3 ms·

I've been considering my mind's data structures as well recently. I find it, normal?, that humorous metaphors work best. I assume it's easier on the psyche and

• proverbialbunny 9y ago
  Some of the people I know who naturally retain memory the best are some of the brightest and clear headed people. (Not including near perfect memory recording individuals, who do not have humor associated with their memories.) I on the other hand suck at humor. I find if I try to make a humorous association it seems forced, which does work to some extent, but leaves me feeling a bit forced during recall, so I don't find that worth it. However, when it is naturally funny or amusing, you better believe it sticks. I suspect this has to do with anxiety. Humor isn't the opposite of anxiety (that would be closer to hypnosis, I would guess) but humor breaks tension like cutting melted butter. So much so, if you get pulled over, and if you can make the officer laugh within a minute, your chances of getting a ticket are nearly zero. There is clearly something going on here, but what it is, I admit I'm in the dark. If you're the kind that can find humor in everything, especially puns and similar, you've very lucky.
  • tmpmov 9y ago
    >Some of the people I know who naturally retain memory the best are some of the brightest and clear headed people. (Not including near perfect memory recording individuals, who do not have humor associated with their memories.) >I on the other hand suck at humor. I find if I try to make a humorous association it seems forced, which does work to some extent, but leaves me feeling a bit forced during recall, so I don't find that worth it. However, when it is naturally funny or amusing, you better believe it sticks. For me, I find that unless the joke has been expressed to others I simply forget the attempted association. Even if it's a bad joke or bad association, the expression portion helps to make the association of humor with the concept/memory more concrete. >I suspect this has to do with anxiety. Humor isn't the opposite of anxiety (that would be closer to hypnosis, I would guess) but humor breaks tension like cutting melted butter. So much so, if you get pulled over, and if you can make the officer laugh within a minute, your chances of getting a ticket are nearly zero. This is a good point. I seem to recall reading somewhere that there a variety of reasons we find things funny but a large one has to do with inhibiting flight/fight response after a close call. >There is clearly something going on here, but what it is, I admit I'm in the dark. >If you're the kind that can find humor in everything, especially puns and similar, you've very lucky. If I take an extreme view (one which I don't fully believe but will use for illustration), then humor of a particular variety helps us to recognize situations that are dangerous/seemingly dangerous, but survivable, if we can recall what decisions extricated us from that situation previously. I feel like that's heading in the direction of creating strong, positive, associations.