Crazy Together

122. The Power of Novelty

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Esme-heads: prepare to be disappointed. Or, prepare to be delightfully surprised! Such is the power of novel experiences.

Marcus is flying solo this week. And while he realizes the throngs of Esme fans out there might be loath to listen to him meander his way through an episode without the patient guidance of his better half, he has endeavored to keep it (relatively) short and sweet.

In this week’s episode, Marcus discusses the concept of novelty and its impact on the reward pathways in our brains. He also describes the positive impact novel experiences have on our attention and well-being, differentiates novelty from novelty-seeking behavior, and provides some helpful tips for adding some novelty to your daily routine.

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Sources for this episode include:

  • Reichardt, Richárd, Bertalan Polner, and Péter Simor. “The Graded Novelty Encoding Task: Novelty Gradually Improves Recognition of Visual Stimuli under Incidental Learning Conditions.” Behavior Research Methods, vol. 55, no. 4, 2022, pp. 1587–1600. PMC10250520, doi:10.3758/s13428-022-01891-8. Accessed via PubMed Central, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10250520/. 
  • Hall, Karyn. “The Magic of Novelty: Why It Matters and How to Embrace It.” Psychology Today, 6 Jan. 2025, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/pieces-of-mind/202501/the-magic-of-novelty-why-it-matters-and-how-to-embrace-it. 
  • O’Connor, Alexander J., Charlan J. Nemeth, and Satoshi Akutsu. “Consequences of Beliefs about the Malleability of Creativity.” Creativity Research Journal, vol. 25, no. 2, 2013, pp. 155–162. Published online 17 May 2013. Taylor & Francis Online, https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2013.783739. 

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      Crazy TogetherBy Marcus & Esme O’Kayvius