- Jan 8, 2011
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Next time you have a song playing in your head that you just can't shake, try thinking about the ending of the song. Your brain is glitching out. It thinks there is some task that you started, but did not finish and the song in your head is repeating itself based on this failed task completion safety mechanism. This mechanism has been studied and documented and then labeled The Zeigarnik Effect.
This results in a kind of cognitive anxiety about the unfinished task and for some reason, your brain grabs ahold of the song and the Zeigarnik Effect takes over, resulting in a cognitive broken record, never allowing the song to finish. This is why specifically thinking about the ending of the song can help ease your brain into thinking that the song (task) is finished and it may finally go quiet.
This results in a kind of cognitive anxiety about the unfinished task and for some reason, your brain grabs ahold of the song and the Zeigarnik Effect takes over, resulting in a cognitive broken record, never allowing the song to finish. This is why specifically thinking about the ending of the song can help ease your brain into thinking that the song (task) is finished and it may finally go quiet.
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