I suspect you are all familiar with Abraham Lincoln’s well-known and oft-quoted bit of advice he gave his son Tad, “You can’t believe everything you read on the internet.”
I mention that because I came across a past “Women’s History Month” post from Colorado State University about Emily Dickinson, and it states, “Poet Emily Dickinson was born in 1930 in Amherst, Massachusetts.”
I mention that because I came across a past “Women’s History Month” post from Colorado State University about Emily Dickinson, and it states, “Poet Emily Dickinson was born in 1930 in Amherst, Massachusetts.”
While there is other misinformation on the page (for example, ten of Dickinson’s poems were published in her lifetime, not seven), the incorrect year of her birth was merely the result of a typo – 1930 in place of 1830 – and I’m sure the eyes and brain of the person who published the post saw “1830” when they proofread the site because they expected to see “1830.”
This phenomenon it's often called "expectation bias" or "brain-filling" - essentially, your brain sees what it expects to see or fills in the gaps with what it thinks should be there, causing you to overlook actual errors in the text.
BTW: Three things I’m a true-believer in are (1) Murphy’s Law, (2) the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, and (3) Expectation Bias. Hmm…let me add a fourth: (4) the Peter Principle.
Okay, at a later date/time, Imma have to add a few more generalizations to the list I just cited from this site, HERE.
Perhaps I need to develop “Asher’s Caveat”: “When exploring the number of times a word is used by Dickinson in her poetry, there is never a specific number.” I’ll delve into this tomorrow when I look into how often she used the word “eve” (in recognition of the upcoming Eve of the New Year).
Also, I’ll work on re-wording “Asher’s Caveat.” When I drafted the axiom, I couldn’t help but think of Charles Dickens’ admonition, “Never say ‘never.’”
This phenomenon it's often called "expectation bias" or "brain-filling" - essentially, your brain sees what it expects to see or fills in the gaps with what it thinks should be there, causing you to overlook actual errors in the text.
BTW: Three things I’m a true-believer in are (1) Murphy’s Law, (2) the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, and (3) Expectation Bias. Hmm…let me add a fourth: (4) the Peter Principle.
Okay, at a later date/time, Imma have to add a few more generalizations to the list I just cited from this site, HERE.
Perhaps I need to develop “Asher’s Caveat”: “When exploring the number of times a word is used by Dickinson in her poetry, there is never a specific number.” I’ll delve into this tomorrow when I look into how often she used the word “eve” (in recognition of the upcoming Eve of the New Year).
Also, I’ll work on re-wording “Asher’s Caveat.” When I drafted the axiom, I couldn’t help but think of Charles Dickens’ admonition, “Never say ‘never.’”
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