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I heard an episode of the Brain Science Podcast this weekend (No! A podcast? Me? Surely not!) on which the podcaster (Dr. Ginger Campbell) interviewed author John Medina about his book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School. It was an extremely interesting and entertaining interview, and based solely on that, I'll be buying the book. I encourage you to listen. Four things caught my interest.
First, study after study has shown that talking on the cell phone while driving—even with one of those hands-free sets—is equivalent to operating your car with a blood alcohol level of between .08 and .12. I believe that is illegal in every state. But the reasons may or may not be obvious. The problem is that you use two different parts of your brain to drive a car and to carry on a conversation. While you're carrying on a conversation with someone over the phone, you're mentally picturing them. Their faces and facial expressions, where they're located, etc. You're effectively dividing your attention between two very complicated things and it can reduce your reaction time by more than 50%.
So please, please, please reconsider talking on the phone while driving. Please? And don't get pissed at me if you call me on mine and I don't answer. If there is the slightest bit of traffic, I don't. I'll call you back when I can turn on cruise and slow down.
(And yes, I'm aware that Mythbusters also supported this conclusion, but in a much more entertaining way.)
The second really interesting thing he talked about was sleep. Did you ever get sleepy in the afternoon? It turns out that your body wants to take a nap at about 12 hours after the midpoint of your previous night's sleep. So if you go to bed at midnight and get up at 7 AM, the midpoint of your sleep cycle was 3:30 AM. So around 3:30 the next afternoon, your brain lets you know it want a nap. But here's the best part: if you indulge your brain and take a 40-minute nap, you "reset" your ability to concentrate for the next six hours or so.
Now, if only my boss would let me bring a pillow to work, I'd be golden. :)
The third thing that really caught my interest was about context switching. Computer geeks will know what I'm talking about instantly. You're working on something at your desk, and the phone rings. You answer it, take a few notes, then go back to what you were doing. An email arrives. You read it, reply, and then go back to what you were doing. A cow-orker drops by the desk to chat, so you stop, have a conversation, and then go back to what you're doing.
Each time you have to stop and focus on something else, you're reducing your effectiveness by an amazing amount. I didn't take notes last night listening to the podcast, so I don't remember numbers, but I remember him saying that it only takes the brain about .7 seconds to swap from one task to another, so when you switch back, that's a total of 1.4 seconds. However, the toll on your ability to concentrate is much worse. It's why people who try to multitask too much never seem to get anything done.
The fourth and final thing that I thought was really interesting is that the brain gets bored after 10 minutes if you don't give it something really interesting to do. You know those boring meetings where they just drone on and on and on and you phase out? Apparently, if they were to put up an animated graphic, it would be enough to keep your interest for another ten minutes. He goes on for quite some time about the brain's preference for what it pays attention to. It goes like this: moving 3D objects, moving 2D objects, static 3D objects, and then, finally, static 2D objects.
Ever watched a PowerPoint presentation that's nothing but slide after boring slide of words? Feh. If they were to simply animate something on the screen, it would increase our ability to pay attention to it by an amazing percentage.
Perhaps all of this is common sense. We knew it already. But in his book—and during the interview with Dr. Campbell—the author gives you a brain science reason so you can better understand what's going on inside that head of yours.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I need all the help I can get along those lines.
And now I'm going to context switch back to writing ASP code instead of making an LJ post. :)
First, study after study has shown that talking on the cell phone while driving—even with one of those hands-free sets—is equivalent to operating your car with a blood alcohol level of between .08 and .12. I believe that is illegal in every state. But the reasons may or may not be obvious. The problem is that you use two different parts of your brain to drive a car and to carry on a conversation. While you're carrying on a conversation with someone over the phone, you're mentally picturing them. Their faces and facial expressions, where they're located, etc. You're effectively dividing your attention between two very complicated things and it can reduce your reaction time by more than 50%.
So please, please, please reconsider talking on the phone while driving. Please? And don't get pissed at me if you call me on mine and I don't answer. If there is the slightest bit of traffic, I don't. I'll call you back when I can turn on cruise and slow down.
(And yes, I'm aware that Mythbusters also supported this conclusion, but in a much more entertaining way.)
The second really interesting thing he talked about was sleep. Did you ever get sleepy in the afternoon? It turns out that your body wants to take a nap at about 12 hours after the midpoint of your previous night's sleep. So if you go to bed at midnight and get up at 7 AM, the midpoint of your sleep cycle was 3:30 AM. So around 3:30 the next afternoon, your brain lets you know it want a nap. But here's the best part: if you indulge your brain and take a 40-minute nap, you "reset" your ability to concentrate for the next six hours or so.
Now, if only my boss would let me bring a pillow to work, I'd be golden. :)
The third thing that really caught my interest was about context switching. Computer geeks will know what I'm talking about instantly. You're working on something at your desk, and the phone rings. You answer it, take a few notes, then go back to what you were doing. An email arrives. You read it, reply, and then go back to what you were doing. A cow-orker drops by the desk to chat, so you stop, have a conversation, and then go back to what you're doing.
Each time you have to stop and focus on something else, you're reducing your effectiveness by an amazing amount. I didn't take notes last night listening to the podcast, so I don't remember numbers, but I remember him saying that it only takes the brain about .7 seconds to swap from one task to another, so when you switch back, that's a total of 1.4 seconds. However, the toll on your ability to concentrate is much worse. It's why people who try to multitask too much never seem to get anything done.
The fourth and final thing that I thought was really interesting is that the brain gets bored after 10 minutes if you don't give it something really interesting to do. You know those boring meetings where they just drone on and on and on and you phase out? Apparently, if they were to put up an animated graphic, it would be enough to keep your interest for another ten minutes. He goes on for quite some time about the brain's preference for what it pays attention to. It goes like this: moving 3D objects, moving 2D objects, static 3D objects, and then, finally, static 2D objects.
Ever watched a PowerPoint presentation that's nothing but slide after boring slide of words? Feh. If they were to simply animate something on the screen, it would increase our ability to pay attention to it by an amazing percentage.
Perhaps all of this is common sense. We knew it already. But in his book—and during the interview with Dr. Campbell—the author gives you a brain science reason so you can better understand what's going on inside that head of yours.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I need all the help I can get along those lines.
And now I'm going to context switch back to writing ASP code instead of making an LJ post. :)
Flames. Flames shooting out of my face.
If I'm expecting an important call, I'll answer the phone, put it on the passenger seat and yell, "I can't hear you, you'll have to wait for me to pull over".
I refuse to be one of them.
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(I've often wondered if our built-in desire to nap in the afternoon isn't a holdover from noon on the savanna -- really damn hot, and a good idea to sleep through. We've evolved into the siesta!)
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I know I say a lot of negative-sounding things about where I work, but those are just irritations (except the insurance bit; that's a thorn in my side). It really is a nice place to work most days. :)
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Rather than animated graphics, he likes to deliver what he calls "itches"—expectations of bigger, more interesting information to come, to engage them and grab their attention. Then again, he also uses PowerPoint as a sales and visualization tool rather than a pure information tool. That'd be boring.
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Also, this sounds like a really interesting interview. I knew 1,3, and 4 from experience, but the nap thing was new. I've never been able to take naps, but I always have to take about an hour sometime after 3:00 p.m. to let my brain, not rest exactly, but just kind of not think. When I was still in school, I used to watch TV, but lately I either play some mindless game on the computer (less good) or do something that takes up all my attention but doesn't exactly require thinking like callligraphry or some arts-and-crafts-type thing (better).
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I often come to things through a "back door" route that's different from others. :)
I discovered Johnathan Coulton because his song "Skullcrusher Mountain" was featured on an episode of Escape Pod (science fiction podcast). I discovered Da Vinci's Notebook because I was looking for something else, and by my descriptions, one of my LJ friends mentioned DVN and the next thing I knew, I owned all their albums and was seeking live shows. :)
Imagine my squee of glee when I discovered that two members of DVN are now touring with Johnathan Coulton. I can't wait 'til they come back to Atlanta. I missed them the first time.