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Famed cognitive neuroscientist Professor Daniel Levitin attracted a sell-out crowd during his visits to Cambridge and London last month.
CSaP jointly hosted two talks delivered by Dan Levitin last month – the first in collaboration with the Government Office for Science, and the following evening with Cambridge Neuroscience.
We take in five times more information per day than we did in 1986
Professor Levitin began the talk by highlighting the remarkable amount of information to which we are exposed. On average, we take in five times more information per day than we did in 1986, amounting to reading 174 broadsheet newspapers cover to cover. Dan is in no doubt that we are in an era of information overload, exposed to more information than our brains can process.
The ability to multi-task does not exist
Three big ideas drawn from neuroscience can help us deal with the era of information overload; multi-tasking, or rather its non-existence; the secrets of productivity; and how to optimise decision-making. Attention is a limited-capacity resource, as demonstrated by the everyday occurrence of turning down the radio and asking the children to be quiet when parking the car. The ability to multi-task does not exist – rather we can only sequentially task. Each shift in attention uses up precious glucose reserves and releases the stress hormone cortisol. As a result multi-tasking renders us jittery and clouds our thinking.
It follows that a key to productivity is focus. Wealthier individuals hire staff to organise their time and attention, with no room for attempted multi-tasking. Whilst we cannot all have our own assistants, we can rigorously schedule any time-bound activity in our calendar. We can also manage our communications so that we are not always reachable, removing distractions.
Mind-wandering has a restorative effect
Ten years ago neuroscientists discovered a second cognitive network which complemented the central executive mode already known: the mind-wandering network. This network encourages associations, restores neural processes, and fosters problem-solving due to its non-linearity. Two fifteen-minute mind-wandering sessions a day have a restorative effect, and a fifteen-minute nap during the day equates to ten extra effective IQ points and an hour of extra sleep the previous night.
Professor Levitin then discussed how we can optimise our decision-making by planning a strategy ahead of time and asking the right questions. Too often our cognitive biases cloud our judgement. Statistics are a particular stumbling block, so learn which numbers are important. For example, when deciding whether to undergo a medical treatment or procedure, ask the number needed to treat:the number of people who need to undergo the treatment before one person is helped.
Dan rounded off his talk and invited questions from the audience. In response to a query on the co-development of information and information-processing tools, he pointed out that aids such as Google adapt to your preferences to personalise results, meaning that people’s exposure to contrasting perspectives may be reduced in the future. Another audience member asked whether digital natives showed an increased capability for multi-tasking compared to digital immigrants, to which the answer was no – they just think they do! On that reassuring note, the formal part of the evening came to a close, and attendees were able to discuss the talk over drinks.
Banner image from Kent Kanouse on Flickr
