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"The Centipede's Dilemma" is a short poem that has lent its name to a psychological effect called the centipede effect or centipede syndrome. The centipede effect occurs when a normally automatic or unconscious activity is disrupted by consciousness of it or reflection on it. For example, a golfer thinking too closely about their swing or someone thinking too much about how they knot their tie may find their performance of the task impaired. The effect is also known as hyper-reflection or Humphrey's law after the English psychologist George Humphrey (1889–1966), who propounded it in 1923. As he wrote of the poem, "This is a most psychological rhyme. It contains a profound truth which is illustrated daily in the lives of all of us". ==The poem== The poem, a short rhyme illustrating a solvitur ambulando in reverse, is usually attributed to Katherine Craster (1841–1874)〔 in ''Pinafore Poems'', 1871. By 1881 it had begun appearing in journals such as ''The Spectator'' and ''The Living Age''. The poem later appeared in an article by British zoologist E. Ray Lankester, published in the scientific journal ''Nature'' on May 23, 1889, which discussed the work of the photographer Eadweard Muybridge in capturing the motion of animals: "For my own part," wrote Lankester, "I should greatly like to apply Mr. Muybridge's cameras, or a similar set of batteries, to the investigation of a phenomenon more puzzling even than that of 'the galloping horse'. I allude to the problem of 'the running centipede. Lankester finished the article on a fanciful note by imagining the "disastrous results in the way of perplexity" that could result from such an investigation, quoting the poem and mentioning that the author was unknown to him or to the friend who sent it to him. It has since been variously attributed to specific authors but without convincing evidence, and often appears under the title "The Centipede's Dilemma". The version in the article is as follows: :A centipede was happy – quite! :Until a toad in fun :Said, "Pray, which leg moves after which?" :This raised her doubts to such a pitch, :She fell exhausted in the ditch :Not knowing how to run. Another version of the Centipede's Dilemma: :A centipede was happy – quite! :Until a toad in fun :Said, "Pray, which leg comes after which?" :Which threw her mind in such a pitch, :She laid bewildered in the ditch :Considering how to run. Modern versions of the poem often recast it in verse as a fable of a spider (or other protagonist) who found a clever way to avoid being eaten. Another rhyme goes: :A spider met a centipede while hurrying down the street, :"How do you move at such a speed, with all so many feet?" :"I do not have to contemplate to keep them all in line, :But if I start to concentrate they're tangled all the time!" 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Centipede's Dilemma」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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