The Feeling of Understanding

Post Reply New Topic

I've noticed many people nod their head and go "Ohhh I see." but then when you ask them to repeat what I just said in their own words they go. "Can you repeat that?" or they repeat it back to me and they've got it completely wrong. Many people don't even know if they've understood something, they don't have that sense. The issue I think comes because they don't anticipate being tested, so they don't bother to actually learn of what they know or what they don't know.

@OP: That's exactly what I was thinking, too. People often don't even seem to be aware that they have been told something that they are expected to understand. I often wonder how much of what I say even register in their head. They don't seem to worry whether they have understood something or not because they aren't even aware of it.

So many people are overconfident and they don't even realize they don't understand something. It's in a little different context. When I said to some other students that a certain subject (at uni etc) was very difficult to understand, they all said that that subject was very easy. However, the exam results proved that they hadn't actually understand it that well.

I tend to worry a lot about whether I have understood something or not. I always feel I don't understand many things and because of that I can't feel confident in many situations.

I think I offended an acquaintance doing this. She was talking to me and then asked me to what did she just say that it caught me off guard and my pocket-holed memory couldn't immediately recollect.

I'm guilty of that one. It's just a reflexive polite response. I use it on my kids mostly, because they can just go on and on sometimes, but my husband's caught me on occasion.