Nonsense

The NYTimes had an interesting article yesterday about how nonsense primes your brain for problem solving. It’s based on this research paper:

Psychological Science
Volume 20, Issue 9, Date: September 2009, Pages: 1125-1131
doi 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02414.x
Connections From Kafka: Exposure to Meaning Threats Improves Implicit Learning of an Artificial Grammar
Travis Proulx, Steven J. Heine

The authors had subjects try to remember long strings of letters. Some of the subjects first read a nonsensical short story by Kafka. The subjects who read the story first remembered more of the letter sequences. The theory is that the nonsense primed the pump on the part of your brain which searches for patterns.

Maybe we should start ever day with a little Dadaist poetry after breakfast?