ship. But what if you had never seen a sailing ship? Do you think you would see it? I got news for you - not necessarily.

Next time on Part II - Where's my chicken feet?