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Interesting title to the episode!
Johari Window
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/communication/johari_window.htm

I liked that Astrid got more to do character-wise, and I loved the conversation with Peter and Walter at the end.

I read what people were saying on the other thread--I don't think that was the first time Peter shot someone, either.

Such a catchy tune, that.
(Ed, I guess you would know the song that sounds like "Twinkle, twinkle, little star.")To be honest, "Twinkle, Twinkle" never occurred to me....It's this...

Oh! You meant mnemonic device, nice!

So, I have a question (for Ed, sort of). Walter kind of sung-talked the song, right? As I understand it, from a long-time ago Educational Psychology class, songs like learning the "ABC's" goes into the wrong part of the brain for long term memory...or it does help with memory, but somehow the ABC song doesn't hit the logic thinking part of the brain. (Therefore you must sing it to get the correct order...) I'm gonna have to look that up!Well, I don't actually know any documentary evidence on the subject, but I can tell you this: If the idea is that the alphabet should be ingrained in the language centers of the brain, then no, setting it to music is not necessarily the best way to go. My understanding is that music, when it is being made, occupies most of the brain, hence my comment about Walter putting the clue to music to make it more likely that he would remember it. As we saw, some of his brain was physically stolen. Perhaps he fathomed that possibility, so by setting the clue to music, he could have been planting it in other parts of his brain. The centers of the brain are occupied when singing are older on an evolutionary scale than the language centers, and are able to take over the funtions of the language centers. This is why people with morbid stutters don't stutter when singing, and so a therapy for stuttering is to train the brain to use those "musical centers" for speech. Unfortunately, those musical centers don't perceive and comprehend language as well as the language centers do. This is why people tend to become robotic with the words to songs, even in their own native language, and why you can learn to sing a song, but when asked what the song is about, you may be helpless to answer.

So if the idea is to gain an understanding of the alphabet, simply singing it won't do that. But if the idea is simply to memorize it, setting it to a familiar tune -- in this case, notice, the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" -- will serve to assist with that by virtue of the fact that it uses more of the brain and creates more and stronger associations between disparate brain functions.

Walter would certainly have known all about this, and that's why he would have set the clue to music. After all, the string of words, when taken together, was nonsensical, and without meaning, we have difficulty memorizing things. But setting that string of words to music gives it the certain continuity the brain seeks. When I was a kid, for instance, my mom couldn't figure out why I had such an easy time memorizing "We Go Together" from Grease, with its long strings of nonsensical doo-wop syllables. I know now that it was because it was set to music (and I still remember it!).

Wow! (I'm so glad I asked!)

"To be honest, "Twinkle, Twinkle" never occurred to me...."
(Because your brain is more musically advanced than mine...)
Ha! So you can't read my thoughts!
I'll have to find it...

Now, I have this book on Medieval Music...
100%
"Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEoBceUXs6U

"Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEoBceUXs6UYeah, I was going to mention that, too...but I figured how much can one musician geek out in a single post. :71: Mozart!
ETA: Whoops! Part 2!

Thanks for that fantastic explanation above, Ed!

I don't totally understand why this was called Johari Window, though. Is it as simple as this: "it is, in fact a very useful way of understanding something of how our self may be divided into four parts that we and others may or may not see."? (from the 2nd link at the top of this thread)