People have trained themselves like Pavlov's dogs to respond to phone notifications (the 'woosh' sound and screen light), creating conditioned anxiety when unable to check or hold their phone.

causalpending

Speaker

Richard Cytowic

Evidence Quote

We really have trained ourself like Pavlov's dogs when these stimuli come in. The screen lights up, we get the woosh or we sit there wondering, gee, has anybody liked me? I, you know, you get anxious, just not used, not being able to hang on to it.

Source

Your brain wasn't built to hold this much information | Richard CytowicBig Think
Created: 8/12/2026, 6:39:44 PM

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