Are there psychology terms for when you expect something, but something else happens? Let me give some examples of what I mean:
*The rear view mirror fell off in my car and I haven’t fixed it yet.
Everytime I glance at the “mirror”, out of habit, I expect to see what’s behind me, but see instead what is ahead of me. For a micro-second there is an odd confusion between what my eyes see and what my brain had expected them to see. Is there a term for that?
*I was drinking root beer out of a glass. I got up to look for the remote control. While I was up my wife set her glass of Coca-Cola next to my glass of root beer. When I go to drink my root beer, I expect to taste root beer. But it’s Coke. For a micro-second there is an odd confusion between what my taste buds actually taste and what my conscious brain had expected to taste.
Is there a term for that confusion?
*At the airport I attempt to lift a bag I know is very heavy. But it’s the wrong bag and it’s actaully very light. For a moment there is a strange confusion over what my brain had expected and what it actually got. Is there a term for this?
No, I don’t think that’s quite it.
I think it has something to do with confusion though.
For instance, after years and years and years of habitually glancing up at the rear view mirror, the brain is so used to seeing what is behind the vehicle that when it all of a sudden doesn’t see what it is so used to seeing, a minin little “shock to reality” takes place. There must be a term for this.
There is a term. And I can’t think of it. The classic example is lifting a glass that you believe to be tea, and swallowing coke. Or trying to walk on a flight of stair with an irregular rise.
It has to do with tripping up the patterns you’ve established to save yourself the trouble of thinking.
I do know one way to do this, though - remap a friends electronic keyboard so that one, and only one, key is completely off.
This is gonna bug me all night. Pkbites, if I call someone up and pretend I was confused about time zones, just so he’ll answer this question for me (again), it’s on your head!