Hear of something once, and it's suddenly everywhere!

[HYHYBT]

All right, not necessarily everywhere. Let me explain

Earlier today, on another board, I saw a post that mentioned peritoneal dialysis. I'd never heard of it before. Had to look it up. (Nor, for that matter, had I heard the alternative specified as *hemo*dialysis. Just plain dialysis, unmodified.) Very interesting and all... and then same day this thread mentions the procedure as well. Totally unrelated; the one was someone worried about his mom, while the latter is about options for a disabled child. But I'd never had come across it at all, and here it comes up twice in the same day, unrelated, and it's not even something new.

Things like this happen to me all the time. Is there a name for it? Does anybody else have any interesting examples?

[Kheldarson]

I don't remember what it's called, but we did study it in psych. Essentially the brain says: "Hey something interesting" and then starts noticing everything else that is related to it. Sorta like you play Portal and then you're thinking in portals for weeks.

[aurelemsrealm]

Like Kheldarson said, when a topic is on your mind for whatever reason, you are more apt to notice any mentions of it.

It's kind of like when you get a different car, you notice more cars of the same type on the road.

[Lachrymose]

The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

ETA: ...or not. There seems to be some argument over this on Wikipedia, since the page was deleted. Seems to also be called the "Frequency Illusion".

[Andara Bledin]

It's a form of confirmation bias.

It has to do with biased recall, and the fact that we tend to remember unusual (different types of dialysis) and/or familiar (same car types) things more readily.

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

...which doesn't seem *quite* to fit. I would have noticed this if I'd ever encountered it before. No doubt whatsoever.

[Greenday]

I don't remember what it's called, but we did study it in psych. Essentially the brain says: "Hey something interesting" and then starts noticing everything else that is related to it. Sorta like you play Portal and then you're thinking in portals for weeks.

Yea, we discussed it in Tai Chi. You just don't tend to notice stuff so much if you aren't actually focused on it at all.

[Mytical]

Well..its like some phrases I tend to use..like Conga Rats. Chances are I heard it somewhere and do not remember it, but it wasn't until after I used it on a game..(instead of gratz which I was getting tired of) that I noticed people using it more. Same with a vehicle you get..before you get it, you don't notice how many vehicles are like it out there..soon as you do .. you notice those vehicles everywhere.

[bara]

Ill stick with the 'when it rains, it pours' saying.

[HYHYBT]

It's still *not* the same as the vehicle thing. I'm specifically excluding things you see all the time and just don't really notice, a category in which peritoneal dialysis cannot qualify by any reasonable stretch of the imagination.

[Shangri-laschild]

I don't remember what it's called, but we did study it in psych. Essentially the brain says: "Hey something interesting" and then starts noticing everything else that is related to it. Sorta like you play Portal and then you're thinking in portals for weeks.

This is why I can't play Fallout for several days in a row! I get squirrely and occasionally have sudden "I hope a sniper doesn't get me" thoughts that flash through my head quicker than my brain can reason "the odds of me getting sniped in real life while headed from my house to my car...." And now Prison Break has proven to be worse. I was at home minding my own business and upon hearing sirens that weren't even headed towards me (while I was doing nothing to feel guilty of) I had an "oh shit the cops" moment. Which given that I'm a police dispatcher and best friends with a cop, was an odd moment for me!

It's still *not* the same as the vehicle thing. I'm specifically excluding things you see all the time and just don't really notice, a category in which peritoneal dialysis cannot qualify by any reasonable stretch of the imagination.

Maybe, but things like the vehicle thing that are like that make things like the dialysis seem less like coincidence and more like it's the same type of thing.

[DrFaroohk]

I remember on Supernatural a while back they were talking about "Turducken", which I had honestly never heard of, and I'm trying to imagine it must be this bird-type thing from the country of Turduck, right? But anyway after learning the truth, suddenly it was everywhere! People talking about it, commercials for it all over the place...

This might have been because it was near thanksgiving.