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Roger Brown: 3 ideas worth knowing

3 ideas from Roger Brown, each explained in a minute and credited to the original work. Free on Savvy.

• Word stuck on the tip of your tongue? You already know its first letter and syllable count

  Roger Brown and David McNeill gave students definitions of rare words and asked them to name the target. When stuck, people could reliably guess the first letter, syllable count, a…

  — Roger Brown and David McNeill, The 'Tip of the Tongue' Phenomenon

• French, German and Spanish force you to pick a 'you' that reveals your relationship

  French tu vs vous, German du vs Sie, Spanish tu vs usted: many languages make you choose between an intimate and a formal 'you' every time you address someone. Psychologists Roger …

  — Roger Brown and Albert Gilman, The Pronouns of Power and Solidarity

• The 'flashbulb' memory you'd swear is perfect is often flat wrong

  People report vivid, detailed memories of shocking news, where they were, who told them, and feel unusually confident those memories are accurate. Follow-up studies that tracked pe…

  — Roger Brown and James Kulik, Flashbulb Memories

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