Remember the talking dogs in the Pixar movie “Up?” If you haven’t seen it, the dogs are outfitted with a device that translates their thoughts and barks into human language so we can hear what’s going on in their heads, to great comic effect. One running joke is that whenever a squirrel is nearby, every other thought vanishes. All of […]
distraction
The Zeigarnick Effect, or the Pull of the Unresolved
It happened again the other night. I watched a television show that concluded with a surprising twist. Later that night and the next morning, the show kept popping into my thoughts, as I pondered different ways the plot might resolve. Ah, the magic of the cliffhanger. Televisions writers know that a fresh, unresolved plot point keeps […]
