# The Extended Mind  ## Metadata - Author:: [[Annie Murphy Paul]] - Full Title: The Extended Mind - Rating:: 9 - DateFinished:: 10/10/2022 - Category: #📚 ## 🚀The Book in 3 Sentences - For most of human history we have ascribed to the idea that cognition is brainbound, stimuli come in to our brain and we act based on those stimuli. - Extended mind theory argues that cognition isn't bound to only our brain but rather extends itself into the outside environment. - Three main fields encompass the study of the extended mind: embodied cognition which explores the role of interoception, bodily movements and gestures have on on our cognition, situation cognition which explores the way our natural, built, and idea environment changes our cognition, and the distributed environment, which explores the role experts, peers, and groups change our cognition. ### 🎨 Impressions - This book fascinated me. Anne uses a mix of anecdotes and scientific evidence to promote her ideas. - This book will fundamentally change the way you think about the world. - In my opinion she talks a bit too much at times. ### 📖Who Should Read It? - Anyone interested in the brain - People interested in creativity and thinking - Psychology enthusiasts ### ☘️ How the Book Changed Me - I'm being more mindful about the external situation I put myself in before doing something. I'm constantly asking myself, is this the right environment for how I want to act cognitively? - I'm trying to work with the outside environment visible to me. - I'm trying to figure out how interacting with certain people makes me feel and if I can leverage those feelings to do certain actions better. ### ✍️ My Top 3 Quotes - # Main Points For most of human history we have believed that cognition is brainbound. Stimuli come into our brain and we act based on those stimuli. This mindset agrees with [[Essentialism]], the belief that every entity we come across possesses and internal environment that makes it what it is. This mindset is embodied in the two major ways of thinking about the brain even to this day: 1. The brain is a computer 2. The brain is a muscle ### The Brain is a Computer The first view is the brain is like a computer. It functions with a preset [[Information processing]] speed and has all of its processes delegated inside of its internal landscape. The problem with this analogy is the brain is made of organic tissue while computers are made of machinery and electronics. Save information into a computer and six months later it will still be there once you come back. [[Encoding|Encode]] information into the brain, however, and without proper recall techniques, it will likely be forgotten six months later. ### The Brain is a Muscle In contrast to the computer view of the brain, Professor [[Carol Dweck]] advocated for the [[Growth mindset]] which saw the brain more like a muscle that could be developed over time. She showed that people with a growth mindset, a belief that they can mold their intelligence through deliberate purposeful effort, are more motivated and end up becoming more intelligent over time. All three of these mindsets, however, still treat cognition as solely relegated to the internal processes of the brain. I believe that in effect these theories promote an individual mindset towards cognition as every human is made to believe only they can be responsible for improving their internal cognitive abilities. ### The Extended Mind Theory Drawing inspiration from Andy Paul's seminal book, [[Supersizing the Mind]], Annie Murphy Paul argues against all three of these views in favor of her theory of the extended mind. According to her theory, cognition as a process doesn't occur only inside the brain but is an act of continuous assembly and reassembly that draws on resources outside of the brain. In other words, the mind extends into the outside world. This theory has profound implications on how we should treat intelligence and cognitive abilities in the present day. It implies that instead of looking at pure IQ or intelligence (which we know to be a severely biased metric), we should look at how well someone understands how to extend their mind into the external world. It fights against the traditional individualist view that is promoted in Western Society and promotes the in my opinion more empathetic interdependent nature of Eastern societies (see: [[Westerners tend to be more independent compared to Easterners]]). Three main fields encompass the study of the extended mind: embodied cognition which explores the role of interoception, bodily movements and gestures have on on our cognition, situation cognition which explores the way our natural, built, and idea environment changes our cognition, and the distributed environment, which explores the role experts, peers, and groups change our cognition. Let's take a look at each. ![[The 9 Levels of The Extended Mind 18.09.34.excalidraw|1000]] # Embodied Cognition ## Thinking with Sensation Interoceptive awareness is your ability to sense your bodies internal cues. Studies show that those with more interceptive awareness have a better "gut responses." This is because of [[Non-conscious information acquisition]]. Another added benefit of interoception is it allows us to better understand our emotions and how we want to react to them. ### Controlling Emotion The brainbound theory of the brain believes in the intuitive view of emotionality which states that internal emotions cause changes in affective experience which cause changes in physical responses. However, extended mind theory and [[Emotion in Social Psychology#What is the Jame's Lange View of emotionality|Jame's Lange's theory of emotionality]] ascribe to the idea that our physical responses cause changes in emotions which cause changes in our affective experience. For example, we feel sad because we cry, or scared because we run away, or angry because we clench our fists. This implies we can have a much greater effect on our emotions than we might realize. [[Action shapes perception]] because it alters our affective experience. A couple of ways I use this concept: 1. I exercise especially if I feel tired 2. I walk outside in nature if I feel sad 3. I meditate if I feel anxious Another way we can use interoception is through [[Cognitive reappraisal]] which is the process of taking a physical response and attributing it to a positive emotion. For example, taking sweaty palms and a fast heartbeat as excitement instead of nervousness (they both cause the same physical responses). This reminds me of [[Emotional misattribution]]. #### How can we cultivate our ability of interoception? Practicing [[Mindfulness MOC]], awareness, yoga, keeping an interoceptive journal, and especially doing "body scans" is an amazing way to build up this ability. ## Thinking with Movement Thinking with movement runs of the idea that the body moves and shapes our cognition in turn. Studies show that we perform better in learning bouts if we perform some sort of exercise before them. In addition, our visual perception is more attuned while we are moving. This probably evolved because while hunting for game in the savanha we needed to be [[Humans evolved to have great spatial navigation|incredibly good spatial navigators]]. Modern day hunter gather tribes like the [[Hadza]] walk as much as 10-15 miles per day. They have to be fantastic at finding their way back. #### Walking to Think An insane number of thinkers I know like [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], [[Arthur Schopenhauer]], and [[Danielle Kahneman]] spent large parts of their day walking. They found their thoughts were more clear and orderly while doing so. In fact, Nietzsche even said "only ideas won by walking have any value." ### Movement + Learning = Better Memory Some studies indicate that movement while learning allows for better memory. This is because of the [[Enactment effect]] which occurs because when we connect movement with information, we activate both types of memory and the movement itself becomes a cue for the information. This reminds me of [[Spreading activation]]. ## Thinking with Gesture Like with bodily movement, gesture also changes the way we think. Extended mind theory believes gestures serve as a form of external scaffolding for our working memory. For example, we use our hands to count to ten. Most people also move their hands while talking to others. Apparently, these gestures aren't just useless movements but actually help us think more readily. Studies where people were inhibited from gesture showed they weren't as able to think. And just like with thinking with movement, gesturing might make memories encoded while gesturing better as the gestures themself become a physical cue for the memory. # Situated Cognition ## Thinking with Natural Spaces Humans have a craving for natural places. I believe this is probably because we didn't evolve in urban tight environments but rather out on the open African savannah. Simply being in nature for a few minutes or even just sitting next to a window that outlooks on nature can have us experience these benefits. ### Biophilic Design These studies have led to a whole new world of architecture known as [[Biophilic Design]] which is the art of combining built and natural environments into one. Buildings with bamboo window frames, small office plants, and natural lighting all allow people inside of them to receive some benefits from being around nature. ### Natural spaces make us more altruistic Studies show being immersed in natural spaces make us feel less competitive with those around us and fill us with a feeling of abundance. This reminds me that the [[The experience of awe makes people better]]. Nature is one of the most awe provoking places with things like the Grand Canyon and Mount Everest. ## Thinking with Built Spaces Extended mind theory understands that one of the main purposes of [[Built spaces are meant to offload the need to think in any way other than the purpose of the space|built spaces is to offload]] the need to think in any way except for the purpose of the built space. Take a lecture hall for instance. Walls and roofs isolate students from social interaction in the outside world. Seats pointed toward the lecture platform direct peoples [[Attention]] naturally toward the lecturer. And finally the environment promotes [[Display rules]] which state that you shouldn't mess around while in the lecture hall. Take a lecture hall for instance. Walls and roofs isolate students from social interaction in the outside world. Seats pointed toward the lecture platform direct peoples [[Attention]] naturally toward the lecturer. And finally the environment promotes [[Display rules]] which state that you shouldn't mess around while in the lecture hall. ### The Coffeehouse Revolution One built space that proved integral to human history was the coffeehouse. Coffehouses formed the foundation of the scientific revolution. The collaborative environment combined with [[Caffeine]] sparked many scientific ideas. Today's leaders and managers have seized on this notion a little too hard by creating collaborative work spaces that promote social interaction between employees. The issue with these open work environments is they make it difficult for employees to enter the [[Flow State MOC]] and doing [[Deep Work]]. Some parts of the intellectual process are better done alone. This reminds me of the [[White board effect]] talked about in Cal Newport's Deep Work as well as [[Social facilitation]] which shows that humans are worse at doing novel tasks when we believe we are in the presence of some outside awareness but better at doing tasks we already know how to do. #### Why are social environments so hard to focus in? [[The brain has evolved to prioritize novel information]] and social environments are chocked full of them. Speech sounds are naturally sporadic and inconsistent as well as musical notes. In urban and open work environments especially there are likely to be more than one conversation going on at once as well as inconsistent traffic noise which forces our brain to spend large amounts of cognitive load on [[Sound localization]]. ### We act differently in environments we are comfortable in Environments we are used to support us cognitively by offloading our need to delegate as much of our mental resources to scanning out and scoping the environment for possible dangers. Thus we are generally more comfortable in these environments and more assertive. However, in foreign and uncertain environments we find it difficult to be assertive and are more likely to be socially influenced through [[Social Influence#Informative social influence]] or [[Social Influence#Normative social influence]]. In addition, environments we are comfortable in generally have cues reminding us of our identity and affiliation that might change depending on the environment and context. This reminds me of [[Self#What is reflected self appraisal|reflected self appraisal]] as well as [[Stereotype threat]] which could make our environment turn in the negative direction. ## Thinking with the Space of Ideas [[Humans evolved to have great spatial navigation]]. We weren't meant to think in the abstract ways we so often do nowadays. Memory studies have shown that one of the biggest differences between memory champions (those that win memory competitions) and the regular population is there incredible use of spatial memory and navigation to remember things. ### How can we ingrain things into spatial memory? Many of the most time tested memory techniques utilize spatial memory like [[Memory palaces]], [[Method of Loci]] and so much more. These strategies take advantage of not only our spatial navigational capabilities but also our already ingrained memory by attaching memories to locational cues that we are familiar with, like our house or college campus for example. We can use our spatial thinking with our digital tools as well like using the [[How to use the Obsidian graph view for notemaking|graph view for notemaking]] in [[Obsidian]]. Creating mind maps or drawings using Excalidraw is another great option. Or even real world recreations using whatever material we want to. #### Detachment gain When we externalize an idea into the outside environment we experience [[Detachment gain]], the cognitive benefit of externalizing something into the outside world. Externalization offloads the need for our brain to remember the information. This is the main reasons calendars and to do lists are so helpful for time and project management. But it also helps with writing because we are able to compound on our thoughts over time. In this way [[Notetaking is time travel]]. # Distributed Cognition ## Thinking with Experts #### We are imitation experts For most of human history, imitation was our primary form of learning. Babies from a very young age show remarkable abilities to imitate adults even imitating actions that are inefficient just because a respected adult did them. Imitation was utilized in one of the greatest teaching techniques ever created, apprenticeships (see: [[Apprenticeships are learning through imitation]]). #### Imitation is shunned now However, nowadays imitation is looked down upon especially in Western cultures where independence and outside of the box thinking is prized. The best entrepreneurs are those that "don't fit the mold" like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Elon Musk. This creates an issue because [[The creative process is an act of assemblage]]. Most of the creative ideas I have aren't original thoughts but rather a spark of insight that comes through seeing other peoples ideas in a new light after they are connected and changed. ##### Experts aren't the best teachers [[Experts aren't always the best teachers]]. A lot of what makes them so good at what they is unconscious to them. ## Thinking with Peers ### Teaching is a form of learning Teaching is in itself a method of strengthening learned material (see: [[Feynman technique]]). However, it's not a great method learning new material because of [[Social facilitation]]. In addition arguing is a fantastic way to expose holes in your knowledge as well. Other people don't bring with them the same confirmation bias that you hole to your own arguments. As long as the argument is a fight over ideas rather than a fight over the person things will be okay. ###### University/college is crafted to facilitate learning [[The student environment is perfectly designed to aid learning]] ## Thinking with Groups #### The group collaboration process There are specific times when thinking in groups is preferrable to thinking in isolation. When the problem is first being defined, thinking in groups is preferrable because it allows everyone to voice their opinion on a problem. When people have stake in a problem they are more likely to invest their resources into it (see: [[Skin in the Game By Nassim Taleb]] and [[Psychological reactance]]). However, once the problem is defined, it's better to have group members separate and work on the problem themselves. ### What is transactive memory? [[Transactive memory system]] is our ability to leverage the knowledge of others in our own thinking processes. Because knowledge is so personal, being able to leverage transactive memory of others at the right time is critical, especially considering how niched everyone's knowledge can be nowadays. #### What is a meta knowledge champion? Meta knowledge champions are individuals in groups responsible for updating the entire groups mental directory of who knows what in the group. This becomes essential as groups knowledge grows and grows because they give perspective on what research has been done and what research still needs to be done in certain areas. In the Obsidian community, for example, [[Nick Milo]] and [[Eleanor Konik]] are the main meta knowledge champions I know of. Nick creates video content that shares important insights made in the community and Eleanor writes the Obsidian round up that documents major changes in the community. ## Highlights Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. The two psychologists carried out much of their groundbreaking work on heuristics and biases—the human mind’s habitual shortcuts and distortions—by talking and walking together, through the bustling streets of Jerusalem or along the rolling hills of the California coast. “I did the best thinking of my life on leisurely walks with Amos,” Kahneman has said. ([Location 69](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=69)) - Note: Danielle Kahneman is one of my idea grandparents. I feel the same way he does about thinking when I talk to Skye or to Chris. Research emerging from three related areas of investigation has convincingly demonstrated the centrality of extra-neural resources to our thinking processes. ([Location 94](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=94)) First, there is the study of embodied cognition, which explores the role of the body in our thinking: for example, how making hand gestures increases the fluency of our speech and deepens our understanding of abstract concepts. ([Location 95](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=95)) Second, there is the study of situated cognition, which examines the influence of place on our thinking: for instance, how environmental cues that convey a sense of belonging, or a sense of personal control, enhance our performance in that space. ([Location 97](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=97)) And third, there is the study of distributed cognition, which probes the effects of thinking with others—such as how people working in groups can coordinate their individual areas of expertise (a process called “transactive memory”), and how groups can work together to produce results that exceed their members’ individual contributions (a phenomenon known as “collective intelligence”). ([Location 98](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=98)) #### Introduction: Thinking Outside the Brain Thinking outside the brain means skillfully engaging entities external to our heads—the feelings and movements of our bodies, the physical spaces in which we learn and work, and the minds of the other people around us—drawing them into our own mental processes. ([Location 166](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=166)) the brain-computer analogy has become only more pervasive and more powerful, engaged not just by researchers and academics but by the rest of us, the public at large. ([Location 262](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=262)) - Note: The brain is made of organic tissue that adapt and forget and change over time. Computers don’t forget. Leave one for six months and it’s the same. Dweck’s idea, which she initially called “the incremental theory of intelligence,” would eventually become known to the world as the “growth mindset”: the belief that concerted mental effort could make people smarter, just as vigorous physical effort could make people stronger. ([Location 281](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=281)) - Note: This is the second way the brain is thought of now in contemporary society, as a muscle. The computer and muscle analogies fit neatly with our society’s emphasis on individualism—its insistence that we operate as autonomous, self-contained beings, in possession of capacities and competencies that are ours alone. ([Location 309](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=309)) - Note: Anne is arguing westerners like this analogy because it doesn’t put the outside world as responsible for affecting our cognition. The belief that some core quantity of intelligence resides within each of our heads fits with a pattern of thought, apparently universal in humans, that psychologists call “essentialism”—that is, the conviction that each entity we encounter possesses an inner essence that makes it what it is. ([Location 315](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=315)) - Note: Essentialism spreads the notion that humans are as intelligent as they are and nothing in our external environment can change that. It’s a sort of dreary belief and creates divides between people. 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. ([Location 341](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=341)) - Note: Writing through notemaking is in itself a form of thinking. ### PART I Thinking with Our Bodies ##### 1 Thinking with Sensations All of us experience these bodily signals—but some of us feel them more keenly than others. To measure interoceptive awareness, scientists apply the heartbeat detection test, ([Location 484](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=484)) - Note: Interoception is defined as awareness of your bodily signals. The heartbeat test works by you having to detect when your heart is beating. the size and activity level of the brain’s interoceptive hub, the insula, vary among individuals and are correlated with their awareness of interoceptive sensations. ([Location 500](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=500)) “Nonconscious information acquisition,” as Lewicki calls it, along with the ensuing application of such information, is happening in our lives all the time. ([Location 524](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=524)) - Note: Non conscious information acquisition is the information capture happening in our lives all the time but not important enough for the brain to process it consciously. However, the non con conscious capture can manifest as a gut reaction when relevant. This reminds me of visual memory. Memory which only stays for a few milliseconds. “People find the body scan beneficial because it reconnects their conscious mind to the feeling states of their body,” ([Location 564](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=564)) - Note: Mindfulness meditation can help us build our interoception abilities. Research shows that the simple act of giving a name to what we’re feeling has a profound effect on the nervous system, immediately dialing down the body’s stress response. ([Location 580](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=580)) - Note: It’s important that we are as prolific and granular as possible with this naming process. That is we name a lot of emotions but make sure they are specific to what we are feeling as well. 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. ([Location 647](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=647)) - Note: The idea is before you follow through with a decision you write down the decision, the feelings you felt while contemplating that decision. Where in the body did you feel them? And finally you go back after the decision and recount how it turned out. This connects to lifestyle design by spotting patterns. “shuttling”—moving one’s focus back and forth between what is transpiring internally and what is going on outside the body. Such shifts are useful in ensuring that we are neither too caught up in external events nor too overwhelmed by our internal feelings, but instead occupy a place of balance that incorporates input from both realms. ([Location 737](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=737)) - Note: I like this because it emphasizes that you shouldn’t pay too much attention to your internal landscape. It would be more accurate, wrote James, to say that “we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we strike, afraid because we tremble.” ([Location 759](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=759)) - Note: James Lance’s theory of emotionality was that physiological response patterns cause changes in emotions which cause changes in affective experience. The intuitive view of emotions states your emotions cause differences in affective experience which causes differences in physiological response patterns? the thing we call “emotion” (and experience as a unified whole) is actually constructed from more elemental parts; these parts include the signals generated by the body’s interoceptive system, as well as the beliefs of our families and cultures regarding how these signals are to be interpreted. ([Location 761](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=761)) - Note: This reminds me of emotional fox sloth across cultures as well as display rules which both promote the idea that the way we interpret emotions depend on our interoceptive awareness and the cultures we grew up in. Psychologists who study the construction of emotion call this practice “cognitive reappraisal.” It involves sensing and labeling an interoceptive sensation, as we’ve learned to do here, and then “reappraising” it—reinterpreting it in an adaptive way. ([Location 766](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=766)) - Note: For example, reinterpreting anxiety or nervousness as excitement because they cause the same physiological responses. This reminds me of Andrew Huberman tricking himself during his doctoral research that he was researching something more important than it was to motivate himself to study. It also reminds me of the milkshake study showing mindset changes the way our body responds to food or exercise. ## New highlights added 27-09-2022 at 9:32 PM ##### 2 Thinking with Movement 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. ([Location 878](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=878)) The continual small movements we make when standing as opposed to sitting—shifting our weight from one leg to another, allowing our arms to move more freely—constitute what researchers call “low-intensity” activity. As slight as these movements appear, they have a marked effect on our physiology: ([Location 936](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=936)) - Note: Small movements like these actually reduce the cognitive load of solving math problems and a ton of other cognitive problems in our lives. Fidgeting helps us think. Moderate-intensity exercise, practiced for a moderate length of time, improves our ability to think both during and immediately after the activity. ([Location 987](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=987)) 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. ([Location 1015](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1015)) - Note: If you walk too fast your thinking starts to be dominated by the walking itself. The optimal time is around 17 minutes per mile. we move our bodies, and our thoughts are influenced in turn. ([Location 1041](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1041)) - Note: Once again reminds me of Jame Langes theory of emotionality. 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.” ([Location 1048](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1048)) - Note: This is why many professional actors on stage refuse to memorize their lines until they have the movements associated with them. It aids in their memory. This reminds me of context dependent learning. The movements we do when we learn something become a cue for that learning. The research on using movement to enhance thinking identifies four types of helpful motion: congruent movements, novel movements, self-referential movements, and metaphorical movements. ([Location 1117](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1117)) The first of these, congruent movements, express in physical form the content of a thought. ([Location 1118](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1118)) novel movements: movements that introduce us to an abstract concept via a bodily experience we haven’t had before. ([Location 1149](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1149)) self-referential movements: movements in which we bring ourselves—in particular, our bodies—into the intellectual enterprise. ([Location 1175](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1175)) Albert Einstein, reportedly imagined himself riding on a beam of light while developing his theory of relativity. ([Location 1179](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1179)) ##### 3 Thinking with Gesture Moving our hands helps our heads to think more intelligently, ([Location 1327](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1327)) - Note: I always told my dad to stop moving as he talked. Now I realize it probably helps him think. In each exchange, gesture provides a preview of the concept that will be conveyed in words—and in both cases, the listener shows that he or she understands the sentiment (by nodding and murmuring) at the moment when he or she perceives the gesture, before the spoken part of the sentiment is uttered. From watching Heath’s tapes, it’s easy to conclude that most of our conversations are carried on with our hands, the words we speak a mere afterthought. ([Location 1351](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1351)) - Tags: [[pink]] - Note: How in the sake of peanut butter did we go from saying gesture helps convey meaning to it conveys more meaning than language. No. If you tried to understand someone with no language it wouldn’t work. At a moment when we cannot quite put words to a concept we’re struggling to comprehend, we can still move our hands in a way that captures some aspect of our emerging understanding. We may then be able to use the experience of making and seeing our own gesture to help us locate the appropriate language. ([Location 1431](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1431)) It’s possible, too, that we feel freer to try out new ideas in movement before committing to them in speech; ([Location 1433](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1433)) Gesture works to amplify the impact of speech: the sight of a speaker making gestures effectively captures listeners’ attention and directs it to the words being uttered. ([Location 1502](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1502)) - Note: This is why I think people will usually be more likely to have their mind influenced through physical speech than through the written medium. gesturing while speaking involves sinking multiple mental “hooks” into the material to be remembered—hooks that enable us to reel in that piece of information when it is needed later on. There is the auditory hook: we hear ourselves saying the words aloud. There is the visual hook: we see ourselves making the relevant gesture. And there is the “proprioceptive” hook; this comes from feeling our hands make the gesture. (Proprioception is the sense that allows us to know where our body parts are positioned in space.) ([Location 1588](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1588)) - Note: This reminds me of the concept that memory comes from a associated cue and the more cues there are for a memory the easier it comes back up. ### PART II Thinking with Our Surroundings ##### 4 Thinking with Natural Spaces nature helps us think better is by enhancing our ability to maintain our focus on the task in front of us. ([Location 1739](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1739)) research has found that using a smartphone while outside “substantially counteracts the attention enhancement effects” ([Location 1775](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1775)) “Natural environments are characterized by a deep degree of perceptual predictability and redundancy, whereas urban scenes tend to consist of perceptually divergent objects,” ([Location 1820](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1820)) - Note: This is why it’s so uncomfortable to be in urban environments. The constant influx of novel sensory stimuli make it hard for our slower adapting sensory receptors to take control. TIME SPENT IN NATURE relieves stress, restores mental equilibrium, and enhances the ability to focus and sustain attention. ([Location 1853](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1853)) - Note: Just being in a room with a view to the outdoors significantly increases focus, working memory, and lowers stress levels. Of course, it’s not only hospital patients who can benefit from regular doses of this “drug.” Our homes, schools, and workplaces could all become more cognitively congenial spaces if they were to incorporate elements of what is known as biophilic design. ([Location 1873](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1873)) - Note: Biophilic design is the art of building environments that integrate nature into their structure. Buildings with bamboo window frames, small office plants, and natural lighting all allow people inside of them to receive some benefits from being around nature. There is even evidence that views of nature are associated with improved academic performance. ([Location 1922](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1922)) Even a brief glance out the window can make a difference in our mental capacity. ([Location 1941](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1941)) - Note: Studies show just a forty five second microbreak looking out the window can replenish our mental resources. When we see or experience an urban setting, we are primed to feel competitive, to believe we need to grab what’s available. Nature, by contrast, inspires a feeling of abundance, a reassuring sense of permanence. ([Location 1968](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1968)) - Note: We are literally more likely to delay immediate gratification after spending a brief amount of time in nature than if not. research has demonstrated that people who take a walk in a natural setting overestimate how long the walk lasted, while people who have walked in an urban setting accurately estimate the amount of time that elapsed. ([Location 1972](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1972)) - Note: Nature walks slow time down. We feel we have been walking for longer than we have. I will connect this to my essay on the obsession with time in the modern era. Nature’s contributions to creative thought can be felt on a lunchtime stroll through the park. ([Location 1984](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=1984)) - Note: I noticed after my three day adventure with my dad doing the 90 miler race in the Adirondacks, I was significantly more creative coming back. I had used very little mental facilities during the adventure and therefore was fully recharged when I came back. 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”: ([Location 2002](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2002)) - Note: This reminds me of the lecture on Awe we talked about in social psychology. The experience of Awe basically makes us better human beings. Nature has a unique way of stimulating awe by its sheer vastness. This reminds me of the “overview effect” experienced by astronauts viewing earth from space. ##### 5 Thinking with Built Spaces the emerging field of “neuroarchitecture” has begun to examine empirically how the brain responds to buildings and their interiors, and to theorize about how these reactions might be shaped by our evolutionary history and by the biological facts of our bodies. ([Location 2077](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2077)) APART FROM OFFERING shelter from the elements, the most critical function of a built interior is simply to give us a quiet place to think. ... Throughout the long history of our species, we did our cogitating out in the open, in the moment, often on the run, relying on instinct and memory far more than considered reflection or careful analysis. ([Location 2110](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2110)) - Note: This reminds me of Jordan Peterson’s podcast episode on narrative where he points out how lecture halls are perfectly built to allow for students to maximize their attention on what the professor is saying. Walls, seats pointed at the front, and social expectations that there will be no talking unless the student raises their hand. “The wall was designed to protect us from the cognitive load of having to keep track of the activities of strangers,” ([Location 2122](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2122)) The notion of promoting collisions in a shared space comes with an appealing historical and intellectual pedigree. ([Location 2159](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2159)) The coffeehouse, as author Steven Johnson has told us in his influential writings on “where ideas come from,” is the arena where the modern world was born. ([Location 2160](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2160)) Today’s leaders and managers have seized on this notion: get people to “collide” with one another, the thinking goes, and magic will happen. ([Location 2167](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2167)) the coffeehouse was always a terrible model for a place in which complex, cognitively demanding work is to be carried out. ([Location 2184](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2184)) - Note: This is because of the novelty of the environment. Bustling social interaction and movement make deep work impossible. This reminds me of what Cal Newport describes as the whiteboard effect in his book. It’s the positive work effects that come when collaborators go into periods of deep work on their own and then come together at certain intervals to collaborate when problems arise. This reminds me of social facilitation because it suggests we are better at collaborating with others when discussing a learned thing instead of something completely novel. Maybe it helps us fight off groupthink? humans are especially attuned to the presence of novelty, to whatever appears new and different. ([Location 2188](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2188)) we are especially attuned to the sound of speech, especially when the words are distinct enough to make out. ([Location 2194](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2194)) we are especially attuned to the nuances of social interactions, alert to what people say to one another, and to what we think they will say. ([Location 2203](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2203)) Studies suggest that music with high intensity, fast tempos, and frequent variation is more distracting than more low-key, laid-back music. ([Location 2214](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2214)) - Note: Especially vocal music drains our attention abilities. We can’t choose not to see what enters our field of vision; it is nearly impossible to prevent our gaze from darting toward a visual stimulus that is new or in motion. ([Location 2219](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2219)) All this visual monitoring and processing uses up considerable mental resources, leaving that much less brainpower for our work. We know this because of how much better we think when we close our eyes. ([Location 2227](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2227)) - Note: When I’m recounting the major learnings in a chapter I can close my eyes to process it better. The way we act, the way we think, and even the way we perceive the world around us differ when we’re in a space that’s familiar to us—one that we have shaped through our own choices and imbued with our own memories of learning and working there in the past. 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. ([Location 2280](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2280)) - Note: When we are in an environment we know, we get cognitive support from it. It’s very structure bolsters good habits we have built there and imbues us with courage. In addition, because we know the environment our brain has to devote less effort to processing novel stimuli. Research on intermittent collaboration is based on the understanding that complex problem solving proceeds in two stages, the first of which entails gathering the facts we need to clarify the nature of the problem and begin constructing a solution. In this stage, communication and collaboration are essential. But there is a second phase, equally vital: the process of generating and developing solutions, and figuring out which of these solutions is best. During this phase, studies find, excessive collaboration is actually detrimental. ([Location 2303](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2303)) - Note: Excessive collaboration in the second phase is detrimental because of groupthink. Research shows that in the presence of cues of identity and cues of affiliation, people perform better: they’re more motivated and more productive. ([Location 2344](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2344)) - Note: In the pretense of Beatrice the Thinker Statue I feel strong. we need to have close at hand those prompts that highlight particular facets of our identity. Each of us has not one identity but many —worker, student, spouse, parent, friend—and different environmental cues evoke different identities. ([Location 2359](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2359)) - Note: This reminds me of reciprocal self concept and working self concept. It also reminds me of stereotype threat when people are reminded of negative stereotypes about their group in a situation those stereotypes could cause problems. high-ceilinged places incline us toward more expansive, abstract thoughts. ([Location 2458](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2458)) Symmetrical shapes, meanwhile, impress upon us a sense of power and robustness. ([Location 2461](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2461)) Curved shapes, it has been found, induce in us a sense of ease and comfort; ([Location 2465](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2465)) premodern forms, such as the monastery and the studiolo, that served their inhabitants well before the coffeehouse was even invented. ([Location 2476](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2476)) - Note: While the coffeehouse historically was a great collaborative environment it has dominated too much of office spaces. We need more individual thinking and work rooms like studios as well as separated collaborative and individual environments like monasteries. ## New highlights added 29-09-2022 at 2:08 PM ##### 6 Thinking with the Space of Ideas The method of loci is a venerable technique, invented by the ancient Greeks and used by educators and orators over many centuries. It works by associating each item to be remembered with a particular spot found in a familiar place, such as one’s childhood home or current neighborhood. ([Location 2504](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2504)) The difference between “superior memorizers” and ordinary people, Maguire determined, lay in the parts of the brain that became active when the two groups engaged in the act of recall; in the memory champions’ brains, regions associated with spatial memory and navigation were highly engaged, while in ordinary people these areas were much less active. ([Location 2517](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2517)) - Note: This suggests that humans hippocampus favors spatial memory cues. My guess is that it’s because when we where hunter gatherers we had to be good at finding our way back to places when opportunistically foraging such vast distances. “We are far better and more experienced at spatial thinking than at abstract thinking. ([Location 2527](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2527)) - Note: This is why I love the graph view so much compared to just no-directional Linking pane. It shows the linking of our ideas specially. When re-listening to a podcast or audiobook, for example, we may find that we spontaneously recall the place where we first heard the words. ([Location 2543](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2543)) - Note: This reminds me of how our memories are context dependent suggesting to remember something you have forgotten you should remember the space you encoded it in. 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. ([Location 2672](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2672)) - Note: This reminds me of what she said earlier about gesturing aiding recall because it associates a physical movement cue with a memory. Finally, a small screen requires us to engage in virtual navigation through information—scrolling, zooming, clicking—rather than the more intuitive physical navigation our bodies carry out so effortlessly. Robert Ball reports that as display size increases, virtual navigation activity decreases—and so does the time required to carry out a task. Large displays, he has found, require as much as 90 percent less “window management” than small monitors. ([Location 2684](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2684)) Daniel Reisberg, a professor emeritus of psychology at Reed College in Oregon, calls this shift in perspective the “detachment gain”: the cognitive benefit we receive from putting a bit of distance between ourselves and the content of our minds. When we do so, we can see more clearly what that content is made of—how many stripes are on the tiger, so to speak. ([Location 2759](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2759)) - Note: This reminds me of the concept of writing being an act of thinking. Notemaking is like time travel. It’s a conversation between your future and past selves. ### PART III Thinking with Our Relationships ##### 7 Thinking with Experts In an earlier chapter on sensations, we saw that our automatic and unconscious mimicry of other people helps us understand them better—aids us in sensing their emotions, for example. The same is true for more deliberate imitation. ([Location 2910](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2910)) - Note: Mimicry also makes us like people more. This reminds me of the rule of unity talked about in the psychology of persuasion. We know about the Roman system largely from the writings of Quintilian, the “master teacher of Rome.” ... Quintilian unapologetically asserted the value of copying. ([Location 2938](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2938)) - Note: Creativity is an act of assemblage. It’s a collaboration between ideas. This system of education, founded on mimicking the masters, was remarkably robust, persisting for centuries and spreading throughout Europe and beyond. Fifteen hundred years after Quintilian, children in Tudor England were still being taught in this fashion. ([Location 2945](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2945)) as the eighteenth century was drawing to a close, the Romantics arrived on the scene. This band of poets and painters and musicians worshiped originality, venerated authenticity. ... Their insistence on originality came in response to two major developments of the age. The first of these was industrialization. As factories rose brick by brick, an aesthetic countermovement mounted in tandem: machines could stamp out identical copies; only humans could come up with one-of-a-kind ideas. A particular sort of machine occasioned the second major development of the time: a flood of texts produced by the newly common printing press. ([Location 2952](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=2952)) IMITATION EVEN APPEARS to be behind our success as a species. Developmental psychologists are increasingly convinced that infants’ and children’s facility for imitation is what allows them to absorb so much, so quickly. So efficient is imitation as a method of learning, in fact, that roboticists are studying babies in order to understand how they pull off the trick of observing an adult and then doing as the grown-up does. ([Location 3115](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=3115)) preschoolers prefer to imitate people who have shown themselves to be knowledgeable and competent. ([Location 3126](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=3126)) At the same time, children are strikingly unselective about what they imitate—another ... Humans’ tendency to “overimitate”—to reproduce even the gratuitous elements of another’s behavior—may operate on a copy now, understand later basis. After all, there might be good reasons for such steps that the novice does not yet grasp, especially since so many human tools and practices are “cognitively opaque”: not self-explanatory on their face. ([Location 3129](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=3129)) ##### 8 Thinking with Peers Our brains evolved to think with people: to teach them, to argue with them, to exchange stories with them. Human thought is exquisitely sensitive to context, and one of the most powerful contexts of all is the presence of other people. ([Location 3320](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=3320)) - Note: This reminds me of reciprocal self esteem and your the average of the five people you hang out with most. Technologies such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) are allowing scientists to scan multiple people’s brains as they interact in naturalistic settings—making deals, playing games, or simply talking to one another. Using these tools, researchers have found persuasive evidence for what is known as the “interactive brain hypothesis”: the premise that when people interact socially, their brains engage different neural and cognitive processes than when those same people are thinking or acting on their own. ([Location 3337](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=3337)) students who learn information in preparation for teaching someone else review the material more intensively and organize it more thoroughly in their own minds than do students who are learning the same information in order to take a test. ([Location 3454](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=3454)) - Note: The thought of teaching someone else is more motivating than learning for a test. This reminds me of the Feynman Technique. “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. ([Location 3544](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=3544)) - Note: This reminds me of confirmation bias. This implies it would be better to read one’s own writing or critique one’s own work by pretending it’s someone else’s. “A pile of studies show that when people fight over ideas, and do so with mutual respect, they are more productive and creative.” ([Location 3565](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=3565)) - Note: The secret is to argue about the ideas not the persons giving them. 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; ([Location 3628](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=3628)) when we listen to a story, our brains experience the action as if it were happening to us. Brain-scanning studies show that when we hear about characters emoting, the emotional areas of our brains become active; ([Location 3638](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=3638)) ## New highlights added 30-09-2022 at 9:53 AM ##### 9 Thinking with Groups In behavioral synchrony, group members are moving their arms and legs as if they were one being; in physiological synchrony, their hearts are beating and their skin is perspiring as if they were one body. Both behavioral and physiological synchrony, in turn, generate greater cognitive synchrony. Emerging research even points to the existence of “neural synchrony”—the intriguing finding that when a group of individuals are thinking well together, their patterns of brain activity come to resemble one other’s. ([Location 3877](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=3877)) - Note: This reminds me of misattribution. The feeling of arousal from synchrony gets misattributed to feelings of companionship with those you were in synchrony with. “almost everything that human beings do today, in terms of generation of value, is no longer done by individuals. It’s done by teams.” What has not changed is our model of how intelligent thinking happens. We’re still convinced that good ideas and new insights and ingenious solutions come from a single brain; we’re a bunch of pencil-wielding Satyendra Boses in an era of particle accelerators and mega-collaborations. This fundamental mismatch lies at the root of many of our struggles with group work. ([Location 4070](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=4070)) - Note: This reminds me of Cal Newport’s Deep Work which states that it’s harder than ever before to work on a project four a long period with focused attention. The process by which we leverage an awareness of the knowledge other people possess is called “transactive memory.” ([Location 4140](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=4140)) - Note: I notice this happened with my brother all the time with remembering dates for things and plans he knew I would remember it all so he just relied on me telling it to him when he needed it. Research shows that groups perform best when each member is clearly in charge of maintaining a particular body of expertise—when each topic has its designated “knowledge champion,” as it were. Studies further suggest that it can be useful to appoint a meta-knowledge champion: an individual who is responsible for keeping track of what others in the group know and making sure that group members’ mental “directory” of who knows what stays up to date. ([Location 4170](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=4170)) - Note: In the Obsidian community I feel this is definitely happening. Nick Milo is the knowledge champion for linking your thinking philosophy on Video Creation. Emily is the Obsidian Roundup behind the scenes metaanalyzer. We have a whole bunch of plug in designers. For an individual thinking on her own, applying her mental effort toward the advancement of her own interests is a straightforward matter. ... Incentives must thus be engineered such that, instead of pursuing their own ends, group members are inspired by a sense of “shared fate”: ([Location 4174](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=4174)) - Note: I applied this on my Research Methods class by coming at the end decision for our study with a sense of playfulness. Effective mental extension, then, requires us to think carefully about inducing in ourselves the state that is best suited for the task at hand. ([Location 4281](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=4281)) Imagine a test that would evaluate how well an individual is able to use interoception, movement, and gesture to think; how adept she is at soaking up natural settings, designing built environments, and exploiting the space of ideas to enhance her cognition; how skillfully she manages thinking with experts, thinking with peers, and thinking with groups. Such an assessment could represent a new kind of IQ test, measuring a new sort of intelligence. ([Location 4400](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=4400)) - Note: Traditional IQ tests don’t measure peoples abilities to extend the mind at all. Unlike innate intelligence, which we imagine to be an inseparable part of who we “are,” access to mental extensions is more readily understood as a matter of chance or luck. This radically new conceptual theory harbors within it an old and humble moral sentiment: “There but for the grace of God go I.” Acknowledging the reality of the extended mind might well lead us to embrace the extended heart. ([Location 4420](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B07FKB3V5S&location=4420)) - Note: Understanding extended mind theory might make us more empathetic. : Understanding extended mind theory might make us more empathetic.