Instant Links

The brain is a strange concept. It’s where the entire body is piloted from, nothing happens without the consent and direct instruction from the brain (except the beating of the heart, thanks GCSE Biology!). You might think it inherent that we would have worked hard enough in human history to have an understanding of how the brain works, what with it being all important and everything. Despite the plethora of neuroscientific research throughout human history, we still don’t have that much of an idea of how the brain works in all its capacity.

One thing we do know is that our brain can think quickly by making subconscious links. In other words, we learn to expect a certain image or item etc. when the brain is triggered by a word or sound etc. When we hear the word ‘sky’, most of us think of the colour blue, maybe clouds, or possibly the night sky full of stars if that’s what your brain links the word to. Some people, myself included, think of Sky TV and its logo when I hear the word, which shows that I am a complete sucker to their advertisement campaign. The ultimate advertising victory would be for someone to hear the word ‘sky’ and immediately think ‘plus’ and ‘hd’ after it.

I can’t even begin to pretend that I know enough psychology to dig any deeper into the idea, although I would love to someday. I would love to know how the links are made, why those particular links are made and if certain things can be done to influence which links are made. But then I might end up in marketing so

I’ve got to be careful. One thing everyone can do is explore what links we have made in our own heads. All you have to do is take a word and work out what you think of immediately. You have to take the first thing that comes to your head, it doesn’t work if you think about it too much. Here are some of mine.

BenThis works particularly well with names. For example, if you know 5 James’es (I have no idea what the plural for James is), which is the first one you think of? Is it even someone you know. Both my best friends are called James, but I definitely think of one before the other when I hear the word James. I’ll just let them both think it’s them.

Ben is my name, so you’d think when I hear the word Ben, I’d think of me. This isn’t the case. When I hear the word Ben, the link I make in my head is to a man, mid 30’s, with stubble. I think I’ve made this link somewhere between Ben Fogle and Ben Ainslie. Either way, it’s certainly not me. I only just fit one of those descriptions…

ForceThrough many years of Physics lessons, I know that Force=Mass x Acceleration. However, when I first hear the word ‘force’, I make a different connection, given that I grew up as a Star Wars geek. When I hear ‘force’, my brain triggers the sound bite of Ben (back to that again) Kenobi saying ‘The force will be with you, always', before running away and being killed my Darth Vader.

DavidHere’s a strange one. I know 3 Davids, plus many more celebrity Davids, and one of my favourite songs growing up was Who’s David by Busted. The link that my brain has made is actually to the biblical David, who killed Goliath. Having not grown up in a particularly religious setting, I genuinely can’t explain that one.

YellowSome people probably just make the link of something that is yellow. Others might instantly think of the Coldplay song. Many will think follow ‘yellow’ with ‘car’, the infamous colour of car which allows for Actual Bodily Harm on school buses (I’ve never understood that one). My personal link is to a medicine I used to have as a child which was simply called 'Yellow Medicine’, which left such an impression on me that it is now what I think of when I hear the word ‘yellow’. It is so memorable simply because it was so disgusting. Genuinely the second more vile thing I can remember. Second only to the song Yellow by Coldplay.