Someone says "shave and a haircut" and you have to say...

[nuxvomica]

"two bits!" What's the name for that neurological phenomenon that compells one to finish saying something -- a cliche or poem or song -- that someone else only started? All I know is that it begins with a "z" and it's named after someone Russian or Eastern European. I can't even begin to figure out how to search for it.

[Lyric]

1. The "Shave and a Haircut" knock alone is enough

to forcibly compel the responding knock, lol.

ThinkBlue1966 and I do this to each other all the time. It's one of our little "inside jokes". I don't know the name for the phenomenon, but I suspect it's related to the urge to organize. :hi:

[nuxvomica]

6. I wonder if it's related to people finishing my sentences

There are three people I've worked with who always finish my sentences before I have a chance to finish them and they rarely finish them correctly. I was training one of them and he kept doing that, getting the wrong word or phrase every time. Finally I hollered at him "Jeezum Crow! How do you expect to learn anything if you won't let me finish a sentence?!"
:hi:

[5LeavesLeft]

23. I hate it when people

finish my, you know...

[nuxvomica]

24. finish your... boat models!

That's how far off this guy usually was. :D

[Pierre.Suave]

30. His name was...

Jeezum Crow?

:P

[bbernardini]

2. I do the "shave and a haircut" thing to my music students...however...

I stop on "two." :evilgrin: I'll play it on the piano, and not resolve it by playing "bits." Drives the kids nuts.

[Iggo]

4. LOL@ anticip....

[DarkTirade]

13. Say it.... SAY IT!!!...

:P

[Iggo]

25. ....

....-PATION !!!!!

[MonkeyFunk]

19. I had a cockatiel that would do the same thing

he'd start singing in the morning - do "Pop goes the weasel". But he'd leave off the last note! It was infuriating.

[AwakeAtLast]

32. I do the same thing with "I Got Rhythm"

"I got rhythm (bomp bomp), I got music (bomp bomp), I got my gal....."

You can tell it's May! :hi:

[TZ]

3. lol

I can never hear that now without thinking of that scene from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"..one of my all time favorite movies...:)

[keithjx]

5. I was thinking more along the lines of

Pavlov, but I know next to nothing about neurological phenomena.
:shrug:
KJ

Edited to add:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov

and classical conditioning....

[Z_I_Peevey]

7. Six bits.

I would sing "six bits." Because that's the way I learned it.

Six. Bits.

Ahhhhhh, now I feel better. All is right in my little mental world.

Da-da-da-da dum. Six Bits!

[Oeditpus Rex]

9. Same here

Inflation was rampant in the '50s. :grr:

[nuxvomica]

36. The original expression was supposed to be a pun, y'know

The "two bits" sounds like "to bits", as though one's hair were cut into little teeny bits. This was considered sophisticated humor when my dad was kid during the Depression. :)

[Dr. Strange]

8. I'm sailing away...

set an open course for the virgin sea...

[SteppingRazor]

10. God damn it!

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/150308/

[Dr. Strange]

12. Heh

:thumbsup:

[regularguy]

11. "Beer, Wine,.........

and SANGRIA". I can't hear the phrase "Beer, Wine..." without saying " and SANGRIA!". Those of you who grew up in '70s NYC know what I'm talking about. I don't know the name for the phenomenon, i
f there's no name I'd like to call it the "sangria completion reflex". Or something.

[BOSSHOG]

14. The pavlovian syndrome???

[nuxvomica]

16. I'm sure it's not "Pavlovlian". It's something like "the Z___ effect"

Or the "Z___ reflex" or some such thing. It was 30 years ago in Sociology class that I learned about it. It has something to do with completing a pattern that is already well burned into the neurons. Keep in mind that I'm not a neurologist or psychologist so I really don't know what the heck I'm talking about. :D

[Angleae]

15. Rogerrabbititus??

[BlueJazz]

17. I think it's called....

"Zee rest of the statement"

[nuxvomica]

18. Hey, thanks for trying!

That was a good effort you made but I'm afraid that's not it. :rofl:

[ashling]

20. You are thinking of the Zarathustra effect, so named because

I can't think of anything else. :eyes:

[BlueJazz]

21. Also Sprach Zarathustra ???

[ashling]

27. that's the guy!

[trof]

22. 'Bits' of WHAT? Read on...

During the colonial days, people used coins from all over the world. The most commonly used coin was the Spanish milled dollar. When our nation adopted an official currency, the Spanish Milled Dollar was chosen, and it later became the model for American silver dollars.

The Spanish milled dollars were easily cut apart into equal "bits" of 8 pieces. One "bit" would be equal to 1/8 of a dollar, and 2 bits would equal 2/8 (or 1/4 - a quarter of a dollar). So, it is easy to see why the coins were called "pieces of eight", and "2 bits" was commonly used to refer to 25 cents.

[angstlessk]

26. there ain't that many words in the dictionary that begins with the letter Z..just

lookem all up??

[nuxvomica]

29. I tried looking under "Z" in online neurology glossaries

But I couldn't find it. Maybe neurology is the wong discipline. And maybe my sociology teacher was BS'ing me, too. :shrug:

[TrogL]

28. I have a beard and not enough hair to justify calling it a "haircut"

[nuxvomica]

31. Update: I may have found the answer

After engaging in some intense Googling, I came across what my professor may have been talking about those 30 years ago when he planted the obscure term in my head. Like most bad college students, I had apparently dozed in and out of consciousness at such a high frequency (so as to appear generally attentive) that I had mistakenly assigned the term "Zeigarnik effect" to the line-finishing compulsion, when it's a more general phenomenon. According to Wikipedia...

The Zeigarnik effect states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones.

Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik first studied the phenomenon after her professor, Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin, noticed that a waiter had better recollections of still unpaid orders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeigarnik_effect

So I guess if I want folks to remember this thread, I should probably

[otherlander]

33. You have to play the spoons while you say it

:P

[Kat45]

34. I thought it was only Toons that HAVE to say it.

:-)

[Darth_Kitten]

35. Bay rum........

:)

[nuxvomica]

37. I just mentioned this to a coworker and that was her reply

She hadn't heard of the "two bits" answer.