When I was studying at high school and especially university I noticed a strange internal process that happened to me. I was never a great student anyway with a lot of the reason being that my memory for the types of things taught is not very good. I also don't remember song lyrics, no matter how many times I read them and sing along.
What I did notice quite early on was that I tune out. It isn't daydreaming as it is more active than passive although I am not consciously doing it. It doesn't just happen in classes or lectures where I must listen, it happens when I study alone also.
As my mind tunes out, I find myself hearing or reading the words but nothing much soaks into memory at all. What I quickly found was that the times that this happened, it was those very topics that were on the exams and I didn't have an information to answer.
I did a little of my own thinking about this process as I tend to do and came to the conclusion that my mind just didn't want to know these things. But I did.
The brain is a lazy thinker and as capable as it is, does not actually want to consider very much at all. If it can create a heuristic for a process it will and given the chance, will stick to it until it is physically impossible to do so. This supposedly saves precious calories from a time when fast food and soda was not available.
But why, if 'I' am invested in trying to learn something would my brain decide, 'nope, not going to do the work'? The problem I figure is that when the brain meets information it doesn't know or doesn't want to think about, it falls into a default mode. And that default is to save calories.
This is probably why many people click through warnings and fine print while knowing that they should read them even more carefully. Too much work, not going to do it says the brain. Knowing and doing are two different things.
So, my brain was avoiding either gaps in knowledge or perhaps things that conflicted with its own position. I would suggest gaps because it seems that when it comes across cognitive dissonance, my brain is more than ready to burn all of the energy it can get a hold off in an attempt to remove the conflict. Win or learn (painfully).
So the things I actually want to learn, my brain doesn't. Handy for someone that is trying to pass the tests required to go on and have a fabulous career as a middle manager, which is where I think my degree would lead most people.
I can't imagine that I am the only one who has experienced this phenomena and I am quite sure that it appears in other areas also. Perhaps when we read a headline and entry of an article for example, and as the article develops in detail and places we do not know, we tune out and say, 'I know enough'. We think we have good understanding but have actually stopped not very far past where we were already comfortable.
Learned just enough to feel like we learned something, but probably not enough for it to be useful. Lot's of gaps still exist but we have decided that we 'know'.
I found that the only way for me to combat this background process from kicking in and affecting me was to actively look for it, kind of like a background scan process. At school, I would enter into the class knowing that I am likely to hear things I don't know so I would remind myself to switch on the scan.
Taking the effort to actually think through this meant that more often than not, I was able to recognise it happening early enough to bring focus back to the lesson and consistently enough to reduce the consequences.
Even still now, while listening or reading I hear my mind saying 'aha, aha' as it tries to trick me into thinking it is thinking. It is a wily little process. I wonder how much in my life I have missed because I believed my brain was doing it's job when all it was doing was pretending?
A lot of the training I do for clients is finding gaps in skill sets and closing them. I find it kind of ironic that my own brain is essentially trying to avoid filling the its gaps. Perhaps, this is why my clients have such gaps to begin with, perhaps we all work in this way.
So, am I crazy or do other people have a brain that tricks them into thinking it is thinking too?
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
I think the best way to combat this is active analysys. When you are studying and or class your goal should not be to remember and retain the information you are presented with, but to understand it. So instead of occupying your brain with the scan process, I suggest that you focus your attention in analyzing what you are looking at. You can use question like "Why is this the case?", "What does this entail?", "Could this information be wrong and why?", "What is the underlying principle that causes this?", "What else am I familiar with that is similar?" and so on. When you are engaged in analyzing things, you are much more likely to understand them and the only real way to learn something is through understanding and making real mental connections.
Maybe I didn't explain well. It is hard to consider when I have already tuned out if you know what I mean.
I agree with you but this happens before I have a chance to do anything with it. Essentially, unless I stop the process from happening, nothing goes in.
You are right, it's very hard to understand. Each of us is used to their own inner workings and I guess I can't fully comprehend what you are explaining since it seems that my brain works in a pretty dissimilar way in that regard. So I think you are explaining it pretty clearly, I guess I wasn't fully getting it because of my own presumptions.
So.... maybe I am crazy :D
I actually do what you suggested but I can only do it if I have first tuned in which means catching the bad habit before it has a chance to take hold.
For my memory to hold anything, I have to understand it. I had a lot if trouble in maths because it was taught by memory rather than application and at the time, I didn't have the gumption to learn without the teachers.
You're surely not crazy, it's just that we're all a bit different and have our own ways of processing information and the world in general. It's all fine as long as you manage to find something that works for you! :)
I like yours
amazing
My son had the same problem in college and this sounds like what he was trying to describe to me. He managed to graduate finally but it was very painful for him, lots of anxiety and several failed classes. Thanks for the insight!
I suspect the best antidote to combat and cure definitely this transitory reluctant syndrome to fill the gaps, surprisingly could be done by just spoon feeding your brain occasionally with a couple spoons of the mind-versions of Scott's Emulsion or Phillips Milk of Magnesia sprayed with high doses of Simply Plain Curiosity when the opportunity looks about right. :)