> [!INFO] [[The Extended Mind Application]] ## Highlights Over the course of many more published papers and books, Clark mounted a broad and persuasive argument against what he called the “brainbound” perspective—the view that thinking happens only inside the brain—and in favor of what he called the “extended” perspective, in which the rich resources of our world can and do enter into our trains of thought. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwk1e1ma378an7sja0g4eywm)) - 💭 original discoveries These include methods for sharpening our interoceptive sense, so as to use these internal signals to guide our decisions and manage our mental processes ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwk1fr51mmbr7g9tf20h4940)) - 💭 definition they also supply guidance on how to offload, externalize, and dynamically interact with our thoughts—a much more effective approach than doing it all “in our heads.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwk1h8e7n76tshv6hv7mtg9y)) ^qyien0 I’ve come to believe that such difficulties result in large part from a fundamental misunderstanding of how—and *where*—thinking happens. As long as we settle for thinking inside the brain, we’ll remain bound by the limits of that organ. But when we reach outside it with intention and skill, our thinking can be transformed. It can become as dynamic as our bodies, as airy as our spaces, as rich as our relationships—as capacious as the whole wide world ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwk1kkbvzspm9xr9tdpqaqpv)) ^j7vmlo - 💭 greater purpose of these ideas But when we clear away the hype, we confront the fact that the brain’s capacities are actually quite constrained and specific. The less heralded scientific story of the past several decades has been researchers’ growing awareness of the brain’s *limits.* The human brain is limited in its ability to pay attention, limited in its capacity to remember, limited in its facility with abstract concepts, and limited in its power to persist at a challenging task. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwk1pvt84fpexjfr1088071f)) ^aaousd - 💭 from an ecological perspective, this is why the power of external tools can be beneficial in allowing for more affordances These two metaphors—brain as computer and brain as muscle—share some key assumptions. To wit: the mind is a discrete thing that is sealed in the skull; this discrete thing determines how well people are able to think; this thing has stable properties that can easily be measured, compared, and ranked. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwk264sv0x39hgvt4bb3hgt6)) ^b78byz ### New highlights added April 28, 2024 at 8:05 PM For one thing: thought happens not only inside the skull but out in the world, too; it’s an act of continuous assembly and reassembly that draws on resources external to the brain. For another: the kinds of materials available to “think with” affect the nature and quality of the thought that can be produced. And last: the capacity to think well—that is, to be intelligent—is not a fixed property of the individual but rather a shifting state that is dependent on access to extra-neural resources and the knowledge of how to use them. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkhsp2n3eyfvvks7eznhtkx)) ^93s3lb - 💭 key benefits of extended mind approach Research on the extended mind points to a different explanation. That is: some people are able to think more intelligently because they are *better able to extend their minds.* They may have more knowledge about how mental extension works ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkj85sqn7ks3qd238k1kt1b)) - 💭 further nuance to intelligence not being fixed Confirming Coates’s informal observations, those who thrived in this milieu were not necessarily people with greater education or intellect, but rather “people with greater sensitivity to interoceptive signals.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkjc4mh721afstpjr4bwwq4)) ^fp46qe - 💭 intuitive traders did better Interoception is, simply stated, an awareness of the inner state of the body. Just as we have sensors that take in information from the outside world (retinas, cochleas, taste buds, olfactory bulbs), we have sensors inside our bodies that send our brains a constant flow of data from within. These sensations are generated in places all over the body—in our internal organs, in our muscles, even in our bones—and then travel via multiple pathways to a structure in the brain called the insula. Such internal reports are merged with several other streams of information—our active thoughts and memories, sensory inputs gathered from the external world—and integrated into a single snapshot of our present condition, a sense of “how I feel” in the moment, as well as a sense of the actions we must take to maintain a state of internal balance. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkjdtaw3k65zh9yebzbcyh9)) ^uvxntz What we do know is that interoceptive awareness can be deliberately cultivated ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkjkqaw5w08bectkea33r3x)) ^ir0low The answer is that, when a potentially relevant pattern is detected, it’s our interoceptive faculty that tips us off: with a shiver or a sigh, a quickening of the breath or a tensing of the muscles. The body is rung like a bell to alert us to this useful and otherwise inaccessible information. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkjpvn92c7nrsyq3hc7tre5)) - 💭 how unconscious information is notified Damasio’s fast-paced game shows us something important. The body not only grants us access to information that is more *complex* than what our conscious minds can accommodate. It also marshals this information at a pace that is far *quicker* than our conscious minds can handle. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkjte9c2phd5kbjd2f6yc3g)) ^f15989 What to do about such biases? The strategy of many economists and psychologists has been to inform people of their existence, then recommend that people monitor their mental activity for signs that their thinking is being swayed. In the terminology popularized by psychologist Daniel Kahneman, we’re supposed to use rational, reflective “System 2” thinking to override the bias-riddled responses of the faster “System 1.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkk251tgkhjwz7hhywcrnbs)) - 💭 unconscious intuitive processing that is already deeply a part of your cognition We can clarify and codify the body’s messages by keeping an “interoceptive journal”—a record of the choices we make, and how we felt when we made them. Each journal entry has three parts. First, a brief account of the decision we’re facing. Second, a description—as detailed and precise as possible—of the internal sensations we experience as we contemplate the various options available. An interoceptive journal asks us to consider the paths that lie before us, one by one, and take note of how we feel as we imagine choosing one path over another. The third section of the journal entry is a notation of the choice on which we ultimately settle, and a description of any further sensations that arise upon our making this final selection. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkk8r6ezdf1p03v43g1906f)) ^z9jodc Interoception acts as a continually updated gauge of our present status. Its cues let us know when we can push ourselves and when we have to give ourselves a rest ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkka1rwsbz9jq7n7gb3j8jq)) ^erfm38 - 💭 i wonder if this ties into the awareness and experimentation required for having accurate time blocks. is it pure intuition? Like the expert traders interviewed by Mark Fenton-O’Creevy, and like the elite athletes studied by Martin Paulus, Stanley has found that the most cognitively resilient soldiers pay close attention to their bodily sensations *at the early stage* of a challenge, when signs of stress are just beginning to accumulate. She instructs her workshop participants to do the same, using mindfulness ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkkpkavjptjzzfygtccpen8)) ^gn5hhy - 💭 usually people only react, do not anticipate, because of randomness of events we can choose to reappraise debilitating “stress” as productive “coping.” A 2010 study carried out with Boston-area undergraduates looked at what happens when people facing a stressful experience are informed about the *positive* effects of stress on our thinking—that is, the way it can make us more alert and more motivated ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkksyjtdyhgf4dm99r0e1tb)) ^y2ram8 - 💭 is this why i dont feel stressed? ### New highlights added May 11, 2024 at 2:54 PM Recall that—as William James explained so eloquently—our brains take their cues about the emotions we’re experiencing from the sensations generated by the body. Tsakiris’s device intervenes in this loop by offering the brain a message that is different from the one the body is actually producing. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxmpk3q3ava0620se530rxkj)) ^skig34 - 💭 example of digital tools beyond mental scope heartrater suggest different measurements compared to what you're heart is actually feeling which then alters your mental perception and capacity for resilience As the French philosopher René Descartes declared, “I think, therefore I am.” According to neuroanatomist and interoception expert A. D. Craig, it would be more accurate to say, “I *feel,* therefore I am.” Craig maintains that interoceptive awareness is the basis of the “material me,” the source of our most fundamental knowledge of ourselves. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxmppp7xg2y0wwy3x66t82kb)) ^94d4tg With a colleague, Fidler designed a study to test his hunch. Radiologists inspected a batch of images while seated, and while walking on a treadmill at one mile per hour. The participating physicians identified a total of 1,582 areas of concern in the slides, and rated 459 of these as posing potentially serious risks to the health of the patient. When they compared the “detection rates” they achieved while sitting and while moving, the results were clear: radiologists who remained seated spotted an average of 85 percent of the irregularities present in the images, while those who walked identified, on average, fully 99 percent of them. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxmprbveq7nhemmk9tn9nh92)) ^1031rk - 💭 The benefit of active movement during cognitive thinking When we’re engaged in physical activity, our visual sense is sharpened, especially with regard to stimuli appearing in the periphery of our gaze. This shift, which is also found in non-human animals, makes evolutionary sense: the visual system becomes more sensitive when we are actively exploring our environment. When our bodies are at rest—that is, sitting still in a chair—this heightened acuity is dialed down. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxmpsm8pmk6yc5rw0e28qvzb)) ^kmmuzw - 💭 why do they not optimize this for knowledge worker jobs where you're stuck in the cubicle then? Scientists investigating this phenomenon have approached it from two different directions: the *intensity* of the movement and the *type* of movement. As we’ll soon see, low-, medium-, and high-intensity physical activity each exerts a distinct effect on our cognition. Later on in the chapter, we’ll explore how certain types of movement—congruent movements, novel movements, self-referential movements, and metaphorical movements—can also extend our thinking beyond what is possible when we remain stationary. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxmpvkhk6aqv20c30wvjkj62)) ^areykr It’s not only that such activity-permissive setups relieve us of the duty to monitor and control our inclination to move; they also allow us to fine-tune our level of physiological arousal. Such variable stimulation may be especially important for young people with attention deficit disorders. The brains of kids with ADHD appear to be chronically *under*-aroused; in order to muster the mental resources needed to tackle a difficult assignment, they may tap their fingers, jiggle their legs, or bounce in their seats. They move as a means of increasing their arousal—not unlike the way adults down a cup of coffee in order feel more alert. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxmq26am20r2d4fc80cqnwsq)) ^pw69j8 - 💭 instead of fidgeting we now rely on caffeine, mental stimulants, to make up for the physiological needs for stimulation and engagement Her research and that of others suggests that fidgeting can extend our minds in several ways beyond simply modulating our arousal. The playful nature of these movements may induce in us a mildly positive mood state, of the kind that has been linked to more flexible and creative thinking. Alternatively, their mindless and repetitive character may occupy just enough mental bandwidth to keep our minds from wandering from the job at hand. One study found that people who were directed to doodle while carrying out a boring listening task remembered 29 percent more information than people who did not doodle, likely because the latter group had let their attention slip away entirely. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxmq5aa0z1qase49yzm33gxd)) ^dcl2h5 - 💭 how does music compare to physical fidgeting? because it's like how people who listen to breakcore say that when they listen their mind can actually focus and be clear, probably because they have that stimulation they want ### New highlights added May 14, 2024 at 1:47 PM the transition to a faster walk brings about a sharp deterioration in my ability to think coherently. As I speed up, my attention is drawn with increasing frequency to the experience of walking and to the deliberate maintenance of the faster pace. My ability to bring a train of thought to a conclusion is impaired accordingly. At the highest speed I can sustain on the hills, about 14 minutes for a mile, I do not even try to think of anything else.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwa8v1ef5x3xjznedz61daz)) ^ix0sxc Kahneman’s careful self-observations are backed up by empirical research. **Moderate-intensity exercise, practiced for a moderate length of time, improves our ability to think both during and immediately after the activity**. The positive changes documented by scientists **include an increase in the capacity to focus attention and resist distraction; greater verbal fluency and cognitive flexibility; enhanced problem-solving and decision-making abilities; and increased working memory, as well as more durable long-term memory for what is learned**. The proposed mechanisms by which these changes occur include heightened arousal (as Kahneman speculated), increased blood flow to the brain, and the release of a number of neurochemicals, which **increase the efficiency of information transmission in the brain and which promote the growth of neurons, or brain cells**. The beneficial mental effects of moderately intense activity have been shown to last for **as long as two hours after exercise ends**. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwa9xyf5q66d0wfajs6fj4e)) ^k5lom6 - 💭 further direction on the ideal for fitness we should be figuring out how to incorporate bursts of physical activity into the work day and the school day—which means rethinking how we approach our breaks. Lunch breaks, coffee breaks, downtime between tasks or meetings: all become occasions to use exercise to maneuver our brains into an optimally functioning state. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwacn3n3kh9h17y8cy82t8j)) scientists draw what they call an “inverted U-shaped curve” to describe the relationship between exercise intensity and cognitive function, with the greatest benefits for thinking detected in the moderate-intensity middle part of the hump. On the right downward slope of the curve, where high-intensity activity is charted, control over cognition does indeed start to slacken—but this is not always a bad thing. Very intense exercise, extended over a relatively long period, can induce a kind of altered state conducive to creative thought. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwaeqrbmxnd28xe063qj9n5)) ^f7pceq What exactly do I think about when I’m running?” Not much, he concludes. That’s kind of the point. “As I run, I don’t think much of anything worth mentioning. I just run. I run in a void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to *acquire* a void.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwag3kr3jy9xee0zcapsexs)) ^wyosuq Scientists have a term for the “void” Murakami describes: “transient hypofrontality.” *Hypo* means low or diminished, and *frontality* refers to the frontal region of the brain—the part that plans, analyzes, and critiques, and that usually maintains firm control over our thoughts and behavior. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwagqk1dgeqfkvjd467kqfa)) ^g7yq0x - 💭 sounds like diffused thinking In addition, movements engage a process called *procedural memory* (memory of how to do something, such as how to ride a bike) that is distinct from *declarative memory* (memory of informational content, such as the text of a speech). When we connect movement with information, we activate both types of memory, and our recall is more accurate as a result—a phenomenon that researchers call the “enactment effect.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwaksn7akhkfx9tj6qygct4)) ^roav2s - 💭 reminds me of propositional and procedural knowing, ties into benefit of a constraints led approach Actors’ mental feats of memory, the Noices have concluded, are intimately connected to the movements they make with their bodies. In the course of their research, many actors commented that they never tried to learn their lines until a play had been “blocked” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwanka8ewr9f7k20r05tah6)) The difference such minimal instruction made in participants’ ability to recall information, they noted, was “striking”: students who incorporated movement into their learning strategy remembered 76 percent of the material, while those who engaged in “deliberate memorization” recalled only 37 percent. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwas5vtkvpamjxbh9trgna7)) ^8279gc The research on using movement to enhance thinking identifies four types of helpful motion: congruent movements, novel movements, self-referential movements, and metaphorical movements. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwbaa7kmfbq2rp27nxkhvpq)) ^qsdhbq movements, express in physical form the content of a thought. With the motions of our bodies, we enact the meaning of a fact or concept. Congruent movements are an effective way to reinforce still tentative or emerging knowledge by introducing a corporeal component into the process of understanding and remembering. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwbapy88jawerqpx3xb14r1)) - 💭 number line example for math since we biologically are sensors (note), biologically beneficial for abstraction ^cfpu59 Another kind of physical action capable of advancing our thinking is *novel* movements: movements that introduce us to an abstract concept via a bodily experience we haven’t had before. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwbg1x89chxgb34sehhqf6e)) ^del3kd The conventional, and widely ineffective, approach to teaching physics is based on a brainbound model of cognition: individuals are expected, like computers, to solve problems by applying a set of abstract rules. Yet the fact is that—very *unlike* computers—humans solve problems most effectively by imagining themselves into a given scenario, a project that is made easier if the human in question has had a previous physical encounter on which to base her mental projections. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwbkn845xvrajkj2pnp0xha)) ^l1dhjj - 💭 reminds me of project based learning QWEQWE 1 ANOTHER TYPE of motion with the capacity to improve the way we think is *self-referential movements:* movements in which we bring ourselves—in particular, our bodies—into the intellectual enterprise. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwbms97tgmmz3f3ntw2shgt)) - 💭 trying to bring in empathy to inanimate concepts - einstein and light, polio vaccine Simply moving the body through space is itself a loose kind of metaphor for creativity—for new angles and unexpected vistas, for fluid thinking and dynamic change. The activation of this metaphor may help account for the finding that people are more creative during and after walking than when they are sitting still. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwbxmzmgx10tc09c9zvkjdy)) ^ydp0bv - 💭 so theres a biological but also a mental reason for creativity while walking? Jean Clarke, a professor of entrepreneurship and organization at Emlyon Business School in France, has spent years watching entrepreneurs like Gabriel Hercule make their case at demo days, incubators, and investment forums across Europe. In a study published in 2019, she and her colleagues reported that company founders who deployed “the skilled use of gesture” in their pitches were 12 percent more likely to attract funding for their new ventures. Such adept use of movement includes the presentation of “symbolic gestures”—movements that capture the overall meaning of the speaker’s message—along with what are called “beat gestures”: hand motions that serve to punctuate a particular point. When Hercule repeatedly pointed to his eyes and then to the view before him, he was making a symbolic gesture (*eyes on the road*); when he formed his fingers into a pincer, or jabbed at the air with his fist, he was emphasizing his contentions with beat gestures. Skilled gesturers don’t leave this important element of their delivery to chance, Clarke notes; they practice the movements they intend to make just as they rehearse the words they plan to say. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwc656hs8fpjzcehx3ws80c)) ^ius0pp - 💭 something im now capable of doing with my new 3d model :o Such sequences suggest the startling notion that our hands “know” what we’re going to say before our conscious minds do, and in fact this is often the case. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hxwcahnwq4g9x79c5jw7c18x)) ^yinrov ### New highlights added June 18, 2024 at 4:20 PM When speech and gesture are both correct and congruent, it’s a given that the speaker has mastered the material. When speech and gestures match but both are wrong, we can assume that the speaker is still far from “getting it.” But when there’s a *mismatch* between speech and gesture—when a person says one thing but does something else with her hands—then that individual can be said to be in a “transitional state,” moving from the incorrect notion she’s expressing in words to the correct one she is expressing in gesture. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j0pddh1tx9wkfrdzz9zmn4rk)) ^ik2tle As our comprehension deepens, our language becomes more precise and our movements become more defined. Gestures are less frequent, and more coordinated in meaning and timing with the words we say. Our hand motions are now more oriented toward communicating with others and less about scaffolding our own thinking. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j0pdg6x1fkr2v7mw0rb2xh0a)) ^71g6ur - 💭 i wonder how this can be improved for my vtuber plans Though these experts surely have the words to express their meaning, still they rely on their hands to do much of the work. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j0pdmefgvszyhg4g74s6d16y)) - 💭 body is an extension of expressing our ideas, and also ourselves? Research shows that moving our hands advances our understanding of abstract or complex concepts, reduces our cognitive load, and improves our memory. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j0pdqw0qwvn1251kr5rzckg7)) ^y245j6 - 💭 I wonder if we can use a note taking app and visual diagrams as an alternative medium for tinkering and expression, are there something more powerful from tools innately part of us A number of studies have demonstrated that instructional videos that include gesture produce significantly more learning for the people who watch them: viewers direct their gaze more efficiently, pay more attention to essential information, and more readily transfer what they have learned to new situations. Videos that incorporate gesture seem to be especially helpful for those who begin with relatively little knowledge of the concept being covered; for all learners, the beneficial effect of gesture appears to be even stronger for video instruction than for live, in-person instruction. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j0pdtzec15mqh5mpw8rw5j7g)) ^tqlu8z - 💭 same point as earlier, is it just the extension beyond verbal or is there something more significant about the body since it's something we all share and can feel or imagine useful when finding my educational YouTuber stuff Research suggests that making these motions will improve our own performance: people who gesture as they teach on video, it’s been found, speak more fluently and articulately, make fewer mistakes, and present information in a more logical and intelligible fashion. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j0pdxr07z6gv5ccz1ftwee7s)) ^9hh9zr With his colleagues in the University of Victoria physics department, he has developed a set of visual depictions and concrete models that the physics professors now use to encourage gesture production in class. When standing next to such objects, students can simply point to parts or processes that they can’t yet fully describe or explain, allowing them to engage in “more mature physics talk” than would otherwise be possible at this early stage of their studies. The use of gesture supplies a temporary scaffold that supports these undergraduates’ still wobbly understanding of the subject as they fix their knowledge more firmly in place. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j0pe1xerdffkwtdvd64dr5m8)) - 💭 just like having a map of the content and ideas you're learning about, having this visual space to point out beyond your logical comprehension can be beneficial ### New highlights added June 23, 2024 at 5:04 PM Gregory Bratman, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, asked study participants to undergo a brain scan and to complete a measure of ruminative thinking before taking a ninety-minute walk outside. Half the participants strolled through a quiet, leafy natural area; the other half walked alongside a busy roadway. Upon returning to the lab, all the participants took the ruminative thinking measure and had their brains scanned for a second time. People who’d spent the previous hour and a half in nature had become less preoccupied by the negative aspects of their lives; in addition, an area of the brain associated with rumination, the subgenual prefrontal cortex, was less active than before the nature walk. The people who had walked alongside a busy roadway gained no such relief. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j13c8nbb4hn1r6axxx253raz)) ^1hem9t - 💭 its more than just going outside, the type also matters significantly research has shown that a walk in nature lifts the mood of people diagnosed with depression. It also improves their memory. The obsessive cycling through negative thoughts that many depressed people experience consumes a significant portion of their mental resources, adversely affecting their ability to recall important information—a deficit that time in nature helps ameliorate. Yet another way that nature helps us think better is by enhancing our ability to maintain our focus on the task in front of us. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j13c9fk6vvhyejwvdzn29bgn)) - 💭 and apparently this is due to our historical familiarity with nature? Indeed, Taylor and Kuo point out, a twenty-minute walk in a park improved children’s concentration and impulse control as much as a dose of an ADHD drug like Ritalin. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j13cd5bpmj5bhbxnhhbk2990)) ^jqexut Natural landscapes, they have found, feature less variation in hue than urban settings (that is, their colors range from green to yellow to brown to more green) and more “color saturation,” or pure, undiluted color. Natural environs also present the eye with fewer straight lines, and more curving shapes, than do urban ones. Finally, unlike man-made designs, in which edges tend to be spaced apart (think of a row of windows on the face of an office building), in natural vistas, edges tend to cluster densely together (picture the overlapping edges of a tree’s many leaves). ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j13cj39aad5dcygp892ace8m)) ^w4zgvv ### New highlights added June 25, 2024 at 2:24 PM research shows that people who experience natural light during the day sleep better, feel more energetic, and are more physically active; one study found that employees exposed to daylight through windows in their offices sleep an average of forty-six minutes more per night than workers who labor in windowless spaces. The technology giant Google has determined that employees who have desks positioned near windows report being more creative and productive than do workers located farther away from sources of natural light. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j18kd8wcam49vp381zhftr39)) ^ab3tr1 Even a brief glance out the window can make a difference in our mental capacity. Researchers from the University of Melbourne in Australia found that a forty-second “micro-break” spent looking out at a roof covered with flowering meadow plants led study participants to perform better on a cognitive test than did an equally short break spent looking at a bare concrete expanse. Participants who gazed at the green roof were more alert, made fewer errors, and were more in control of their attention. We can seek out such “microrestorative opportunities” throughout the day, replenishing our mental resources ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j18khef42xfp9bg20q260zvv)) ^x5anjn - 💭 how can this be facilitated with virtual environments? or is that not possible this network is activated, we enter a loose associative state in which we’re not focused on any one particular task but are receptive to unexpected connections and insights. In nature, few decisions and choices are demanded of us, granting our minds the freedom to follow our thoughts wherever they lead. At the same time, nature is pleasantly diverting, in a fashion that lifts our mood without occupying all our mental powers; such positive emotion in turn leads us to think more expansively and open-mindedly. **In the space that is thus made available, currently active thoughts can mingle with the deep stores of memories, emotions, and ideas already present in the brain, generating inspired collisions.** ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j18kp712sb250y8ahmy6yj6c)) ^ldrkiy The experience of awe, Keltner and other researchers have found, prompts a predictable series of psychological changes. We become less reliant on preconceived notions and stereotypes. We become more curious and open-minded. And we become more willing to revise and update our mental “schemas”: the templates we use to understand ourselves and the world. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j18krv06whzr37vd2e94bh5w)) ^wgm2zq - 💭 The key to getting students interested and open to learning new things is by incorporating awe. ### New highlights added June 27, 2024 at 2:52 PM One recent study, conducted in a British government agency that switched from enclosed offices to an open-plan workspace, found that the heightened imperative to engage in self-presentation in such settings fell most heavily on women, for whom appearance is considered especially important.) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1dt4v5m3p4zp4nfxphaap9r)) ^tqip9h When we’re on our home turf, Meagher has found, our mental and perceptual processes operate more efficiently, with less need for effortful self-control. The mind works better because it doesn’t do all the work on its own; it gets an assist from the structure embedded in its environment, structure that marshals useful information, supports effective habits and routines, and restrains unproductive impulses. In a familiar space over which we feel ownership, he suggests, “our cognition is distributed across the entire setting.” The place itself helps us think. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1dt99xvc1aw1j37c9s6x8w7)) ^ktm0la ### New highlights added June 27, 2024 at 4:31 PM Cheryan and others are now exploring how to create a sense of ambient belonging in online “spaces,” an example of extending technology with what we know to be true about physical spaces in the offline world. As is the case in “real life,” research finds that members of historically stigmatized groups are especially attuned to cues of exclusion that appear on digital platforms, such as online courses. And just as in non-digital realms, these signals of non-belonging can negatively affect their levels of interest, and their expectations of success, in subjects like computer science, as well as influencing how actively they engage these topics. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1dvmxcck3571g8swqsv2vaq)) ^uwlgpq - 💭 interest for cs dropped when women were in a non stereotypical cs room what i want to achieve with my vtuber brand Research has revealed that the *act* of creating a concept map, on its own, generates a number of cognitive benefits. It forces us to reflect on what we know, and to organize it into a coherent structure. As we construct the concept map, the process may reveal gaps in our understanding of which we were previously unaware. And, having gone through the process of concept mapping, we remember the material better—because we have thought deeply about its meaning. Once the concept map is completed, the knowledge that usually resides inside the head is made visible. By inspecting the map, we’re better able to see the big picture, and to resist becoming distracted by individual details. We can also more readily perceive how the different parts of a complex whole are related to one another. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1dwb0mcmng48576dc0946ev)) ^od2nx5 - 💭 concise list of benefits for linked notes Our built-in “embodied resources” also include our *spatial memory*: our robust capacity, exploited by the method of loci, to remember where things are. This ability is often “wasted,” as Ball would have it, by conventional computer technology: on small displays, information is contained within windows that are, of necessity, stacked on top of one another or moved around on the screen, interfering with our ability to relate to that information in terms of where it is located. By contrast, large displays, or multiple displays, offer enough space to lay out all the data in an arrangement that persists over time, allowing us to leverage our spatial memory as we navigate through that information. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1dwgrkejem5m60wxc5c3qq0)) ^307j5q - 💭 I never made the connection of your thinking being enhanced because of this persistent environmental structure Researchers from the University of Virginia and from Carnegie Mellon University reported that study participants were able to recall 56 percent more information when it was presented to them on multiple monitors rather than on a single screen. The multiple monitor setup induced the participants to orient their own bodies toward the information they sought—rotating their torsos, turning their heads—thereby generating memory-enhancing mental tags as to the information’s spatial location. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1dwhk9mw5heryyfn3mxcx2b)) ^zvo5gi - 💭 wow this feels so relevant to ecological psychology ### New highlights added June 28, 2024 at 4:27 PM The final step of Watson and Crick’s long journey of discovery demonstrates the value of what psychologists call *interactivity:* the physical manipulation of tactile objects as an aid to solving abstract problems. The fact that Watson had to make his models himself is telling. Outside the architect’s studio—or the kindergarten classroom—interactivity is not widely employed; our assumption that the brain operates like a computer has led us to believe that we need only input the necessary information in order to generate the correct solution. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1gd3gqdtqr7x6qcw1w1cgvb)) - 💭 this is why tools for thought is so important, bettermental scaffolding through the playground of your ideas The course was reorganized around making the internal thought processes of computer scientists “visible” to students—as visible as a carpenter fitting a joint or a tailor cutting a bolt of cloth. This is what’s known as a *cognitive apprenticeship,* a term coined by Allan Collins, now a professor emeritus of education at Northwestern University. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1gd9svq74tk1wx5yd2pstx4)) ^q10z34 Collins and his coauthors identified four features of apprenticeship that could be adapted to the demands of knowledge work: *modeling,* or demonstrating the task while explaining it aloud; *scaffolding,* or structuring an opportunity for the learner to try the task herself; *fading,* or gradually withdrawing guidance as the learner becomes more proficient; and *coaching,* or helping the learner through difficulties along the way. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1gdabg1ea6r62gjytn2t4sv)) ^wn31u5 - 💭 ideas on how to better show though process Far better than being first, Tellis and Golder concluded, is being what some have called a “fast second”: an agile imitator. Companies that capitalize on others’ innovations have “a minimal failure rate” and “an average market share almost three times that of market pioneers,” they found. In this category they include Timex, Gillette, and Ford, firms that are often recalled—wrongly—as being first in their field. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1gdt8aw65rfwfwqpzsgpn79)) ^r2ge6y - 💭 The unfortunate truth about playing the YouTube copycat game Shenkar would like to see students in business schools and other graduate programs taking courses on effective imitation. He imagines companies opening “imitation departments,” devoted to identifying promising opportunities for copying. And he anticipates a day when successful imitators are celebrated and admired just as much as innovators are now. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1ge0nwgsn6e1462crcn4ndy)) ^549llx - 💭 in terms of getting results yes, but I think my problem with this perspective is if they use results are more selfish It's not about the unique discovery, it's about being unique in application and connections through mixed imitation? Kenneth Koedinger, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the director of its Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, estimates that experts are able to articulate only about 30 percent of what they know. His conclusion is based on research like the following: A study that asked expert trauma surgeons to describe how they insert a shunt into the femoral artery (the large blood vessel in the upper leg) reported that the surgeons neglected to cite nearly 70 percent of the actions they performed during the procedure. A study of expert experimental psychologists found that they omitted or inaccurately characterized an average of 75 percent of the steps they took when designing experiments and analyzing data. And a study of expert computer programmers revealed that they enumerated fewer than half of the tasks they actually carried out when debugging a computer program. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1gedq9scjg99bq6gzhz3r7j)) ^yxt6sy “re-enactive empathy”: an appreciation of the challenges confronting the novice that is produced by reenacting what it was like to have once been a beginner oneself. Ting Zhang, an assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, found a clever way to stage such a reenactment among expert musicians. For her experiment, Zhang enlisted a group of experienced guitarists to play their instruments; half of them were asked to play as they normally would, while the other half were instructed to reverse the position of their instrument and play it with their non-dominant hand. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1gefavzjbng9fv8exhevtz4)) ^3en7zu - 💭 change up the environment in the organism environment relationship But research shows that the expertise of experienced practitioners can be made more accessible by deliberately exaggerating it, even distorting it, such that the pertinent elements “pop out” for the novice as they do for the expert. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1gepphfat5raw6whc3wxtgw)) ^vmculo - 💭 this is what you should facilitate when creating experiences to help people improve their cognition? point out + rationale ? fundamentals of essay paragraph? These strategies—breaking down agglomerated steps, exaggerating salient features, supplying categories based on function—help pry open the black box of experts’ automatized knowledge and skill. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1gevkvtxm9x4gk7ktndaazq)) - 💭 can be a complimented with the see part of get better at anything feedback loop Tracking the intellectual advancement of several hundred graduate students in the sciences over the course of four years, its authors found that the development of crucial skills such as generating hypotheses, designing experiments, and analyzing data was closely related to the students’ engagement with their peers in the lab, and *not* to the guidance they received from their faculty mentors. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1gf17x9t8816re8hnherjqe)) ^r2c6tc - 💭 community aspect to any learning experience The areas of the brain involved in generating a “theory of mind”—inferring the mental state of another individual—were active in competing with a human but dormant in matching wits with a machine. In a sense, it was not the “same game” at all; play against a human partner produced a distinctively different pattern of brain activity. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1gf69r6664qn8waqdkbya3t)) ^0pyvg0 - 💭 maybe ai can't be the best intellectual sparring partner if the humanity of the interaction is a fundamental part of the subject? When directing the tutee to the most important aspects of the subject, and drawing connections among these features, the tutor is herself led to engage in a deeper level of mental processing. When fielding the pupil’s questions, and posing questions of her own, the tutor is obliged to adopt a “metacognitive” stance toward the material, consciously monitoring what her pupil knows and what she herself knows. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1gfgr0czk7wckceewvns3y9)) ^to4qlh - 💭 nuance for feynman technique a sense of social accountability to be more wise in your knowledge, as seen in my presentation for the knowledge accelerator ### New highlights added June 29, 2024 at 3:12 PM Hoogerheide theorizes that teaching on camera generates persuasive feelings of “social presence”—the sense that there is someone watching and listening. Explaining oneself while being recorded, he notes, measurably increases the explainers’ physiological arousal—a state that is associated with enhanced memory, attention, and alertness. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1jxqfnf7dbfc59kcnt6w7fe)) ^sx81np Both tendencies are fully predicted by the authors’ “argumentative theory of reasoning.” We have every incentive to closely examine the arguments of others—who might be out to exploit or manipulate us for their own ends—but few inducements to scrutinize the arguments we make ourselves. After all, being completely convinced of the merits of our case can only make us more credible to others. And expending a lot of effort on picking apart our own argument isn’t necessary, not when we can rely on our sparring partner to conduct the audit for us. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1jxxq0s3cjhycx7y3zz5jth)) ^m01l0f - 💭 why we are prone to internal bias but are critical of others Conflict creates uncertainty—who’s wrong? who’s right?—an ambiguity that we feel compelled to resolve by acquiring more facts. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1jy1arnpx3gz4e0qrgr7rvx)) ^s275zj - 💭 YouTube scriptwriting Research has found that we recall as much as 50 percent more information from stories than from expository passages. Why do stories exert these effects on us? One reason is that stories shape the way information is shared in cognitively congenial ways. The human brain has evolved to seek out evidence of causal relationships: *this* happened because of *that.* Stories are, by their nature, all about causal relationships; ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1jy5xvk6beagnynehzav0a3)) ^0qpjsu - 💭 why books like outliers are more fun and memorable What this individual is seeking is richly contextualized information, full of detail and nuance; what he’s looking for, in short, is a story. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1jyc3h8rhsj2b21s3wbf1b3)) ^f86xum - 💭 stories give nuance and context and can afford the description of rationale and implicit knowledge? Synchronization sweeps us up into what one researcher calls a “social eddy,” in which the press of our individual interests is diminished and the performance of the group becomes paramount. When we are carried along by the social eddy, cooperation with others feels smooth, almost effortless. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1jyz1a5aqbwaxcery28rj92)) - 💭 maybe this ties into body doubling and co-working? Aided by technology, we are creating individual, asynchronous, atomized experiences for students and employees—from personalized “playlists” of academic lessons to go-at-your-own-pace online training modules. Then we wonder why our groups don’t cohere, why group work is often frustrating and disappointing, and why thinking with groups doesn’t extend our intelligence. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1jz824wykq8ad426kfhne3w)) ^haxtl7 The ability to experience the world from a shared perspective is an evolved adaptation that grants humans an unequalled capacity for coordinating thought and behavior with other members of their species. Shared attention, and the increased cognitive resources devoted to information that is mutually attended to, produces greater overlap in group members’ “mental models” of a problem, and therefore smoother cooperation while solving it. It is, in a sense, what makes all human achievements possible ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1jzebaq2rv1rkr9eengfqd7)) ^fpc7mu More of these “moments of joint attention” are associated with more successful outcomes. Research suggests that the ability to coordinate such moments can be acquired with practice. One study of physician teams performing surgery on a simulator found that the gaze of experienced surgeons overlapped at a rate of about 70 percent, while the gaze of novices overlapped only about 30 percent of the time. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1jzfbqga2n4qqn5gbp0jfke)) ^pou35v Intelligence is not “a fixed lump of something that’s in our heads,” he explains. Rather, “it’s a transaction”: a fluid interaction among our brains, our bodies, our spaces, and our relationships. The capacity to think intelligently emerges from the skillful orchestration of these internal and external elements. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j1k0rmn9tcypb4efxe2fyas7)) ^f2zaaa - 💭 succinct definition ### New highlights added September 4, 2024 at 5:24 PM “Instead, what is often critical for success is mastery of the tacit knowledge of the organization—the complex, often subtle interpretive knowledge that is difficult to capture or write down.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01j5h7t5dtevejs0d9h7etk7p3))