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Dutchess_III's avatar

What is it when an answer just comes to you, and you don't know why?

Asked by Dutchess_III (46848points) October 13th, 2014

As many of you know, at the lake on Saturday afternoon Rick and I saw some birds neither of us had seen before. It was strange in that they flocked in a big tree like black birds, but from there a lot of them would jump in the water and start paddling around like a duck. We were talking about them, trying to figure out what they were, and out of the blue I said, “Cormorants.” I don’t even know anything about cormorants, except that they are a bird.

Turns out, they were cormorants. How did I come up with the right answer like that?

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4 Answers

elbanditoroso's avatar

I have to say this :-)

A little bird whispered it into your ear.

elbanditoroso (33178points)“Great Answer” (2points) Flag as…
gailcalled's avatar

You may have seen many pictures of cormorants ( who are not uncommon birds in the US) over the decades without consciously registering the information, but it did enter your memory core.

gailcalled (54644points)“Great Answer” (5points) Flag as…
Buttonstc's avatar

If we had every single bit of knowledge we’ve accumulated in our lifetime at the forefront of our consciousness, it would likely drive us mad.

So bits of trivia for which we have no immediate use get filed in our subconscious until such time as something triggers the recollection and then it springs to the forefront.

Also, there are things in our conscious memory which we have frequent need of such as people’s names, phone numbers, where we last placed our keys, the spellings of difficult words, the oven temp for our favorite recipes; tons of stuff like that and more would get crowded out if every little-used fact in our subconscious were also right there with it.

It’s really a very efficient organizational plan which our brain does automatically for maximum efficiency…

…until Alzheimers hits :)

Buttonstc (27605points)“Great Answer” (1points) Flag as…
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