[MUSIC] I'm Barbara Oakley. >> And I'm Terry Sejnowski.

Welcome to Mindshift. >> We created the MOOC: Learning How

to Learn which to our surprise became the world's
largest and most popular MOOC, to give you the specifics about
how to learn more effectively. In this MOOC,
were going to growth is even bigger, so you can learn not only
more
effectively but more broadly. In other words, we will help you
to develop a learning lifestyle. >> Who you are today, is not
the same
person who went to sleep last night. We now know,
that your experiences during the day are integrated into your
brain
circuits while you are asleep. So, that you wake up in the
morning,
your brain is updated. You can take advantage of this to
become a
different person than you were last week, or last month, or last
year
because you brain is different and you can guide the process.
>> To begin with, I'm going to tell you about one of
the worst things that's ever happen to me. Something that
cause one of my
biggest most embarrassing failures. [SOUND]. Yes, everybody,
including me,
has failures and false starts. Now, you may know that I
basically
flunked my way through elementary, middle and High school
Math and Science. When I was young,
the only thing I thought I could do. The only thing I was
interested in
was trying to learn a new language. Any new language since
what I spoke was English. If you speak English as an additional
language you are so lucky. So, that's why I enlisted in
the army right out of High school, because the military would
actually
pay me to learn a new language. Although, I wasn't a Russian
heritage, I decided to learn Russian,
and I did learn Russian. The army even gave me a scholarship,
and I got my first degree, a bachelors degree in slavic
languages and
literature. I was all set, as a language expert I
expected to go into military intelligence. To use my skills, that
was pretty much the only place
my new language skills could be used. Didn't happen, it like.
Really didn't happen,
they only put me into the signal core. That meant, that I would
be responsible for all sorts
of electrical communication systems. From cables, and
telephones,
to advanced electrical switching systems. I was horrified. And it
wasn't like I was some kind
of brilliant, intellectual superstar who turned it all around and
charge
the head to immediately excel anyway. In fact, I graduated last
in my class
in signal officer training school. I didn't even know what a volt
was,
much less than how a telephone worked. Here I was stalking a
field I hated,
doing a job I couldn't really understand. I was so terrible at my
job,
that we all eventually agreed that I should move into
something far less technical. Those four years as a military
officer were very difficult. I was lonely, stationed thousands
of miles from my home and family. And well, I was a failure.
What's funny about this, is that it's actually one of the best
things that's ever happened to me. Believe it or not, I'm now a
professor
of engineering and I love my job. about
some of the changes I've experienced. And inspirational and
insightful stories
of other people's growth and change. But, we're also going to
be
exploring what science is telling us about how we can change.
This course is about how you can do and
be much more than you ever might think. It's about how you
can grow
from failure to success. It's about how you can
broaden your horizons and be more than you ever thought you
could
be, no matter what your age, or your past. It's about how you'll
feel better and be
healthier because of a learning lifestyle. And, it's about how to
look around you,
at what you're learning, in your place, in what's unfolding in
the society around you. So you can be what you want to be,
given the real world constraints
that life puts on us all. No, this isn't a course based on magic,
where we promise to somehow turn you into a genius and make
all your
wishes for learning and careers come true. But you'll see,
that by using certain mental tricks and insights you can often
learn more and
do more. Far more than you might ever dreamed, we'll talk
about what science tells
us about how we learn and change. We'll build on what you
already
know to take your lives learning fantastic new directions. You
might think, well,
I've taken aptitude tests. The experts are telling me
what I should be doing. And besides,
I can feel inside what I'm good at. But remember, all those
aptitude tests and internal feeling are just reflections
of what you're good at right now. They don't give you a clue
about how you can shift and shifting your thinking, mind shift
is what this course is all about. Are you ready? Lets get started.
[MUSIC]

[MUSIC] Have you ever watch as the teacher

would ask the question in class and then before you could even
understand
what the question was about, some student already had their
hand in the air with the answer. Some people just plain seem
to have race car brains. They get to the finish line,
they answer really, really fast. Other people like me have what
you might call hike brains. They get to the finish line but
because
they're walking, they get there much, much more slowly. With
the race car driver, they do get
to the finish line a lot faster, but everything goes by in a rush.
[NOISE] They're also on a set,
smooth roadway. They know exactly were they're going. A hiker
on the other hand, moves slowly. But while they're hiking,
they can reach out. They can touch the leaves on the trees,
smell the air, hear the birds. And they can easily veer
off the expected path into places where people
don't normally go. The race car brain and the hiker brain, in
other words have two
completely different experiences. And even though the hiker
brain may
move much more slowly sometimes, because of how it works
it can see more deeply. My hero in science is a man
named Santiago Ramon y Cajal. Ramon y Cajal won the Nobel
Prize in 1906,
for his pioneering work in helping us understand
the structure of the nervous system. Ramon y Cajal is
considered
the father of modern neuroscience. But here is where it
gets really interesting, Ramon y Cajal was not a genius. He said
so himself and
he wasn't just being humble. However, Ramon y Cajal
worked with geniuses. He found they often
shared similar problems. For example, these geniuses with their
race car brains [NOISE] were used to jumping ahead to speedy
conclusions. And when they were incorrect,
they weren't use to changing their minds. So they keep
charging ahead with
the incorrect conclusion they jumped to, they're super fast
brains could
easily device justification. Because they won't really looking
to prove themselves wrong. Ramon y Cajal himself though had
a persistent hiker type brain. He'd come up with a hypothesis
and
then he'd persistently check it out in a way that
would reveal whether he was wrong. Instead of just trying to
prove that he was right. If he was wrong, he changed his mind
and
flexibly try again. So was his persistence and
his flexibility in the face of what the was truly telling him that
made him superstar researcher. It wasn't his genius. This kind
of phenomena is seen
in many different fields. For example, super smart people don't
make very good hostage negotiators. Why? Because they go
into the hostage situation
with their own preconceived notions, which are sometimes
dead wrong. And then when critical
information does reveal itself, they can't flexibly change their
mind and
take advantage of that information. So if you have a race
car brain just be aware, one of your biggest assets can become
your biggest liability if you get too used to thinking you're
always right, and
that you're the smartest person around. And if you have a hiker
type
brain rejoice, there's much for you to contribute in
the world with your slow. Sometimes very unexpected
way of approaching things.

[MUSIC] The Fengjia Night Market in Taichung,

Taiwan is really famous. They have just about
everything you could imagine. One evening,
you could have also found me there. I ended up at the stall that
sold
something called stinky tofu. I mean, stinky tofu is really stinky.
The reality is, though, it tastes pretty
good, kind of like a strong cheese. The thing is, you watching
me tell
you about stinky tofu is very different from you actually going
to the
famed Fengjia night market yourself and tasting stinky tofu. It's
only when you actively
do something yourself that you're learning really sticks. Trust
me, never forget about stinky tofu. You might think that taking
an active
approach to learning is totally obvious. But not only do students
often not get this. Even professional teachers and professors
themselves often don't get this. Although it goes right to the
heart of how
we can most effectively learn and change. It's easy even for
someone like me
who knows better to sometimes take the easier path and avoid
being
active in what I'm trying to learn. Active learning applies to any
kind of
learning, whether it's learning about stinky tofu, leaning how to
speak French,
or learning to play the piano. It also applies to learning in math
and
science. This paper right here gathered together
the results of some 200 studies on active learning in science
technology,
engineering, and math programs. Turns out that one in three
people
drop out of these kinds of courses if their taught in the
traditional way with the professor drowning away
in the front of the classroom. But only one in five students
drops from their course if it's taught with a professor
using active learning, where the students get to actively
work the problems themselves. In other words, the best
teachers
build breaks into their lectures so that students can actively
work with the materials. Now, if you're a professor or teacher,
and you think well,
there's just no time for this. Just remember that speaking fast
and
covering a lot of material doesn't mean that the students
are actually learning the material. There are guidelines that can
help you cover the material even while your students are
actively
learning in your classroom. I once had a student who is flanking
my engineering statistics class. When I questioned him about it,
he said
it was because his English was bad. He spoke English as
an additional language. But actually his English was great. It
turned out that he just
wasn't taking the time to actively work through
the problems himself. He was fooling himself. Looking at worked
out solutions
right in front of him and thinking he knew how
to solve them himself. He also wasn't working
actively with his team. Once we corrected that problem,
and he started working actively, with the problems himself,
checking them
with others, he began to do much better. As one of the artist for
this MOOC
told me, only watching tutorials and avoiding the actual
practice is
a big problem with art students who are trying to teach
themselves. As another example, let's look at how I helped to
construct
the MOOC, Learning How to Learn. I'd never done any camera
work or
editing before. I watched YouTube clips to
learn how to edit videos and that helped me to get started. But
it was only when I started actively
editing videos myself in conjunction with watching the YouTube
instructions,
that it really began to stick. One trick I've learned as a teacher
is
to deliberately put my hands behind my back when I'm trying
to
show something to students. It helps keep me from reaching
out and doing whatever I'm trying
to ask the student to do. For example, it's always tempting for
me
to write an equation or adjust the setting myself, because I
already know it,
and I can do it much more quickly. I even does this hands
behind the back
technique as a mom and as a grandma. So as a learner,
if someone tries to show you by writing or doing it themselves,
try to gently push
them away so that you are doing it. More generally do your
best to take charge
of whatever you're learning about to put a pen or pencil to
paper to take quizzes,
to do assignments, get your hands on it. So you can actively
master
the material yourself. Be an active group member
in collaborative testing or any group project or assignment. In
other words, test, test, test yourself all the time on
anything you really want to learn. If the books just open
there in front of you or the video is just played right before you,
you think you know it, but you don't. Only when you close the
book or
turn away from the video and test yourself by seeing if you can
do it yourself,
do you really know that you know it. No, here comes the fade to
white,
you know what's coming. Okay, that in video quiz
question was totally easy. But we put it there just because it
helps reinforce a vital point and start an effective study
habit in this MOOC. Actually, good quiz questions
can be super helpful for tamping down your knowledge,
which is why it helps to take quizzes. If you have one hour of
studying
versus one hour of taking a test, you'll actually learn far more
when
taking the test, even if you don't get the answers to the test,
and even if you
fail the test and don't know the answers. Well, at least then you
know exactly what
questions you want to find the answers to the next time you sit
down to study. You can't actively do everything
in every course all the time. From time to time, all of us
especially me [SOUND]
are distracted by our wondering minds. [SOUND] But the more
you make use of
active learning about the key aspects of a material, the better
your ability to
change your thinking to make a MindShift. It can take more
effort to learn actively,
so do not be surprised if your brain sometimes finds excuses
to shy away from active learning. Incidentally, working with
others
is another way of grappling actively with the material, so that's
why it can be so helpful
to interact on the discussion forms. In fact, talking with others
is probably more pleasant than any other
kind of active learning. Anyway, all of these is what,
it's really important for you to actively work through
the exercises we're suggesting. And sometimes to interact with
others
to get the most out of this course, or to get the most of any
subject
you're trying to master. Incidentally, looks like this
one can be better than just watching a television show about
what you're trying to learn. That's because MOOCs give you
the opportunity to actively practice with the material, and
interact with others,
as well as just listen to your professor. So remember, in this
course,
and every subject or area where you really want to master the
material, keep yourself working actively. I'm Barbara Oakley.
Happy MindShift.
[MUSIC] Thomas Kuhn was a detective. He wasn't your ordinary
detective. For one thing, he'd gotten his doctorate
in physics from Harvard University. For another,
after he'd gotten his doctorate, he'd done a major mind shift
and
morphed to become a historian of science. He held
professorships at
the University of California, Berkeley. Then at Princeton, and
finally at MIT. Kuhn was interested in the process
of how science unfolds. Is it just a steady
accumulation of bit and pieces that gradually build our
understanding of the real world? Or, is it more punctuated? A
breakthrough here, a breakthrough there? Interestingly, Kuhn
found there's
a lot of what's called normal science. Normal science takes an
idea or
approach and fleshes it out to build
our knowledge base. Normal science is like pottering along
with Isaac Newton's theories about how the universe works. Or
with the idea that stress
causes gastric ulcers. An idea that virtually every scientist
working in the field took for granted. But every once and a
while, what can
be called a paradigm shift happens. Basically someone takes
the same
information that everyone else sees, sort of like seeing a duck.
See the beak right here? And they interpret it,
they see it in a completely different way. They suddenly see, for
example,
that the duck can also be a rabbit. See how the rabbit ears
point upwards? So as science unfolds,
there are periods of normal science. Expanding the knowledge
base
using normal methodology. Physicists might use Newton's laws
to
calculate the motion of the planets. Scientists might work to
have a better
understanding of the acidic environment of the stomach.
Knowledge expands out in the usual
way as scientists do their work. But, as science is marching
placidly along someone comes along who's able to
see things in a brand new way. A paradigm shift. For example,
Einstein was able to see
through the usual Newtonian physics, to view the universe in a
different,
more relativistic way. And Nobel Prize winner Barry Marshall
famously gave himself an ulcer, along with some very bad
breath, by drinking a concoction of
the bacteria Helicobacter pylori. So that he could convince his
critics
that it was bacteria, not stress, that was the primary cause of
ulcers. So indeed, the scientific process
unfolds with punctuations. Periods of normal science that are
then
interrupted by a paradigm shift which shapes how normal
science continues to
unfold, until the next paradigm shift. And so on. Paradigm shifts
allows us to have enormous new gains in our creative
understanding of the world. So what kind of people
make paradigm shifts? Those kinds of mind shifts that allowed
them to see the world around them in new ways? Kuhn found
that there were
two types of mind shifters. One type was young people,
people who hadn't yet been indoctrinated into seeing the world
in the same way that everybody else did. With their youthful
eyes,
they can see with fresh perspectives. Now, if you don't qualify
as a young
person, you're probably thinking, that knocks me out then! I'm
not in my teens or 20s,
so no breakthroughs for me. But hang on. There was a second
group of people. People who were older but who were just
as innovative as those young people. These were people who
had
switched disciplines or careers. It was the change in focus,
the career switch, that allowed the second older
group to see with fresh eyes. Often, it allowed them to bring
their seemingly unrelated prior knowledge to the table in new
ways that helped them to innovate. These insights from science
can also
help us understand creativity and innovation in our everyday
lives and
careers. Let's take me. In my late teens and
early 20s, I learned Russian. Then in my late 20s, I decided to
start learning math and science. You might think that my time
spent
learning Russian was a waste. It wouldn't help once I switched
my focus to engineering. But that's actually not at all true.
Learning Russian gave
me a lot of the insight about the learning process more
generally. And I found that learning
insight that I'd gained, transferred to help me be better
in learning math and science.
[MUSIC] The same repetition,
deliberate practice on the hard stuff, and flexible interleaving
that helped
me to successfully learn Russian. Also helped me to be
successful when
I started to begin to learn math and science. We see this
phenomenon
constantly in many fields. A background in sports can come
in handy in a marketing career. Insights from a former career
as an event planner can help you be a better software
programmer. A hobby playing action-style video games
can actually sharpen your mind and even your eyesight. Head
towards the discussion
forum after this video and tell others about the unexpected
assets you've brought into your work from your
past seemingly unconnected knowledge. Feel free to also tell
others
how you'd broken through initial feelings of incompetence on
your way to learning something new. As you post your own
thoughts, you'll
be surprised to find the fantastic and inspirational stories of
others. Old or young, you may feel like you have
a childlike incompetence when you're learning something new
or
you're changing disciplines or careers. This is very typical. But
keep in mind that the feelings
of incompetence will gradually pass. The creative power that
you can bring to the table because of your willingness
to change can be invaluable. It might even lead you to start
a paradigm shift of your own.
[MUSIC] I started to try to take physics in
my Senior year of high school, but I was flunking so badly,
they finally took me out of the class. I stayed away from
science and
math as much as I possibly could. Why would I punish myself
by trying to study subjects I obviously had no talent for? Of
course, the fact that I'm
now a professor of engineering tells you I was dead wrong
about
what I could develop a talent for. Some people do find some
subjects
easier to learn than others. But say, if your brother seems
naturally smarter than you at math, this doesn't mean you
can't
learn the subject yourself. In fact, you may actually sometimes
be
even more creative than your brother with math, because
you're using a different
set of neural circuits than he is. When we go through school, we
tend to focus on areas that
we're thought to be good at. If we happen to find math easy
and
English more difficult, for example, we'll tend to take more
math courses,
if we can, and take fewer English courses. After all, taking
English could
hurt our grade point average. And if we're better at English,
and not so good at math, we'll focus
on English courses and skip the math. This means we tend to
get more practice
at what we're already kind of good at, so we get even better at
it. But the flip side is, we don't get as
much practice in other areas and so we tend to lag behind in
them. And if we do go to college,
where we have to pick a major, this tendency is sharpened
even further. All this relates to a concept
called mastery learning. In old-fashioned instruction, the kind
you've probably experienced
in school, all the students in a class are given the same amount
of
instruction time to learn the material. In mastery learning, on
the other hand,
it's understood that different students may need different
amounts of instruction time and different amounts of practice
in order to master the material, even though they all eventually
do master the material. In fact, research is showing the value of
mastery learning, where you can retake quiz variants over and
over again, until
you feel comfortable with the material. You can re-watch
lectures if you need to,
or even get different
explanations of the material. This approach,
as researchers are discovering, is one of the best methods for
helping people to gain expertise, even with material they never
thought they could learn before. There's all sorts of evidence of
how, once
you begin practicing in some area, your brain starts to develop
the new neural
architecture that supports your learning. I once met a taxi
driver in London who'd
been a complete failure in high school. But he'd spent several
years studying for
the London taxi driver's examination, which is a very intense
test where thousands of different
routes must be internalized. After he passed, he began realizing
that his brain seemed different. He could focus and
concentrate more effectively. And indeed, research has shown
that by
studying for the London taxi driver test and then actually
practicing
his spatial abilities as a driver, this fellow was able to
fundamentally change his brain, increasing the size of his
hippocampus,
an important area in learning. What's great is that these
new forms of online learning, such as MOOCs like this one,
allow for mastery learning. In fact, you can actually even
flunk classes completely and still turn out to be a successful
learner. Pat Bowden, for example, is a retired
bank officer from Queensland, Australia. Her husband
mentioned MOOC-taking
as a hobby for her retirement. Pat saw it as a chance to learn
about and master subjects she hadn't been
able to study when she was younger. >> I've always been
interested in astronomy, so I decided to do an astronomy
MOOC. Soon we were into forces, gravity,
and sending rockets to Mars. By week two, I was lost. I hadn't
done any physics for
40 years and failed the course. But it didn't stop me. Instead of
complex calculations,
I let the heavy physics flow right past as I chose which videos
to
watch purely for interest. It was enlightening to realize I
didn't have to pass the course. I could still learn something
from it. Later I tried another astronomy course,
and then another, and yes, finally I passed. Sometimes, I take a
MOOC more than
once to consolidate my knowledge. Completing a course is very
fulfilling,
but no one else needs to know
if you give up on one. Taking notes really helps me understand
and get more out of a course. So far, I've completed 71 MOOCs,
and
failed or not finished about 15 more. >> And Do Edmond Sanou
is a third-year
statistics student from Burkina Faso. >> Online classes are
both interesting and
relaxing. I choose when I want to take classes. I can also replay
videos until
I understand the key ideas. I can't do that with my
teachers in a regular class. Online is the best way I
found to learn new skills. >> Overall, then,
it helps to remember that any kind of learning is a little
bit like learning to drive a car. You may not have the abilities
of Ayrton Senna, the brilliant Brazilian race car
driver who, after a lot of practice, became one of the greatest
Formula One drivers of all time. But that certainly doesn't
mean that you can't or shouldn't learn to drive if
you have the opportunity. Some people may take longer to
learn to drive than others. But most people, including me,
can learn to drive. And you can use those driving skills
to drive to some wonderful places. Learning is for everyone,
and online
learning makes some of the best approaches to learning, like
mastery learning,
much easier. [MUSIC]
[MUSIC] In our previous MOOC,
Learning How to Learn, we described the two very different
modes of operation of the brain. Focused and diffuse, focused,
if you'll
remember, is when you're concentrating. Diffuse is when you're
not thinking
about anything at all in particular. We used a pinball machine
metaphor to
explain these two different modes. In the focused mode, the
rubber bumpers
of the plane were closer together, while in the diffuse mode,
they were farther apart. Your thoughts could bounce further, by
analogy, this is why when you're focusing hard on a problem,
you sometimes get stuck
within the tight spaces of the bumpers. And you can't see
another,
better way to approach the problem. We also described the
importance of
developing a library of neural chunks. Well practiced, mental
patterns,
that you can easily draw into your mind. This is all part of the
process of
gaining expertise in a subject. Metaphors and
analogies can make learning super simple. Remember, these
metaphors and analogies often just serve to
give us a sense of key ideas. Whenever we've reached the
limits of
an analogy for helping us to understand something, we can
always just throw
that analogy away and pick up a new one. Of course, there's
often many different
analogies that we can use to explain any concept. So let's
review, while having a little
fun by describing the focus and diffuse modes using some
different analogies. It turns out that your brain puts
its energy, for the most part, into either the focus mode or
the diffuse mode. It can't be in both modes at same time,
not unless you're ingesting certain forms of mushrooms and
we're
certainly not suggesting you do that. Focused mode is what
happens
when you concentrate, it turns on virtually instantly. Diffuse
mode, on the other hand, is when
you're not concentrating on anything. Instead, it's when your
thoughts are moving randomly, like when you're sitting on a
bus,
standing in a shower or going for a walk. Diffuse mode kind of
sneaks up on you, you're often not aware of having
fallen into the diffuse mode. So, let's look a little more closely
at
what's going on in the focused versus the diffuse modes. Here's
a top scale view
looking down onto your brain, you can see the little ears right
here,
and the nose is on the top. And we know that the brain is
kind of like a set of networks, this is the focused mode network.
Look how small those little meshes are, these are sometimes
called
task positive networks. Because different parts of
the networks are activated depending on what task you're
working on. Multiplication say, versus conjugating a
verb in Spanish or kicking a soccer ball. What we call the
diffuse mode is
like a different set of networks, with much bigger measures.
Diffuse mode is actually a catchall
term that we use to signify any of the neural resting states. The
most prominent resting state,
incidentally, is called the default mode network. The thing
about the diffuse mode, is that
it helps us to make these intuitive leaps, connections between
new ideas you
didn't realize were connected. The diffuse mode has another
purpose
as well, it's the mode we fall in to when we're trying to
consolidate and
understand new information. We'll get to that in just a minute,
the diffuse mode only turns on when you aren't thinking
about anything in particular. So you can't just concentrate and
turn
it on like you can with the focus mode. But the relaxed, diffuse
mode, is the mode
that often does that background processing that helps us solve
difficult problems and
understand difficult concepts. This is why, when you're
concentrating
intently on something, and you find yourself getting really
frustrated, the best thing you can do is often to get your
concentration off
what you're trying to understand. Getting your attention off the
topic
helps open up the very different diffuse mode networks, and
lets your brain find new paths for thinking about what you're
trying to understand. Then, when you later return to focusing,
you'll find yourself in a better place,
mentally. The problem or the concept will
suddenly start to make sense. Incidentally, the habit of writing
down a
problem that you're trying to solve before going to bed will help
you calm your mind and let your nighttime brain
think of a solution. There's actually another, very different
way, to think about focused and diffuse modes and that's using
something called an excavator. When you focus on something,
your mind is in receiving mode,
information is pouring in. When you're in diffuse mode, on the
other
hand, your brain is turning around, so to speak, and placing
that new
information in other parts of your brain. Organizing and
making sense of the new material, you can only be in one
mode at the same time. The inputting focused mode or
the organizing, diffuse mode, where the brain is
consolidating that information. This is why it's really important
to take little study breaks, and give yourself time where you're
not
focusing on the material at hand. The little break is what helps
the brain
consolidate the new information so it can later think more
creatively about it. Go ahead, take a little break now, try
to move around a little while you do it. You'll be surprised at
how
much it refreshes you. [MUSIC]
[MUSIC] What would you like research to tell you? Would you
like it to say it's okay to
listen to music when you're studying? Or would you rather that
research would
find that it's better not to listen to music when you're studying?
Let's pause for a moment to take
a survey and see what you think. I have a little insight for you.
Whatever you wanted that research to tell
you, whether it was to listen to music or not to listen to music,
you can find
research that will back you up. Here's what we do know. If the
music is fast and loud,
it disrupts reading comprehension, in part because you use
some of the same areas of the brain to process music as
you do to process language. Also, music with lyrics is more
distracting than music without lyrics. On the other hand,
researchers have
found that if you're listening to a favorite style of music
it could enhance your studies. Or if it's something you
don't like it could detract. In the final analysis, all this means
that when it comes to music you should use commonsense and
discover what works best for you.
[MUSIC] When we're studying we
often drink caffeine, which enhances focus by diminishing
the day dreaming alpha waves in our brain. This effect is
strongest for about an hour
after drinking a cup of coffee or tea. Although the energizing
can
persist about eight hours, which is why it's sometimes better
to avoid that evening cup of coffee. But when you're doing
something
that is cognitively difficult, coffee isn't the only booster. You're
often subconsciously using
other tricks to increase your focus. For example, if you're trying
to remember
something, you tend to avert your gaze. Which avoids
overloading your working
memory with unnecessary extra visual information from your
environment. Even just closing your eyes can help you ignore
distractors when you're
trying to bring something to mind. Let's be honest here.
Memorizing comes more easy for
some people than others. Researchers still aren't quite sure
why, although there's some evidence
that having the right genes helps. But believe it or not,
being a good memorizer can cause problems. In medical
schools for example,
when there was a big anatomy test, ordinary medical students
spend weeks preparing. They will practice over and over again
to memorize thousands of
terms in their related functions. Gifted memorizers, on the
other hand, can
procrastinate until just a few days before the test, spend a few
hours glancing over
the material, and they can still do well. However, when these
same memorizing
aces are faced with a different type of medical school exam, for
example a test
related to how the heart functions, they find that just a few
hours of last
minute cramming just don't cut it. Medical school advisors can
sometimes
be startled to find these seemingly star students flunking
certain
sections of the curriculum. It seems that quickly memorizing
anatomical terms related to the heart doesn't allow you to
understand and answer questions about
the heart's complex function. This is a reminder that simple
focused concentration in memorization often isn't enough when
we're trying
to understand a complicated issue. It takes time to understand
complicated systems. Whether we're trying to understand how
to put together a new lighting rig, [LAUGH] figuring out a
pumping
system of a human heart, or analyzing the multifaceted
causes of World War II. To untangle such complicated subjects,
we often need to alternate a tight focus on the issue at hand
with
steps back to look at the bigger picture. Our need for
occasional distraction during
any given learning session may arise from these competing
type focus versus
big picture kinds of needs. Basically, it's focused
versus diffused modes. The focus mode is primarily
centered in the prefrontal cortex, the front part of the brain.
The diffused mode, on the other hand, involves a network
connecting more
wide spread areas of the brain. The more extensive nature of
diffused
thinking is why it's often related to the unexpected connections
that
lie at the heart of creativity. Activities involving the diffuse
mode like walking, or riding a bus, relaxing, or falling asleep,
are more likely to lead you to creative
ideas that can seem to arise from nowhere. If we're in a very
quiet environment, that
quietness can hype up the focused mode attention circuits
while simultaneously
deactivating the diffuse mode. This is why quiet environments
are ideal
when we're doing something that demands full concentrated
attention,
like doing our taxes or working on a difficult problem on a test.
But sometimes we're trying to understand
bigger picture sorts of issues like cardiac function or
computer network connectivity. In that case, a little sporadic
noise,
like a snippet of conversation with or the clatter of dishes in the
back
round of a coffee shop can help. This is because that bit of
noise temporarily allows the longer
range diffuse network to pop up. So, we briefly get a new
perspective. This is so effective that there
are even apps with coffee shop sounds. In the discussion forum,
you might want to
describe some of your favorite ideas for places to study and
unexpected apps
that have helped your learning. Of course, there can come a
point
when there's just too much noise, which can keep you from
concentrating at all. Finding a good learning environment
can take a bit of exploration. But that's good because it keeps
you from
getting too accustomed to any one study place, which can
make your
learning more effective. [MUSIC]
[MUSIC] What do you feel when you
walk into a cathedral? Light is streaming in through the stained
glass, the ceiling soars above your head. Cavernous echos
create
a sense of vast space. It smells old. Compared to the world
outside, your brain
tells you that this space is sacred. It makes you feel different. It
elicits different thoughts. You are a different person
inside the cathedral. Now, walk into a stadium filled with
100,000 fans for a football game. The sites are brighter than
outside the
stadium and the sounds are much louder. The crowd roars
when the goal is scored. You are caught up in the emotional
moment. This is why we still go to live
sporting events even though the camera angles are much,
much better on TV. These experiences have an impact on
your brain whether you immerse yourself in a quiet,
contemplative environment or
a hyperstimulated one. You are changing your thought patterns
and
that changes your brain. Different emotional states,
different memories, different brains. Is your environment
helping
you to achieve your goals? Sometimes, even small changes in
your environment can lead to big differences over time. The
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
where I work is a special place. As you approach the Salk
Institute
from the outside, it looks like a concrete fortress. But as you
enter the central courtyard,
there is a dramatic change. A broad expanse of travertine
stretches
out to the Pacific Ocean with towers rising along the sides
anchoring the otherworldly space. The Salk Institute was
designed by
Louis Kahn, a famous architect working together with Jonas Salk
who invented
a vaccine that cured polio in the 1950s. The building is an
architectural landmark. Jonas was a medical researcher but
he founded an institute, whose mission was basic science. Our
motto is cures begin here. Salk reinvented himself as a
visionary and what is this institute to inspire
the researchers working there to make important scientific
breakthroughs,
and we have. I am inspired. Every day when I arrived for work,
the entrance opens on to the tea room,
the heart of my lab. Students in my lab come from many
countries and have diverse backgrounds, and they all gather
around
the tea table everyday at 3:30. Some of the most important
scientific ideas from my lab arose from tea time discussions.
The ceiling at my lab are ten feet high. Studies have shown that
people think and act differently in environment
with high ceilings. They think more freely and abstractly. People
in a room with low ceilings
are more likely to focus on the specifics. All of these factors are
important for building a community of passionate and
creative researchers. Now, let's walk into a hospital. They are
remarkably similar in
their layout in every city and almost all countries. In 2004, I
attended a workshop in
Woods Hole Massachusetts sponsored by the Academy of
Neural Science for Architecture that explore the design
of healthcare facilities. The workshop was an eye opener. Based
on what we know about
environments that promote health and healing, modern
hospitals could
not be more badly designed. Look, first, let's look at the
lighting. Many studies have shown that
lighting has a pervasive effect on physiology and behavior.
Outdoor light promotes arousal. Dark, indoor lighting promotes
inactivity. Large windows with views of
nature encourage healing. Rooms with small windows
overlooking
parking lots are depressing. The sickest patients are sent to
the intensive care unit where there are no windows, the light is
kept
at the same level all day long. We have a circadian clock
that regulates awake and sleep cycles,
which are in train by bright light. When you travel to a distant
time zone,
you feel disoriented for days until your circadian
clock has shifted. Putting a patient into constant
lighting untethers their brain, making it clueless about the time
of day. Sound is also an important
part of a healing environment. Alarms can go up anytime of the
day or night in a hospital to alert
the staff of an emergency. This also alarms the brains of
the sick people who have enough to worry about without a
menacing sound. Good nutrition is essential to
building a strong body, healthy brain. I have eaten some of the
worst
food ever in hospitals. Unhealthy choices,
poorly prepared, go figure. Finally and above all, it is stressful
to live in an unpredictable environment. The privacy of hospital
patients can be
invaded any time of the day or night for an examination, a
teaching moment, a blood
draw or even more invasive procedures. If you are worried
about your health
before arriving at a hospital, the environment there will
amplify your worries. Look around you and
notice your environment. Is it conducive to your goals? Is there
a way that it can be changed? Sometimes, just changing your
walking
route can brighten your surroundings. [MUSIC]
[MUSIC] Horses had been horses the way
we know them today for hundreds of thousands of years. In
previous evolutionary times, people
just ate them, along with buffalo and pretty much any other big
game they came across. But about 6,000 years ago, when
people
figured out that horses could actually be ridden instead of just
eaten, the human
world started changing dramatically. Suddenly, people could
get from
place to place a lot more easily, a lot more easily. And this had
profound effects on
the development of human societies. For example, in the late
Middle Ages, the Mongol Empire grew to be one
of the largest empires in history, in part because of the tough,
scruffy
Mongolian horses they used in battle. This is why some argue
that the simple
idea of the stirrup on a horse's saddle, which gave much
greater stability for the rider, was as important
an invention as the printing press. We can see the power of the
horse
even in the recent centuries. In the 1700s for example, in the
Midwestern plains of the United States, an extraordinary people
came into prominence, the Native American group
known as the Comanche. They commanded vast swathes
of land in what is now Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and
Oklahoma. The Comanche took the culture of
the horse to one of the highest levels in human history. Their
equine expertise
astonished all who knew them. They could outride pretty much
anyone,
hooking their legs across their ponies' backs and
firing arrows under their ponies' necks, keeping their enemies
at bay, while
using their horse as a protective cover. In the 1700's in fact,
all around the world, there were a myriad of jobs
that related to horses. Blacksmiths were needed for horses'
shoes and to fashion stirrups and bits. There was a demand for
wagon,
cart, buggy, plow, and harness makers, riders,
drivers, couriers, herders. Even if you weren't making or doing
something directly related to horses, you still needed to be
able to handle a horse, whether you were a monarch,
a mercenary or a minister. Horses were an important part
of almost everyone's lives, as important in some ways as
the computer or smartphone is today. But of course, eras and
cultures change. From the horse, we eventually
transitioned to the automobile, and all sorts of technologies
begin to arise
based on the internal combustion engine, from snowmobiles to
bulldozers,
to jet aircraft. Communications began to
play a powerful role too, with the emergence first of the
telegraph,
then the telephone, and then television satellites,
and of course the Internet. And electrical power and
safe, clean sources for that power are still of prime importance.
So we're living nowadays in a world
that's very unlike that of the 1700s. But what our development
sense then
shows is that people's abilities to learn new things and
to grapple with new ideas, to make mindshifts, are the key
element in producing vibrant and creative societies, and in
helping
people to live to their full potential. It's important to be able to
match your aspirations and passions with the opportunities
that surround you today, as well as the opportunities that will
unfold in
the days, months and years to come. You want to look at
yourself,
your career, your knowledge base, with the same sort of big
picture
perspective that we've just used to consider the development
of human
societies over the last few centuries. One idea in particular
is especially important, which is that whatever skill set and
knowledge base you may already have
related to your career, your family and children, or your
hobbies, it's vital to
keep in mind that we're living in a world where at least some
passing knowledge
of computers, technology, math and science is as important as
the knowledge
of horsemanship was in centuries gone by. Everyone needs
passion in their lives,
things you like and enjoy and are good at, but an important
part of what we'll be talking about in this
MOOC is broadening your passions. That is, we want to
encourage you to
explore new directions in learning that might not have felt
comfortable for
you before. If you're a natural techie type,
we want to encourage you to broaden your passions and
skill set into non-technical areas. Maybe public speaking, or
writing, or art. If you're a non-techie type, we'd like
to encourage you to go the other way, towards gathering some
analytical and
technical skills in your arsenal. Whatever your age and
whatever your previous training, you want to be able to be
flexible and
open, and to be able to change and adapt in today's much
more
rapidly changing world. Mindshift is a MOOC designed
to provide a framework for your change,
even as you remain true to yourself. [MUSIC]
[MUSIC] We should take a few minutes here to
touch on the differences between men and women when it
comes to natural passions. A biggie here is the hormone
testosterone. Testosterone has lots of effects,
especially on guys, because guys have lots more of it.
Testosterone makes for mustaches, and
maybe a bit more cocky behavior, and all sorts of guy things
that
I tend to kind of like. Even in the womb, guys generally have
lots more testosterone than gals. Okay, here I want to show a
chart
that reveals how testosterone makes a difference in the
development
of boys and girls math abilities. Well, [LAUGH] obviously,
there isn't really an effect. Where testosterone does have an
effect,
at least early on, is in verbal abilities. As infants and children
develop,
it turns out that testosterone can serve as a sort of
developmental
drag on verbal abilities. So little boys,
who have more testosterone, tend on average to get a bit
delayed
behind girls in their verbal development. This is part of why
girls, on average,
are more verbally advanced than boys. Remember, boys and
girls are roughly equivalent on average
in their math and science skills. But when you start to put
things together,
on average, a girl can look within herself and
her own abilities and say, hey, you know what, I'm kind of
better
at verbal sorts of things. And it's true. A boy, on the other hand,
can look within himself, and say, hey, I'm a little better at math
kind of things and that's true too. And all of these happen
even though girls and boys have roughly the same
basic ability to do math. Keep in mind that this is just an
average. Individuals can vary quite a bit. And while boys can
catch up later in
their verbal development, by then, their self image has
already begun to solidify. We often develop passions about
what we're really good at. As it turns out, it seems easier for
girls to get good at subjects
requiring strong verbal skills. For boys, quantitative subjects
can seem
easier than those involving verbal skills. Remember, again this
is
even though boys and girls have roughly the same basic
abilities to do math and science. Unfortunately, what all this
does mean
is that girls frequent big advantage. Their more advanced
verbal skills can inadvertently also serve
as a disadvantage. Because of their early verbal advantage,
women can sometimes come to believe that their passions lie
in language-oriented
areas which accounts for part of the reason that there are a
fewer women
in the technical and scientific fields. Despite the fact that
women, as well as
men, are strongly needed in those fields. Passions develop
about
what we're good at but some things take longer for
us to get good at. In fact, research has shown that
if something seems hard for us, we can actually learn it better
than
if it was straightforward and easy. All of this can have a bearing
on
what career paths we tend to choose, especially when we hear
advice like,
follow your passion which is often taken to mean,
do what comes easiest for you. In the discussion forum,
describe what you've done or plan to do to broaden your
passions in learning, going beyond what you feel
you're naturally good at. You can help inspire us all. I'm Barbara
Oakley, happy Mindshift. [MUSIC]
[MUSIC] We've had a busy week here in Mindshift. Here are a
few of the key
points we covered. First, it's okay to be a slow learner. In fact
slow learners can some times
catch errors that even geniuses miss. Precisely because they're
looking at
things more slowly and carefully. And as research on mastery
learning shows. If you're a slow learner, it may take
you more time to learn something, but you can absolutely
grasp
the material just as well as, and sometimes even better than,
fast, racecar brain learners. We also learned how important it
is to take active steps yourself in whatever you are learning.
Watching a video or reading a book
forms a great start to learning and sometimes it's true. That's
all you need. But if you are learning something
you want to be able to do yourself, whether it's coding, math,
speaking
another language, learning to dance. Or anything else, you
need to actively practice yourself if
you want to develop any sort of expertise. Just watching
someone solve a problem or speak another language,
for example, isn't enough. Career wise, we learned that your
past can have great value for your future even if it seems
completely disconnected. So don't feel bad if
your past at first. We looked at focused versus
diffuse ways of thinking. And we discovered that slight
occasional disruptions as when you're studying in a coffee shop
can enhance
your ability to learn more difficult big picture sorts of concepts.
Music isn't necessarily bad, although it's perhaps best to stick
to
music without lyrics that isn't too loud. And we found that
environment can make
a surprising difference in how you feel. We also got an overview
of the changing
nature of today's world, and the important role of not only
language
and culture, but of technology. Sometimes your natural
passions can fool you. It's important to take a strategic
as well as a passion influenced approach to your learning. Next
week we'll be getting
deeper into happy learning. See you soon! [MUSIC]
[MUSIC] This week,
we're going to be doing a little brain excavation to learn that
focusing
intently isn't always the best thing for optimal learning and
mind shifting. We'll discover other valuable
methods to enhance your learning. And we'll see some
unbelievable
feats people can accomplish using these techniques. We'll also
warn you about popular learning
approaches that research has shown are actually harmful.
Perhaps most importantly, we'll give
you tools to help slip past your inner procrastinator and other
proven tools
to help you reframe and reduce stress. All this and
more in this week's Mindshift. [MUSIC]
[MUSIC] We sometimes fool ourselves about our good
attributes with relation to learning. We think they're bad. We
saw that with the race car
brains verses the hiker brains. Being a slow hiker type thinker
can give
you an advantage because you can be less likely to jump to
conclusions and more able to flexibly change
your mind when you're wrong. But there's another
advantageous
attribute that we often think is bad, and that is a poor memory.
The reality is that a poor memory
has a valuable side to it. Let's review the key idea. We know
that the prefrontal cortex has
roughly four slots of working memory. This means we can hold
a maximum of about four neural chunks of information in those
slots when we focus our attention. Chunks can be simple,
like those related to numbers, the notes that form a musical
chord, or
words or phrases in a foreign language. If we've practiced
enough,
we can build more complex neural chunks that we can easily
pull into working memory and work with. The neural chunks are
kind
of like ribbons of thought. These neural chunks can also
relate to more complicated ideas, like longer portions of a song,
or a more complex equation. As you can see,
these neural sort of chunks, ribbons, can, with practice,
involve incredibly complex activities. Experts have lots of well
practiced neural
chunks that they can easily bring to mind. The key idea here is
that when you first
look at something to try to figure it out, your working memory
in your prefrontal
cortex is working very hard. But once you've understood that
something and practiced enough with it to form a solid neural
pattern,
you've created a neural chunk. That's like that ribbon that you
can easily draw into one slot of working memory, leaving the
rest of your
working memory free for other processing. And this is why,
once we've practiced
enough, beginning since we were toddlers, as adults, we can
think a single thought,
like walk towards the door, and walk, which is actually a very
complex maneuver,
without even continuing to think about it. Some people have
working
memories like steel traps, whatever ideas come before them
can be
easily retained in their working memories. This can make it
easier for
them to understand complex topics and solve complicated
problems. But other people, like say, me,
have not so good working memories. They may get something
in mind, but
then, shiny, they get distracted, and then some of what they
were thinking
about falls out their minds. But when that something falls out,
something else comes in. And that's where creativity comes to
play. Those new ideas that come willy nilly into
your mind can be the source of creative new thoughts. And in
fact, as we know from research, those with poor working
memories
are often more creative. Do you have to work harder to keep
up with the steel trap memory types? Sure, but you wouldn't
want to trade
the asset that your poor memory gives you, that is your
creativity. But digging deeper, a poor working
memory means something else. As it turns out, a poor working
memory gives you an effective tool to figure out simpler ways
to do things. It may take you a while to
figure those things out, but when you do figure them out, you
can
sometimes see elegant simplifications and brilliant shortcuts
[LAUGH] that
a person with a strong working memory just doesn't have
the motivation to figure out. There's more. Andrew Wiles, for
example,
is a mathematical legend who, after 358 years of efforts by
some of
the world's leading mathematicians, at last proved Fermat's
last theorem,
has pointed out that you often need forgetting, as well as
remembering, to help you solve problem. Forgetting helps you
get past previous
mistakes you might have made. Andrew's less than perfect
memory, in other words, helped him to solve one
of the world's most difficult problems. Remember, if you do
have
a poor working memory, you'll want to use memory tricks like
the memory palace or learn to associate. For example, you can
associate
people's names with memorable images. In English,
it turns out that we have the name Wanda. You can remember
Wanda's name
by imagining a magic wand. Or the name Phil, which sounds
like the word fill in English, can be more easily remembered if
you
fill Phil's head with fizzy water. Putting motion into your
visualization
helps make things stick better in memory. Mental tricks can be
very powerful tools. We'll cover some more mental
tricks in the videos to come. But just a bit of insight now.
Whether you have a good, or a not so good working memory,
get yourself into the habit of making mind dumps of
information that you do not need
to keep online in your working memory. Every time you think of
an errand,
or something you need to remember, rather than holding it in
working memory,
commit to writing it down in a notebook or any other trusted
inbox. [MUSIC]
[MUSIC] We sometimes fool ourselves about our good
attributes with relation to learning. We think they're bad. We
saw that with the race car
brains verses the hiker brains. Being a slow hiker type thinker
can give
you an advantage because you can be less likely to jump to
conclusions and more able to flexibly change
your mind when you're wrong. But there's another
advantageous
attribute that we often think is bad, and that is a poor memory.
The reality is that a poor memory
has a valuable side to it. Let's review the key idea. We know
that the prefrontal cortex has
roughly four slots of working memory. This means we can hold
a maximum of about four neural chunks of information in those
slots when we focus our attention. Chunks can be simple,
like those related to numbers, the notes that form a musical
chord, or
words or phrases in a foreign language. If we've practiced
enough,
we can build more complex neural chunks that we can easily
pull into working memory and work with. The neural chunks are
kind
of like ribbons of thought. These neural chunks can also
relate to more complicated ideas, like longer portions of a song,
or a more complex equation. As you can see,
these neural sort of chunks, ribbons, can, with practice,
involve incredibly complex activities. Experts have lots of well
practiced neural
chunks that they can easily bring to mind. The key idea here is
that when you first
look at something to try to figure it out, your working memory
in your prefrontal
cortex is working very hard. But once you've understood that
something and practiced enough with it to form a solid neural
pattern,
you've created a neural chunk. That's like that ribbon that you
can easily draw into one slot of working memory, leaving the
rest of your
working memory free for other processing. And this is why,
once we've practiced
enough, beginning since we were toddlers, as adults, we can
think a single thought,
like walk towards the door, and walk, which is actually a very
complex maneuver,
without even continuing to think about it. Some people have
working
memories like steel traps, whatever ideas come before them
can be
easily retained in their working memories. This can make it
easier for
them to understand complex topics and solve complicated
problems. But other people, like say, me,
have not so good working memories. They may get something
in mind, but
then, shiny, they get distracted, and then some of what they
were thinking
about falls out their minds. But when that something falls out,
something else comes in. And that's where creativity comes to
play. Those new ideas that come willy nilly into
your mind can be the source of creative new thoughts. And in
fact, as we know from research, those with poor working
memories
are often more creative. Do you have to work harder to keep
up with the steel trap memory types? Sure, but you wouldn't
want to trade
the asset that your poor memory gives you, that is your
creativity. But digging deeper, a poor working
memory means something else. As it turns out, a poor working
memory gives you an effective tool to figure out simpler ways
to do things. It may take you a while to
figure those things out, but when you do figure them out, you
can
sometimes see elegant simplifications and brilliant shortcuts
[LAUGH] that
a person with a strong working memory just doesn't have
the motivation to figure out. There's more. Andrew Wiles, for
example,
is a mathematical legend who, after 358 years of efforts by
some of
the world's leading mathematicians, at last proved Fermat's
last theorem,
has pointed out that you often need forgetting, as well as
remembering, to help you solve problem. Forgetting helps you
get past previous
mistakes you might have made. Andrew's less than perfect
memory, in other words, helped him to solve one
of the world's most difficult problems. Remember, if you do
have
a poor working memory, you'll want to use memory tricks like
the memory palace or learn to associate. For example, you can
associate
people's names with memorable images. In English,
it turns out that we have the name Wanda. You can remember
Wanda's name
by imagining a magic wand. Or the name Phil, which sounds
like the word fill in English, can be more easily remembered if
you
fill Phil's head with fizzy water. Putting motion into your
visualization
helps make things stick better in memory. Mental tricks can be
very powerful tools. We'll cover some more mental
tricks in the videos to come. But just a bit of insight now.
Whether you have a good, or a not so good working memory,
get yourself into the habit of making mind dumps of
information that you do not need
to keep online in your working memory. Every time you think of
an errand,
or something you need to remember, rather than holding it in
working memory,
commit to writing it down in a notebook or any other trusted
inbox. [MUSIC]
[MUSIC] We hear a lot nowadays about
meditation and mindfulness. So inquiring minds often want to
know what
effect meditation can have on learning. First, let's back up a
step. What is meditation? It's really just a way of bringing
about different modes of consciousness using a variety of
different techniques. For example, meditators may close
their eyes and repeat a mantra, control their breathing, or
deliberately
cultivate a certain emotional state. Scientific research on
meditation
is still in it's infancy. But researchers can sometimes
classify meditation techniques into two different types that
seem to be
fundamentally different [SOUND]. Focused attention and open
monitoring. Given what we've learned already, my guess
that these two types of meditation relate to the two different
types of basic modes
of the brain uses to perceive the world, focus and diffuse. And
you'd be right. Focus attention types of meditations
such as mantra, sound or chakra meditation appear to help
enhance focus mode type thinking, this kind of meditation
sometimes
seems to make people feel better. It can help reduce
feelings of depression and anxiety, even while it builds
concentration abilities. In contrast, open monitoring types
of meditation such as, vipassana and mindfulness, appear to
improve
diffuse imaginative thinking. With open monitoring,
we don't just focus on one thing. Instead we keep our attention
open to all
aspects of experience without judging or becoming attached to
our thoughts. Now we know that diffuse mode
thinking is worldwide ranging, your thoughts [SOUND] can
bounce pretty much anywhere. Daydreaming happens in the
diffuse mode,
daydreaming not only gives rise to more random thoughts and
connections that under pin creativity. It also helps you plan for
the future, send your thoughts tend to wonder towards what
the
future might bring, sounds great, right? Well, not entirely. The
diffuse mode is also affiliated
with anxiety and depression. Think about it this way. If your
mind is bouncing
all over the place, it can get drawn into worry [SOUND] about,
whoa, things that might go wrong. [LAUGH] Part of the reason
that building
your focusing abilities may help make you feel happier. Is that it
appears to suppress the diffuse
mode, while it builds the focusing mode. So what does all this
mean? It means that meditation can have
surprisingly different effects, depending on the type. It's all
very complex, and researchers
are far from sorting everything out yet. In the end, practices
that
encourage focusing can be a great benefit for learning. But
having some daily time where
your mind relaxes and wanders freely is also very important,
particularly
if you want to encourage creativity. From a particle stand point
then if
you are a meditator you might try to avoid feeling you should
always be
stirring your thoughts back into focus. If you catch your mind
wondering
outside meditation sessions. This might be why people find
the pomodoro technique so useful for combining creativity with
productivity. It's a sort of working meditation. Up next, we'll
look at some of the deeper aspects of the pomodoro technique.
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC] A common challenge to making
a mindshift is something so simple we almost forget to think
about it,
procrastination. Of course, in our previous MOOC,
Learning How to Learn, we all ready learned about how
procrastination can arise. When you even think about
something
that you don't really want to do, it activates the brain's pain
centers. The brain, naturally enough, tries to
stop that negative stimulation, so it turns its attention to
something else,
anything else. The result? You feel better almost instantly. But
you've also just procrastinated. We learned, as well about, the
Pomodoro Technique to help
you tackle procrastination. Italian Francesco Cirillo devised this
fiendishly clever method in the 1980s, and it's spread around
the world since then. To do a pomodoro, just turn off all
distractions, no little ringy dingies from our cell phones or
computers and
then set a timer for 25 minutes. Then you hold your focus on
your work
as intently as you humanly can for those 25 minutes. We're all
human, and distracting thoughts will inevitably
arise when we're doing a pomodoro. For example, sometimes
I'll set
the pomodoro timer for 25 minutes. Great, I'm all happy. And
then 5 minutes into the pomodoro,
I'll look up and suddenly realize that I've got
20 whole minutes left to do. My mind goes,
I just can't do 20 more minutes! But what I do is I let that
thought go right on by and then I return my focus to my
learning or
my work. If I catch myself absently
checking my email, I gently stop as soon as I've
realized what I'm doing. In fact, I'll often close my email
program, and other programs, just to make it a little
harder to check them. None of us has perfectly obedient minds,
thank goodness, which means it's inevitable that
distracting thoughts are going to arise. The thing is when you're
doing a pomodoro,
you don't want to try to push those thoughts away or
tell yourself not to think those thoughts. Instead, you just want
to acknowledge
the distracting thought and let it go by as you return your
attention
to whatever you were focusing on. We've mentioned the first
three
components of the Pomodoro Technique, but there's actually a
fourth. Once you're done with
the pomodoro it's reward time. [SOUND] You get to switch your
attention
for a while to whatever you want. You might listen to a favorite
song,
go to your favorite social media, watch a funny dance video, do
a funny
dance yourself, chat online with a friend. Or do something
where you
move around a little bit, straighten part of your room, walk to
the kitchen to get some coffee or tea. The whole idea is to get
your attention
off whatever you've just been focusing on. In fact, you want to
give the part of the brain
you've just been using a bit of a break. This means the reward
shouldn't
involve similar types of tasks. For instance, if you've been
writing
a report then you don't want to go to Twitter or Facebook and
continue writing,
even if it's about a different subject. That would be kind of like
taking
a break from lifting heavy barbells instead by
lifting boxes of books. You're still doing heavy
lifting either way, which means you're not
getting much of a break. And at the end of the day you'll find
yourself getting much more tired. A great approach is,
if you're doing mental work, try to instead do some kind of
movement during your breaks, something where your brain can
relax and
your mind can do some wandering. All of this is very important
because
in the past we've always thought that learning only took place
when we were
focusing our attention on something. But we now understand
that
an important part of learning takes place when we're not
focusing on something. In fact, to truly understand something
we often need periods where we've switched our attention off
the material
we're trying to understand, because that's the time when we
consolidate and
make sense of the material. We're not consciously aware of this
process, which is why we often don't realize how important this
consolidation process is for learning, memory, and
long-term creativity. We've heard from tens of thousands
of learners in Learning How to Learn about how much they
loved
the Pomodoro Technique. People often ask, well, why 25
minutes? Remember that pain in
the brain that pops up when we think about something
we really didn't want to do? It seems that when we decide to
go ahead and work on that task despite the pain,
that pain often lasts about 20 minutes. In other words, doing a
pomodoro
helps you just get past the pain and into the flow of the work. I
do have to admit,
if I really get going and into the flow, I don't necessarily make
myself stop
at the end of a pomodoro session. I just keep going as long as it
feels
good, which, of course, is fine too. People often also wonder
about how long
the break should be between pomodoros. Well, this depends on
you,
and what you've got going on. Maybe it's final examination
time, or you've got a massively important
presentation to prepare for. In this case, you may only want to
have
maybe 3 to 5 minutes between pomodoros. But if you're not in
such a crunch time,
perhaps you can take 10 or 20 minutes. Some people set a
pomodoro
timer as a sort of, worst case I only have to do 25 minutes,
sort of motivator. The pomodoro helps them to get started,
but if they get into the flow, and are liking what they're doing,
they won't necessarily quit
at the end of the 25 minutes. You might also ask, how do I get
myself restarted doing
a pomodoro once I've taken a break? This also depends a lot on
you. Everyone's motivated differently. One motivator is to
download an app onto
your phone that gives you badges for each pomodoro you
finish. People often enjoy collecting these badges
each day, and you can set a goal for yourself, perhaps two
pomodoros for work related to one topic, maybe three
related to another, and so forth. There are also other
motivators you can use. We'll talk about them in the next video.
And you'll be learning a lot more about
all of this in our Productivity MOOC. The Pomodoro Technique is,
in reality, a powerful and actually enjoyable type of
meditation through work. Smart learners make great use of
this. [MUSIC]