... I wonder if I was on meds or some kind of treatment for ADHD, if it would make a difference? I'm really considering medical intervention ... YES.
I've been treated for ADHD for almost 2 years, and my meds help considerably. They improve my "working memory"--the ability to remember information 5--10 minutes later. I could usually remember compelling information, but not anything else.
They also improve my ability to determine salience--the ability to recognize which item/information/etc is more important. I didn't even know there was a word for "salience" until I searched for a word that described what was going on in my head.
A few days after I started taking meds, I was preparing to leave for work, when I realized that I'd come downstairs without taking my meds. I also needed to take my checkbook to work, and needed to find my keys. As I turned to go upstairs for my meds, I noticed some "pet mess" on the floor.
Before I started taking meds, I would never have remembered to take care of those 4 tasks. I would have had to choose which was the most compelling, and resigned myself to forgetting the rest. But that day, I simply remembered all of them!
They also improve my ability to determine salience--the ability to recognize which item/information/etc is more important. I didn't even know there was a word for "salience" until I searched for a word that described what was going on in my head. HowardsGirlfriend ...
I was struck by what you said there -- about "salience".
I hadn't heard of "salience" before, so I looked it up.
SalienceThe word "salient" is derived from the Latin word for "leaping".
The word was originally used in heraldry to indicate a leaping animal.
In modern English:
"Salience" literally means:
The quality of something that makes it seem to
"leap out at you" ...
In other words ...
The quality of something that makes it
be more prominent/conspicuous/noticeable ...
catch your attention ...
be highlighted.
In modern conversational English, a "salient point" is when a someone is listening to/reading a long speech/text,
and whatever specific point most "STRIKES" their attention within all the words.
An example of this would be when you are reading a very long philosophical post on these forums.
What few words or sentences strike you -- resonate with your experience -- within that post?
For you, those are the "salient points".
The above is my imperfectly paraphrased summary of the various definitions
that can be found in many dictionaries, as described here:
onelook.com/?w=salience&ls=aMore narrow/specific usages can be found here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salience_(communication)and here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salience_(neuroscience)My impression of this is ... that Salience is whatever strikes you as important related to your experience, or whatever triggers a reaction to you ... or more simply whatever you notice first.
Based on your inner psyche and experiences, this will be different for each person.
It isn't so much about "priorities" that are really more important in our lives ...
but rather ... simply whatever catches our attention first (regardless of whether it's *truly* important or not in the greater scheme of things).
Things that subconsciously *feel* important, regardless of whether they *are* important?
[And ... I suppose this could be a clue to help us learn about things that we didn't *realize* felt important to us, as we'd maybe suppressed the feeling?]
For example: in politics (within ANY political viewpoint!), some people tend to vote for issues/persons that strike their emotions/attention first, instead of impartially weighing all the facts and choosing whatever their mind is able to interpret as *truly* the best for all concerned.
Bringing this back to the topic of ADD or ADHD ...
I wonder how this would apply?
hmmmm. (pondering....)
Perhaps ... we tend to notice whatever in the room strikes our emotions or triggers our sight/hearing/smells most prominently (regardless of whether it's *truly* important for our overall life plan).
So ...
Maybe if we are aware of our tendencies for these things ... then we can be alert ... and catch ourselves becoming sidetracked by whatever is "Leaping Out" at us?
And then... we can learn to train our minds to focus on *true* priorities for our life plan?
Relating "salience" to the topic of squalor ... a pretty colored paper might "leap out at" us when we walk through a room, and distract us ... yet we might not even *SEE* the garbage on the floor, as our squalorous minds don't see it as important?
I don't know.
I'm just ruminating here.
I could be way off base!
Big example of how "salience" applies to me RIGHT NOW:I'm a word nerd. So ... Seeing a new word here (Salience) ... leaped out at me, and then I allowed myself to wander off into the *seemingly* important (but not really!!!) land of word definitions.
And ... I didn't look at the whole context, the big picture in a measured way.
And I allowed precious time to pass while doing this!
Time that could have been better spent working on accomplishing my life goals.
Oy.
What I learn from this is that I had a desire to procrastinate today, so I subconsciously chose to grab onto a distraction.
Okay, I'm *way* off-topic from Dayeanu's original topic, so I'll stop now.
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