The Science of Thinking

Summary

The script explores the discomfort of thinking and the brain's two systems: the quick, automatic 'Gun' and the slow, conscious 'Drew.' It illustrates how our brains tend to avoid effortful thinking, often leading to errors like the 'Bat and Ball' problem. The video emphasizes the importance of active learning and the need to engage 'Drew' to overcome cognitive limitations, drawing parallels to advertising strategies and educational methods that provoke deeper thought.

Takeaways

• 🤔 Thinking is often seen as an uncomfortable activity that people tend to avoid due to the effort it requires.
• 🌏 Common misconceptions, like the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun, highlight the tendency to rely on quick, incorrect answers rather than engaging in deeper thought.
• 🧐 The 'Bat and Ball' problem illustrates the cognitive bias where people accept intuitive but incorrect answers without verification.
• 🤓 The script introduces 'System One' and 'System Two' as two cognitive systems within our brain, with 'Gun' (System One) being quick and automatic, and 'Drew' (System Two) being conscious and effortful.
• 🧠 'Gun' operates on long-term memory, making quick, automatic responses possible, while 'Drew' relies on working memory, which is limited in capacity.
• 🔁 Learning involves transferring tasks from 'Drew' to 'Gun' by building larger 'chunks' of information in long-term memory through repetition and practice.
• 🎼 The concept of 'muscle memory' in musicians and athletes is an example of skills that have become automated through practice, now managed by 'Gun'.
• 📈 The 'Add One' task is used to demonstrate the physiological signs of cognitive effort, such as pupil dilation, when 'Drew' is actively working.
• 📉 Making tasks more difficult, such as by using hard-to-read fonts, can actually improve performance by forcing 'Drew' to engage more deeply with the problem.
• 🏷️ Advertising strategies that involve confusion or ambiguity can be more effective because they capture attention by bypassing 'Gun's' automatic filters and engaging 'Drew'.
• 🏫 Educational methods are evolving from passive lectures to more interactive formats to encourage deeper engagement and learning, which requires more effort from 'Drew'.

Q & A

Why do people often avoid thinking?

People tend to avoid thinking because it is uncomfortable and requires effort, as illustrated by the script through examples of common misconceptions.

What is the 'toy bat and toy ball' problem and what is the correct answer?

The 'toy bat and toy ball' problem is a question where the bat and ball together cost $1.10, and the bat costs a dollar more than the ball. The correct answer, contrary to the common misconception of ten cents, is that the ball costs five cents.

What are the two systems of the brain that the script refers to as 'Gun' and 'Drew'?

Gun represents System 1, which is quick and automatic, processing information without conscious awareness. Drew represents System 2, which is conscious thought, capable of following instructions and executing a series of steps, but is slower and requires effort.

How does System 1 (Gun) process information?

System 1 processes information automatically, quickly, and without conscious awareness, picking out relevant bits and discarding the rest, making assumptions and filling in gaps based on prior experiences.

What is the role of System 2 (Drew) in cognitive tasks?

System 2 (Drew) is responsible for conscious thought, capable of following instructions, executing a series of steps, and catching and fixing mistakes, but it is slower and requires more effort.

What is the concept of 'chunking' as mentioned in the script?

Chunking is the process of grouping things together according to prior knowledge, which allows us to hold more information in working memory by creating larger chunks of familiar information.

How does learning relate to the transition of tasks from Drew to Gun?

Learning is the process of building more and bigger chunks by storing and connecting information in long-term memory, which essentially transfers tasks from the conscious, effortful processing of Drew to the automatic processing of Gun.

What is the 'Add One task' and why is it significant?

The 'Add One task' is an exercise where participants read out four digits, then after a pause, say each number back with one added, on the beat. It is significant because it forces Drew (System 2) to engage actively with the information, demonstrating the physiological response to cognitive effort.

How does the script explain the errors in the 'Bat and Ball' question?

The script explains that the errors in the 'Bat and Ball' question occur because Gun (System 1) quickly provides an answer based on the initial perception of the problem, and Drew (System 2) endorses it without checking due to laziness and the reasonableness of the answer.

What effect does making a test harder to read have on the accuracy of answers?

According to the script, making a test harder to read, such as with poor font and contrast, can actually increase the accuracy of answers. This is because it forces Drew (System 2) to work harder and engage more deeply with the problem to arrive at the correct answer.

How does the script relate the concepts of Gun and Drew to advertising and education?

The script relates Gun and Drew to advertising by explaining that confusing or unclear ads engage Drew (System 2) more effectively, as Gun (System 1) cannot filter them out. In education, the script suggests that traditional lectures are being replaced by more interactive formats to force students to engage more deeply with the material, making Drew work harder and promoting learning.

What does the script suggest about the nature of expertise and the willingness to be uncomfortable?

The script suggests that to become an expert and truly learn, one must be willing to be uncomfortable, engage with confusion, and put in the effortful thinking that Drew (System 2) represents, rather than relying on the automatic processing of Gun (System 1).

Outlines

00:00

😖 The Discomfort of Thinking

This paragraph explores the human aversion to thinking and the tendency to avoid it due to its inherent discomfort. It uses examples such as misconceptions about the Earth's orbit around the Sun and a common math problem involving a bat and a ball to illustrate how people often fail to check their answers due to the discomfort of thinking. The paragraph introduces the concept of 'System One' and 'System Two' from psychology, personified as 'Gun' and 'Drew', to explain the dual processes of the brain. Gun represents quick, automatic responses, while Drew symbolizes conscious thought and effortful reasoning. The summary emphasizes the limitations of working memory and how learning involves transferring tasks from Drew's conscious effort to Gun's automatic processing.

05:00

🧠 The Struggle of Conscious Thought

The second paragraph delves into the physiological manifestations of cognitive effort, particularly focusing on 'Drew', the conscious thought process. It describes an 'Add One' task that requires individuals to remember and manipulate numbers, leading to observable physiological responses like pupil dilation, increased heart rate, and sweat production. The paragraph contrasts this with everyday life where most tasks are handled automatically by 'Gun', the quick and efficient system. It also discusses how confusion or difficulty can prompt Drew to engage more deeply, leading to better learning outcomes. The summary touches on the implications for advertising and education, suggesting that confusion can sometimes be beneficial in capturing attention and promoting learning.

10:03

🚴‍♂️ The Path to Mastery Through Discomfort

The final paragraph emphasizes the necessity of discomfort for learning and improvement. It contrasts the ease of automated tasks with the effort required for deliberate practice, which leads to the development of expertise. The paragraph discusses the shift from traditional lectures to more interactive teaching methods in universities, highlighting the importance of active engagement for learning. It also touches on the appeal of familiar activities and the avoidance of challenging situations, which can hinder growth. The summary concludes with a call to embrace the discomfort of thinking as a path to mastery and expertise.

Keywords

💡Thinking

Thinking, as depicted in the video, is the cognitive process of considering various aspects of a problem or issue. It is central to the theme as the script discusses the discomfort many people feel when thinking and the tendency to avoid it. The script uses examples like the Earth's orbit and the 'Bat and Ball' problem to illustrate common misconceptions that arise from not engaging in thoughtful analysis.

💡System One and System Two

These terms refer to two distinct cognitive systems proposed by psychologists to explain how the brain operates. System One, named 'Gun' in the script, is fast and automatic, handling routine tasks and sensory input. System Two, 'Drew', is slower, conscious, and deliberate, responsible for complex problem-solving. The video uses these concepts to explain the divide between effortless and effortful thinking, with examples of how each system contributes to our understanding and mistakes.

💡Blind Spots

Blind spots in the context of the video are the cognitive biases or errors that stem from our brain's fundamental operations. They are the gaps in our understanding or awareness that lead to incorrect assumptions or judgments. The video suggests that these blind spots are revealed through common mistakes in simple problems, indicating that even smart individuals can fall into cognitive traps.

💡Working Memory

Working memory is the cognitive system responsible for temporarily storing and manipulating information. The script mentions that Drew exists within working memory, which has a limited capacity, typically holding only four or five novel pieces of information at a time. The concept is crucial to understanding the video's theme, as it explains why effortful thinking is uncomfortable and how it can be improved through chunking.

💡Chunking

Chunking is a mental process that allows us to group individual pieces of information into larger units or 'chunks', making it easier to remember complex information. The script illustrates this concept by comparing the difficulty of remembering a string of random numbers versus the ease of remembering the same numbers when they form a familiar pattern or year, like 2017.

💡Long-term Memory

Long-term memory is the brain's capacity to store information over extended periods. In the video, it is associated with System One (Gun) and is described as the repository of experiences and automatic responses built up over a lifetime. The script emphasizes the role of long-term memory in learning and the development of automatic skills.

💡Deliberate Practice

Deliberate practice is a focused and structured approach to learning that involves actively engaging with material and repeating it until it becomes automatic. The video script uses the example of learning to tie shoelaces and the concept of muscle memory to explain how deliberate practice leads to the automation of skills through the transition from working memory to long-term memory.

💡Pupil Dilation

Pupil dilation is a physiological response that occurs when the brain is working hard, particularly when engaged in effortful thinking. The script describes an experiment where participants' pupil dilation was observed during challenging tasks, indicating the activation of System Two (Drew) and serving as a visible measure of cognitive effort.

💡Cognitive Effort

Cognitive effort refers to the mental energy required to process information, especially when it involves conscious thought and problem-solving. The video emphasizes that cognitive effort is often uncomfortable, as it requires active engagement of System Two (Drew), and gives examples of how making tasks harder (e.g., using a hard-to-read font) can increase cognitive effort and lead to better outcomes.

💡Learning

Learning, in the context of the video, is the process of acquiring new knowledge, skills, or understanding through active engagement with information. The script explains that learning involves building bigger chunks in long-term memory and transferring tasks from working memory to long-term memory, which is achieved through effortful thinking and deliberate practice.

💡Uncomfortable

The term 'uncomfortable' in the video script refers to the mental discomfort experienced when engaging in effortful thinking or learning new things. It is used to describe the resistance people often feel towards cognitive challenges and the importance of embracing this discomfort as a necessary part of the learning process.

Highlights

People generally find thinking unpleasant and try to avoid it.

The Earth's revolution around the Sun is commonly misunderstood.

The 'toy bat and ball' problem reveals a common cognitive error.

The ball actually costs five cents, not ten, in the toy problem.

Cognitive errors are often due to the discomfort of thinking, not stupidity.

The brain operates with two systems: System One (Gun) and System Two (Drew).

System One is quick and automatic, while System Two is slow and conscious.

System Two (Drew) is capable of following instructions and executing steps.

System One (Gun) processes information automatically without conscious awareness.

Our perceptions are largely based on Gun's automatic responses from long-term memory.

Working memory, associated with Drew, is limited but can be expanded through chunking.

Learning involves building larger memory chunks to automate tasks.

Practice leads to the automation of skills, reducing the workload on System Two.

The Add One task is a method to observe the workload of System Two.

Dilating pupils indicate the effort of System Two during cognitive tasks.

Confusion forces System Two to work harder, leading to better learning outcomes.

Difficult-to-read tests can improve cognitive engagement and accuracy.

Advertising and education are adapting to engage System Two more effectively.

To become an expert, one must be willing to embrace the discomfort of thinking.

Transcripts

For most of us, thinking is at least somewhat unpleasant.

We try to avoid it, where possible.

For example:

I asked these guys how long does it take for the earth to go around the Sun.

- What do you reckon, cuz?

- Isn't it 24 hours ? - Obviously a day, yes.

Or take this problem

which has been given to thousands of college students.

You go into a toy store,

and there's a toy bat and a toy ball.

Together they cost 1.10$.

And the bat costs a dollar more than the ball.

How much does the ball cost ?

- Ten cents.

- We're all wrong aren't we?

- WHAT'S THE ANSWER ?

If you think about it for just a second

it's obvious that the ball can't cost ten cents,

because if it did, then the bat

would cost 1.10$ and the two items

together would cost 1.20$.

The correct answer is five cents.

Now, the point of these questions is not that they're difficult.

Any of these people

could have quickly check their answer if they wanted to.

The point is that they don't check

because thinking is uncomfortable.

It takes effort.

- Hey, the Earth doesn't take one day to get around the Sun.

- Takes like a year!

[LAUGHS]

Now, I think it would be easy to put these mistakes down to

stupidity,

and believe that you, being much smarter, could never fall into such traps.

But then I think you'd be fooling yourself.

I think these examples reveal blind spots in all of our thinking

due to the fundamental way that our brains work .

Now, one way of modeling how the brain

operates is as though there are two

systems at work

psychologists call them system one and

system two but maybe it's useful to

think of them as characters so let's

call system one Gun and system two Drew.

You are Drew. he represents your

conscious thought, the voice in your head.

"I am who you think you are"

he's the one capable of following instructions.

He can execute a series of steps.

If you are asked to calculate 13 x 17 in your head, for example,

he is the one who has to do it.

"can just use my calculator?"

no..."all right, um, seventeen times...."

Drew is lazy

it takes effort to get Drew to do anything

and he is slow but he's the careful one,

capable of catching and fixing mistakes...

"221".

Now meet system one Gun.

He is incredibly quick,

which he needs to be since he's constantly

processing copious amounts of

information coming in through your

senses. He picks out the relevant bits

and discard the rest, which is most of it,

and he works automatically without you,

Drew, being consciously aware of what

he is doing. For example when you spot

them text he reads it before you can

even decide whether or not you want to

read it

Gun fills in the gaps. For example, what

does this say?

Did you notice that the "H" in 'the'

'A' in 'cat' are actually the same symbol

but you had no trouble reading it

because Gun made the correct, automatic,

assumption, so although Drew is unaware

of what Gun is doing, its Guns

perceptions that become the basis for

your conscious thoughts. The way I like

to think of it

each of these characters is related to

one of your main memory structures, Guns

automatic responses are made possible by

long-term memory, the library of

experiences you've built up over your

lifetime. In contrast, Drew exists

entirely within working memory so he's

only capable of holding four or five

novel things in mind

at a time. This is perhaps one of the

best-known findings from psychology. That

our capacity to hold and manipulate

novel information is incredibly limited

like when trying to remember a string of

random numbers. "6 7 5 5 3 1"

(offscreen)Yes! But we are able to overcome these

limitations if the information is

familiar to us. For example, let me give

you four random digits "7102". Now these would

normally take up most of your working

memory capacity just to remember, but, if

you reverse them, 2017, there now just one

thing the present year the process of

grouping things together according to

your prior knowledge is called chunking

and you can actually hold four or five

chunks in working memory at once. So the

larger the chunks

the more information you can actively

manipulate at one time. Learning is then,

the process of building more and bigger

chunks by storing and further connecting

information in long-term memory

essentially passing off tasks from Drew

to Gun. But in order for this to happen,

Drew first has to engage with the

information actively and effort-fully,

often multiple times. For example, when

you were first learning to tie your

shoelaces, you probably recited a rhyme to

help you remember what to do next

using up all your working memory in the

process. But after doing it over and over

and over again, it gradually became

automatic, that is, Drew doesn't have to

think about it anymore because Guns got it.

Musicians and sports stars refer to this

as muscle memory, though of course, the memory

is not the muscles

it's still in the brain just controlled

by Gun. "You can practice everything

exactly as it is, and exactly as it's written

but at just such a speed that you have to

think about and know exactly where you

are and what your fingers are doing and what

it feels like." Slow deliberate conscious

practice repeated often enough, leads to this:

I bet 99% of the time what appears to be

superhuman ability, comes down to the

incredible automation skills of Gun,

developed through the painstaking

deliberate practice of Drew. What's

interesting is, its actually possible to

see how hard Drew is working, just by

looking at someone. Try this task: I'm

going to show you four digits, I want you

to read them out loud and then after two

beats, I want you to say each number back

on the beat, but adding one to each digit.

So, as an example, 7 2 9 1 (beats in background)

should be...

8

3

0

2

This is called the Add One task and it

forces Drew to hold these digits and

memory while making manipulations to

them. Now it's important to say the

numbers back on the beat. Try this one:

(beats in background at regular interval)

To make it harder, you can try adding 3

instead of 1.

Ready?

(beats in background at regular interval)

Now what you're unaware of, is that, as

you're completing this task, your pupils

are dilating. When Drew is hard at work,

as he is in this task, you have a

physiological response: including

increased heart rate, sweat production,

and pupil dilation.

Watch how the pupils of these participants enlarge as they

perform the Add One and Add Three tasks.

4...3...9...7...2

(beats in backrgound)

5...4...0...8...3

(offscreen) Excellent! nicely done.

(offscreen conversation)..."this requires a lot of thinking" "I know, that's the point

6 9 1 6

7 0 2 7

When this research was originally carried out the researchers

made a surprising observation: when the

participants were not engaged with the

tasks that were just chatting with the

experimenters their pupils didn't really

dilate at all..

this indicates that the Add One and Add Three

tasks are particularly strenuous

for system two, and that most of our

day-to-day life is a stroll for Drew

with most tasks handled automatically by

Gun. Just as we spend a lot of our lives

lounging around, our brains spend most of

their time doing the mental equivalent.

And I don't mean to make that sound like a

bad thing, this is how our brains evolved

to make the best use of resources. For

repetitive tasks we developed automatic

ways of doing things, reserving Drew's

limited capacity for things that really

need our attention, but in some

circumstances there can be mix-ups.

For example, I moved to Australia in 2004 and

one of the first things I learned was

that turn the lights on you flick the

switch down.

My whole life growing up in Canada Gun had automated that 'up' means

'on', so no matter how well I, Drew, knew

that 'down' was 'on' in Australia I would

for years, continually switch the lights

off when entering a room and on when

leaving. When Destin learn to ride the

backwards bicycle with its steering

reverse it took months to overcome his

automated habitat and once he had done

that he couldn't easily go back to

writing a normal bike. Understanding Gun

and Drew also explains errors in the "Bat

and Ball" question. Its Gun who first

perceived the key pieces of information

that, together the bat and ball cost a

dollar ten, The bat costs more than the ball

so the ball costs...

Gun: "Ten cents"

Drew: "Ten cents"

Gun imediately had a answer that he

blurted out automatically.

Meanwhile Drew, without being consciously

aware that the answer came from Gun

endorsed the idea without checking it,

after all the answers sounded reasonable

and drew is lazy

so how do you get Drew to do more

work? Well researchers have found at least one

way. When they gave out a clearly printed

test including the "Bat and Ball"question

to incoming college students 85% got at

least one wrong but when they printed

the test in a hard-to-read font with

poor contrast the error rate dropped to

thirty-five percent harder to read test

resulted in more correct answers and the

explanation for this is simple. Since Gun

can't quickly jump to an answer he hands

off the task to Drew who then invest the

required mental effort to reason his way

to the correct answer. When something is

confusing, Drew worked harder and when

Drew work harder you're more likely to

reach the right answer and remember the experience.

This is something i think the advertising industry knows about and is

using to its advantage. A few years ago,

again in Australia, I saw a giant

billboard that had just two letters on it

"Un". There was no logo, no indication of

what it was for

and this seems to go against all the

basic principles of advertising: to show

what the product does, how it's better than

the competition, and use clear

branding and maybe a jingle to make it

memorable. The goal is usually to make

the message as easy to understand as

possible so Drew doesn't have to work

very hard, but if you look at a lot of

effective advertising today, it's changed

to be more confusing.

as the "Un" campaign rolled out across Sydney, I saw ads like

this one in bus shelters.

"Un" explained. With 'Un' there is no stress, just unstress

no hassle, just unhastle with 'Un' you

can undo what you did, you can undrive

through the car wash with the window

down or unbreak dance in front of your

teenage son. And his mates. 'Un' makes life

relaxing and unreal. 'Un' your life. Be

happy and live for now. Don't worry. Unworry.

Can you guess what the ads were for?

They're actually for insurance. Now that

advertising is everywhere, Gun is skilled

at filtering it out. Its automatic, if I

just saw another insurance ad that I never

would have given it a second thought, but

something that doesn't make sense, thats

something Gun can't deal with, so he

hands it off to Drew

This same realization has been happening

in education: lectures which have long

been the dominant teaching method, are

now on the decline. Like the old form of

advertising, they're too easy to tune out

and often, especially in science lectures,

too many new pieces of information are

presented, and that exceeds Drew's

capacity because he doesn't have big

enough chunks to break the material into.

In place of lectures, universities are

introducing workshops, peer instruction

and formats where students are forced to

answer more questions, do more work than

just listen and take notes, and this will

undoubtedly make Drew work harder,

which is good because that's how

learning happens, but a lot of students

don't like it because it requires more

effort. Just as it's hard to motivate

someone to get off the couch and

exercise, it's hard to get Drew to give

his full effort. There's an appeal to

doing things you already know, for the

musician to play the same familiar songs

that Gun has already automated, that feel

and sound good. To watch videos that give

you the sensation of understanding

without actually learning anything. To

always drive with the GPS on so you

never get lost, but you also never

learn the way. If you really want to

learn and get better at anything, have

any chance of becoming an expert, you

have to be willing to be uncomfortable.

Because thinking takes effort, it

involves fighting through confusion, and

for most of us

that's at least somewhat unpleasant.