the smedley log - suburban scrawl

How we think

Radio Times, one of my favorite diversions from the morning talk radio nut-o-sphere, had a great second hour this morning. Discussed were ideas about how humans “multi-task” (as well as if they can actually multi-task), and the ways in which technology may be affecting (enriching?) intellectual capabilities in younger people. Or something like that.

I have so many ideas spurred by this line of thought, but no time to put them down, so I’ll just link to the show in two formats: streaming audio or mp3

I helped a friend w/ a paper once on “metacognition” which is kind of learning styles tapered to figuring out how people think. Of course, I retained virtually NONE of it, but a cool topic nonetheless.

Learning styles are interesting, and the show I linked to viewed learning style in terms of how beneficial modern video games actually are for building skills in planning and decision-making.

The other aspect that always has fascinated me is the myth of human multi-tasking. Of course, we can all (or at least most of us) walk and chew gum at the same time, but can any of us actually do two different “higher functions” simultaneously?

Marcel Just, who was featured in the first part of the hour, concurred with a major study (which I unfortunately don’t remember enough about to cite) that concluded that humans, like computer hard drives, don’t actually do two things at once unless one of them is an automatic function. Otherwise, we are switching back and forth the way a computer does, intermittently between one higher function and the other.