There’s a reason why you find certain words are like long jumps where even though you take a mental run up at them, you’re not confident you’ll land at the other end. Antidisestablishmentariaism is a long jump word. But supercalifragilisiticexpalidocious is a doddle. It’s a doddle to say and it’s even a doddle to spell whereas I hesitated in the middle of antidis antedesish thingy. The difference is that nobody ever says the anti word and nobody ever says supercalifragilisiticexpalidocious either – they always sing it.

The Wall Street Journal says:

The hippocampus and the frontal cortex are two areas in the brain associated with memory and they process millions of pieces of information every day. Getting the information into those areas is relatively easy, says Dr. [Henry L.] Roediger [III, professor of psychology at the Washington University Memory Lab, St. Louis]. What is difficult is pulling data out efficiently. Music, he says, provides a rhythm, a rhyme and often, alliteration. All that structure is the key to unlocking information stored in the brain—with music acting as a cue, he says.

I’m off to make up a ditty about completing my tax return. Read more – about the idea, not my taxes – at the WSJ.

via Lifehacker