Centipede's Dilemma - in Psychology and Philosophy

In Psychology and Philosophy

The psychologist George Humphrey referred to the tale in his 1923 book The Story of Man's Mind: "No man skilled at a trade needs to put his constant attention on the routine work," he wrote. "If he does, the job is apt to be spoiled." He went on to recount the centipede's story, commenting, "This is a most psychological rhyme. It contains a profound truth which is illustrated daily in the lives of all of us, for exactly the same thing happens if we pay conscious attention to any well-formed habit, such as walking." Thus, the eponymous "Humphrey's law" states that once performance of a task has become automatized, conscious thought about the task, while performing it, impairs performance. Whereas habit diminishes and then eliminates the attention required for routine tasks, this automaticity is disrupted by attention to a normally unconscious competence.

The philosopher Karl Popper referred to the centipede effect in his book Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem: In Defence of Interaction: "if we have learnt certain movements so that they have sunk below the level of conscious control, then if we try to follow them consciously we very often interfere with them so badly that we stop them." He gives the example of the violinist Adolf Busch who was asked by fellow-violinist Bronisław Huberman how he played a certain passage of Beethoven's violin concerto. Busch told Huberman that it was quite simple — and then found that he could no longer play the passage.

The psychiatric psychoanalyst Theo L. Dorpat in his book "Gaslighting..." refers to the fragmenting influence of questions and interventions in psychotherapy not relevant to the patient's current thought processes as " the story of the centipede who became disorganized and unable to walk after he was asked, 'What's wrong with your 34th left foot?'."