Week 1 or Weak one?

Week one of the course begun and I got straight into watching the video lectures and something struck me right away, I like video lectures.

I used to attend lectures at university, some amazing people telling us about amazing stuff, (I was doing a Diploma in applied psychology for adults with learning difficulties) but although I passed with flying colours, I struggled. While I was making a note, or even a drawing of the concept being discussed I would miss the next bit. My dyslexia doesn't help, needing more time to write or note take and struggling with the PowerPoint presentations (the words wiggle about and make me miss read, my eyes become tired very quickly under these high contrast conditions and frustration kicks in).

Now I realize, if each lecture had been videoed, I could have attended, to get the feel, the overview, and ask questions. Then I could watch it back to make notes, take in, ponder and apply all the stuff I have learnt this week. This revelation hit me right away, as I paused, rewound and re-watched the lectures.

Below is a sample of the video lectures, this one is the summing up at the end of the week.

                      Dr Barbara Oakley, 2-10 Summery of week 1, Coursera 2014, Online video. mp4

We started off gently, looking at the 'Focused' and 'Diffuse' modes. This was done using the analogy of a pinball machine, one where the bumpers are tightly spaced and the ball (Thought) hits a small group (Small neuro pathway), this is the 'Focused' mode. (See illustration below). The 'Diffuse' mode is illustrated by the bumpers being more widely spaced allowing the thought to move more freely.



Focused and diffuse thinking, image © Kevin Mendez, 2014.

Okay, at this early point in the course I was thinking that this was a bit lame, but it didn't take long, particularly when they started to give scientific explanations and research papers to deepen this simple analogy. (I'll post some links to great papers I have read later)

Incidentally, the coin shown in the diagram importantly illustrates that you cant be in the two modes at the same time, (can only see one side of the coin or the other).

In the third video lecture, we found out that after Edison had focused on a problem that he was stuck on, he would relax in his chair with some ball baring's in his hand. When he fell asleep the balls would drop and wake him, immediately going back to the problem he was trying to solve. By focusing and then going into the Diffuse mode, he would be able to have the problem accessing other parts of his memory to be more creative in his thinking. Cool. So all my staring into space when working on a problem is just me getting into my diffuse mode, (ehhhhum). But what I have found is that when a tough problem has me stumped, taking a bit of time out to watch the tree blowing in the wind, or a squirrel darting around the lawn, really helps. Even better for me is a little walk, I seem to be most creative then.

One bit this week I really liked was in Video lecture 3a, where Dr Terrance Sejnowski showed us a picture of a Dendrite with newly grown synapse formed on it after learning. The actual growth of new synapses, amazing.

A dendritic branch protruding from an apical tuft neuron sprouts a bounty of new spines (filled arrows) and loses a couple (open arrows) 24 hours after mice learn a new task. Sleep deprivation prevented these new spines from cropping up.

From this paper: Yang G, Gan WB. Sleep contributes to dendritic spine formation and elimination in the developing mouse somatosensory cortex. Dev Neurobiol. 2012 Nov;72(11):1391-8. Epub 2012 Jul 13 PubMed

For this to happen it takes:

• Practice - Focused practice helps the working memory move to the long term memory
• Sleep - Getting enough sleep helps the brain 'wash out' all the toxins built up during the day

(We haven't looked at diet yet but I'm sure it will be added to this list)

So now I was starting to see a physiological and empirically based rational for the approach to learning that we are being shown, now they had my attention on this course and I was already starting to think of implications for my work, (discussed later).

We went on to look at 'Procrastination', something my wife is saying I do on a regular basis, (which reminds me, I must do the mopping when I've finished this), and we were introduced to the Pomodoro technique. I've been using it while I study for this course, and I must admit (but don't tell my wonderful wife) that it works well. It didn't seem to transfer so well to more mundane things but for focused thinking it works a treat.

After looking at the importance of PRACTICE, hardening up that Neuro pathway and getting it into your storage area (long term memory), we went on to looking more closely at Memory.
I'd not thought about having a 'Working memory' and a 'Long term memory' for a long time, but way back somewhere I had covered this before, but because I hadn't used it much it was fading away. It was great to revisit it and I've already used it in an explanation relating to a particular behavior that someone was showing at work. In the summing up video I posted above you can get the gist of it.

We also looked at the importance of sleep and exercise in terms of learning and Neural development, I found some great research that supports this further on brainfacts.org along with a stunning picture:

They found that as fledgling cells in the hippocampus grow, the mitochondria undergo significant changes to support these cells. Specifically, exercise — which is already known to boost the creation of new neurons — increased the number and position of the mitochondria present in these cells, a key reminder of how behavior can affect ongoing brain development.

By the end of the week I managed to get 100% in the quiz and was really enjoying it.

But what can I apply to my work setting from this weeks learning?:-

• The use of Analogies - The power of having a mental picture that you can identify with is extremely useful. I'm just about to go to a meeting to discuss 'Observation' (Managers observing their teams working with the people they support and giving feedback) I've come up with three observation modes/areas that I want to discuss and developed a visual analogy to help with this.

Observation modes (In a care setting) - The Helicopter, Binoculars and the Microscope - By Bob Iles

• The importance of exercise - Sometime the people we support have difficulty processing what is being asked of them. I now have another reason to suggest that taking a break is 'cognitively speaking' a good thing to do. It can not only give them time to process but can help them to go into the 'Diffuse mode' to see where the request/demand best fits. Go back to it after a walk or leisure activity.
• Sleep and problem solving - Some people that we support have difficulty with what is happening in the future. To help with this we develop things like orientation boards, a place that with words and/or pictures they can go to with Staff to see what is about to happen. I always recommend changing the board the evening before to give the person time to 'digest' what they will be doing tomorrow. I now know that this is the right thing to do in terms of the brains ability to go over the issues in a 'Diffuse' way.
• The Pomodoro technique - I've been finding this useful myself and am pondering over the intensiveness of some of the Behavioral psychology training I deliver. I'm asking people to concentrate for a couple of hours at a time on tricky content and am thinking about this in terms of 25 minutes chunks. I'll be discussing this at our next team meeting where we can change the format of our training.

So, week one has been great, there has been so much to think about and too much to put in this post but I hope I have given you a good flavor. I've discovered that I am not as weak in learning how to learn as I thought but have a long way to go. Roll on Week 2.