When and Where
Tuesday morning I was explaining to my boyfriend that I think this pregnancy is causing me to lose cognitive ability. I referred back the day before and told him how a student of mine needed a band-aid and I kept referring to it as a rubber band. I said it so many times that the student finally lost it and shouted "why do you keep calling it a rubber band!? It's BAND-AID!" I have done this several times though, mixing up my words, causing a general confusion. So, after sharing my story with him he asked me "what does cognitive mean? I hear it all the time but I don't know exactly what it means." So then I tell him the definition, and he then asks what "cognitive dissonance" means, and he had me stumped. I told him I had heard the word several times (dissonance), and I had a feel for what it might mean, but I was not sure.
Level of Familiarity
I have definitely heard the word before, but not sure where. I had a tenuous understanding of it, but not enough to use the word when speaking. It reminded me of the poetic term: assonance, which means similar vowel sounds which are pleasing to the ear.
What it Means
Dictionary.com defines dissonance as an inharmonious or harsh sound; discord; cacophony. Although I had the definition for dissonance, I still could not exactly define cognitive dssonance, so I googled that. Wikipedia defines it as: the discomfort exerienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting ideas.
Reflective Commentary
After looking up the definition of this word, my understanding is more solidified. When I was trying to guess the meaning on my own, discord was one of the synonyms I used. I can see how it would be used in context, and a bit more metaphorically, as it is used in cognitive dissonance, to have discord among your ideas.
I do see myself using this word. Since I already had some understanding of the word I am more ready to bring it in to my own usage.
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