I am not a cognitive miser

A theory in social psychology suggests that people are 'cognitive misers'. It suggests that most people are lazy to employ much mental effort, and hence rely on automatic processing to make their decisions/attributions.

For example, a stranger trips and falls. You think 'He is clumsy!' , because you are lazy to process situational factors (e.g. Someone stuck out their foot to trip him)

I think i am something resembling the opposite of a cognitive miser, whatever that is called. I have a constant need to challenge my mind, to exert some sort of mental effort. Whether be it playing starcraft, words with friends.

In fact, my theory is that everyone is like this. Well, many people at least. When you don't exert any mental effort, you build up a cognitive surplus, and there is some sort of uneasiness in you. Dissonance, so to speak.
People expand this surplus in a variety of ways, sometimes subconsciously. Do you listen to music when traveling? That's one example already. Listening to music occupies your brain and taps away at that cognitive surplus.

(actually this idea of cognitive surplus is not my theory, i learnt it in My CNM mod last sem)

Proof that this cognitive surplus exists? There seems to be a limit. In the past I used to play UnblockMe on my iPod touch. Now, with words with friends, I stopped playing that, because I just didnt gave sufficient cognitive surplus to expand on another puzzle game.
When you say "I'm bored " , you're actually saying 'my cognitive surplus is building up, I need to expand it!"

And this whole blog post was written on my iPhone on my journey home because I had to expand my cognitive surplus. :)

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I have already mentioned this, but I'll say it again. I'm currently also writing for realfass, and their blog link is simple http://realfass.blogspot.com. Unless it's a personal blog entry, I should be posting my stuff there for now. So check them out! They have a great Twitter feed too, you can follow them @realfass even if you are not an FASS student. Www.twitter.com/realfass

published!

I submitted a blog entry to realFASS and it was published!

http://realfass.blogspot.com/

check it out! It's called 'It's all a mind trick'. Going to be writing more stuff in the future probably. :)

Since I've started Uni

Since I've started Uni,
I've learnt how to write in APA style
I've become sure I want to major in Psychology
I've gone for 2 camps
Ive gotten attached

Since I've started Uni,
My sinus has got worse
My quality of sleep has plummeted- 10hrs and I can still feel like crap
I occasionally get insomnia, specifically not bein able to fall asleep, and also waking up and not being able to go back to sleep

Since I've started Uni,
I tweet alot more, use Facebook more, even more so now after my iPhone ( this post is being composed on my iPhone because i can't sleep)
I've made alot more friends
I've drifted from some friends

Since I've started Uni
I haven't exercised much, I'll probably fail 2.4p
Km if I run it now
My prospective memory (remembering to do things) and trivial memory (remembering simple things ppl tell me like they are going to Peru tomorrow, what module they are taking, etc) have both plummeted to startling levels
Have I mentioned I can't really sleep?