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ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY
HUMANIST GALAXY
OF SECULAR SCIENCE STARS
GAZZALEY-ROSEN
November 30, 2020
DISTRACTED MIND:
Ancient brains in a high-tech world.
by Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. Rosen
MIT Press, 2016 (304 pages)
BOOK OUTLINE
note = Numbers in parentheses refer to pages
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (vii-xi)
Quote = "When I moved to San Francisco from the East coast for a postdoctoral fellowship in cognitive neuroscience at UC Berkeley... I was searching for a research project that was not driven solely by the goal of advancing psychological theory, but rather one that everyday people would care about because its results would teach them something about their minds that truly mattered to them." (vii)
PROLOGUE (xiii)
note = The purpose of the book is to discover the impact of distraction on memory. (ix)
PART 1 --- COGNITION AND THE ESSENCE OF CONTROL (1-98)
Introduction (1)
1) INTERFERENCE (3-17)
[1] What is goal interference? (5-8)
[2] Why are we susceptible to interference? (8-10)
[3] Is it getting worse? (10-12)
[4] Why do we behave in this way? (12-17)
2) GOALS AND COGNITIVE CONTROL (19-38)
3) THE BRAIN AND CONTROL (39-62)
4) CONTROL LIMITATIONS (63-80)
5) VARIATIONS AND FLUCTUATIONS (81-98)
PART 2 --- BEHAVIOR IN A HIGH-TECH WORLD (99-122)
6) THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TECHNOLOGY (101-122)
7) THE IMPACT OF CONSTANTLY SHIFTING OUR ATTENTION (123-141)
8) THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ON DIVERSE POPULATIONS (143-157)
9) WHY DO WE INTERRUPT OURSELVES? (159-179)
PART 3 --- TAKING CONTROL (181-
Introduction (180-181)
10) BOOSTING CONTROL (183-211)
11) MODIFYING BEHAVIOR (213-238)
NOTES (239-278)
INDEX (279-286)
Brain
Capacity, working memory
Cognitive control abilities
Cognitive control limitations
Cognitive exercise
Cognitive reverse
Goal directedness
Goal enactment
Goal interference
Goal management
Goal management limitations
Goal setting
Goals
AUTHORS NOTE, SUMMARY,
AND BOOK DESCRIPTION
AUTHORS NOTE = Adam Gazzaley is Professor in the Departments of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he is also Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center. He wrote and hosted the PBS special "The Distracted Mind with Dr. Adam Gazzaley." Larry D. Rosen is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is a blogger for Psychology Today and the author of I Disorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us and six other books.
Pat DeLeon, former President of the American Psychological Association, describes the lead author,
Adam Gazzaley, whois Professor in the Departments of Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. Gazzaley is also Founding Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center, Neuroscape Lab, and the Gazzaley Lab. He is cofounder and Chief Science Advisor of Akili Interactive, a company developing therapeutic video games and cofounder and Chief Scientist of JAZZ Venture Partners, a venture capital firm investing in experiential technology to improve human performance. He is the recipient of the 2015 Society for Neuroscience Science Educator Award, and he wrote and hosted the nationally televised PBS special “The Distracted Mind with Dr. Adam Gazzaley.”
Larry D. Rosen is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is a blogger for Psychology Today and the author of Disorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Damage.
SUMMARY = Why our brains are not built for media multitasking, and how we can learn to live with technology in a more balanced way.
BOOK DESCRIPTION = Most of us will freely admit that we are obsessed with our devices. We pride ourselves on our ability to multitask — read work email, reply to a text, check Facebook, watch a video clip. Talk on the phone, send a text, drive a car. Enjoy family dinner with a glowing smartphone next to our plates. We can do it all, 24/7! Never mind the errors in the email, the near-miss on the road, and the unheard conversation at the table. In the book, Gazzaley and Rosen — a neuroscientist and a psychologist — explain why our brains aren't built for multitasking, and suggest better ways to live in a high-tech world without giving up our modern technology.
The authors explain that our brains are limited in their ability to pay attention. We do not really multitask but rather switch rapidly between tasks. Distractions and interruptions, often technology-related — referred to by the authors as "interference" — collide with our goal-setting abilities. We want to finish this paper/spreadsheet/sentence, but our phone signals an incoming message and we drop everything. Even without an alert, we decide that we "must" check in on social media immediately.
Gazzaley and Rosen offer practical strategies, backed by science, to fight distraction. We can change our brains with meditation, video games, and physical exercise; we can change our behavior by planning our accessibility and recognizing our anxiety about being out of touch even briefly. They do not suggest that we give up our devices, but that we use them in a more balanced way.
Why our brains aren't built for media multitasking, and how we can learn to live with technology in a more balanced way.
Most of us will freely admit that we are obsessed with our devices. We pride ourselves on our ability to multitask — read work email, reply to a text, check Facebook, watch a video clip. Talk on the phone, send a text, drive a car. Enjoy family dinner with a glowing smartphone next to our plates. We can do it all, 24/7! Never mind the errors in the email, the near-miss on the road, and the unheard conversation at the table. In The Distracted Mind, Adam Gazzaley and Larry Rosen a — neuroscientist and a psychologist — explain why our brains aren't built for multitasking, and suggest better ways to live in a high-tech world without giving up our modern technology.
The authors explain that our brains are limited in their ability to pay attention. We don't really multitask but rather switch rapidly between tasks. Distractions and interruptions, often technology-related—referred to by the authors as “interference” — collide with our goal-setting abilities. We want to finish this paper/spreadsheet/sentence, but our phone signals an incoming message and we drop everything. Even without an alert, we decide that we “must” check in on social media immediately.
Gazzaley and Rosen offer practical strategies, backed by science, to fight distraction. We can change our brains with meditation, video games, and physical exercise; we can change our behavior by planning our accessibility and recognizing our anxiety about being out of touch even briefly. They don't suggest that we give up our devices, but that we use them in a more balanced way.
The book strikes an outstanding balance between cutting-edge scientific knowledge and practical suggestions for effectively coping with today's unprecedented technological demands, which result in distracted minds at all ages and make us want to believe in the myth of multitasking.
PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS
[1] Why our brains are not built for media multitasking, and how we can learn to live with technology in a more balanced way. Brilliant and practical, just what we need in these techno-human times. -- Jack Kornfield, author of the book, The Wise Heart.
[2] Most of us will freely admit that we are obsessed with our devices. We pride ourselves on our ability to multitask—read work email, reply to a text, check Facebook, watch a video clip. Talk on the phone, send a text, drive a car. Enjoy family dinner with a glowing smartphone next to our plates. We can do it all, 24/7! Never mind the errors in the email, the near-miss on the road, and the unheard conversation at the table. In The Distracted Mind, Adam Gazzaley and Larry Rosen—a neuroscientist and a psychologist—explain why our brains are not built for multitasking, and suggest better ways to live in a high-tech world without giving up our modern technology.
The authors explain that our brains are limited in their ability to pay attention. We don't really multitask but rather switch rapidly between tasks. Distractions and interruptions, often technology-related—referred to by the authors as “interference”—collide with our goal-setting abilities. We want to finish this paper/spreadsheet/sentence, but our phone signals an incoming message and we drop everything. Even without an alert, we decide that we “must” check in on social media immediately.
The boom offers practical strategies, backed by science, to fight distraction. We can change our brains with meditation, video games, and physical exercise; we can change our behavior by planning our accessibility and recognizing our anxiety about being out of touch even briefly. They do not suggest that we give up our devices, but that we use them in a more balanced way.
[3] The cutting-edge science of why so many folks these days are in a distracted haze, its dangers, and what to do about it = Have you noticed how many people are looking at their smartphones while walking, crossing the street or even driving? Does it drive you up the wall that your friends keep checking their phones while you're trying to talk to them or share a meal? Our addiction to gadgets and gizmos has brought us to the brink of an attention crisis, which is not just harmful but dangerous. 80% of all car accidents and 16% of highway deaths result from distracted driving, and every year texting while driving kills thousands of folks before their time. In addition, hundreds of billions of dollars in productivity are lost annually to distraction, not to mention the loss in overall quality of life. Why do we all do this even though we know it's terrible for us? And is there a cure?
Goal interruption is the ultimate problem, and the culprits are distractions and interruptions (there's a difference!). According to Drs Gazzaley and Rosen, we are susceptible to them because we still have brains designed for foraging, always scoping the environment for novel information to enhance survival. Unfortunately, modern gizmos plug directly into this foraging circuit, making us go "Squirrel!" even when it is just a picture of one on a screen, and we do not really eat squirrels anymore anyway.
Gazzaley and Rosen, a neuroscientist and psychologist, respectively, make a strong case that distraction is indeed diminishing the quality of our lives in significant ways. They lay out the science of attention and information processing in a way that is thorough yet accessible to a general audience. What I particularly like about this book is that they themselves have done some of the pioneering research on distraction and attention, so you're getting it straight from the source. I gained a lot of insight into how goal interruption happens.
For example: (1) Suppressing irrelevant information is not a passive process. It requires effort, and as you get older, you get worse at it, and are more distractable; (2) Your brain can only handle one cognitive task at a time, so multitasking is impossible. What you are really doing when you think you're multitasking is 'task switching', and the brain can only do that via network switching: activating a whole different set of circuits. This slows you down, big time.
So we have identified the problem --- now what? The last two chapters of the book propose some solutions: educational initiatives, meditation, exercise, brain games, and video games, some of which (like Beepseeker and NeuroRacer) are being developed in the Gazzaley Lab right now. This is cutting-edge stuff, folks, and potentially revolutionary.
There is so much more in the book that simply won't fit in a short review. For me, the information was especially important because I've been feeling a lot of my energy and productivity frittering away from distractions like email and social media. How much more could I get done if I managed my mind better? "The Distracted Mind" non-judgmentally frames the problem as the urgent crisis that it is, while proffering some straightforward solutions. Maybe you, too, would like to take back some of your time and attention, or have a loved one that really needs help in this department. If so, this book is the persuasive wallop you need to make the change towards a more goal-oriented, productive, healthy life. -- Ali Binazir, M.D., M.Phil., author of the book, The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible.
[4] A basic premise of this book is that we have an evolutionary and survivalist need to access information. We literally forage for important information, much like food foraging. In fact, novelty and information trigger our brain’s reward-dopamine system. However, modern access to huge volumes of information creates an overload and the frustration associated with it. This book outlines why and how we’re distracted, especially in an e-world full of competing images and sounds. The big problem: Our ability to set goals is far more evolved than our goal-enactment abilities. And given the amount of e-interference today, goal interference looms over us constantly. The authors describe the conflict between goal setting and cognitive control; attention setting and managing goals resulting from distractions; and, interruptions and multitasking. The 3 HUGE disrupters in our current world are the internet, cell phones, and email. Finally, the authors offer strategies to combat such distraction and make us more resilient by employing education, cognitive training, certain video games, physical exercise, pharmaceuticals, and nature exposure. In addition, here’s a TED talk that will orient you to their work. -- by Steve Gladis author of the book, Driven to Distraction.
[5] Be aware of the losses resulting from distracted minds. Few people are aware of the cognitive costs in this new high tech world. There are cognitive costs and these costs are severe. Few people are aware that we cannot multitask. When we think we are multitasking we are actually switching rapidly between, or all to often, among tasks. The very act of switching requires attention. These cognitive costs result in poorer performance. This is well documented in the poorer academic performance of students who make heavy use of social media. In addition to poorer cognitive performance, the book also describes the effects on our bodies and the quality of social interactions. -- Douglas Griffith, who recommends his own book, The Distracted Mind that provides another description of the brain, and the remarkable mind produced by the brain.
AMAZON READER REVIEWS
[1] The first half makes this a worthwhile purchase; second half containing tips can be skimmed. = The first half of the book explains the science behind focus, concentration and distraction. I found this half of the book very intriguing, although I would like to research further to understand if their theory linking procrastination to our animal instinct of foraging is widely accepted. The second half of the book is mostly self-evident tips, such as: do one thing at a time; do work in a quiet place; check your e-mail periodically instead of constantly, etc.-- John McHugh.
[2] Mr. Henderson Accessible reading in psychology = I rather enjoyed this book. One of the issues i have had with literature in my discipline is that it would be either too theoretical to the point of irrelevance or sensational. This book is the happy medium where the author discusses a somewhat sensational topic but nests the discussion in research findings that give credence to his arguments. No grandiloquent language or overly abstract theories. An accessible read.
[3] T. H. Brown - Important insight into the effects of high-tech on our lives, and ways to control it =
This book outlines how our brains function and how easily we can be distracted. The authors then show how much modern technology (phones, tablets, emails, social media, etc.) can act as distractions with significant effects on our ability to concentrate, our work and our sleep. They also show evidenced ways of combating these effects to reduce our distractability and improve our concentration, work and sleep. Very important message to a tech-savvy world.
[4] Yannick Roy = Adam Gazzaley is pioneering some very exciting research and has successfully condensed a lot of great content in a digestible way for everyone to benefit from reading that book. I am biased because I've been a fan of Gazzaley for few years and he's inspired me to go back to do my PhD in Closed-Loop system for cognitive training. But even if I'm very familiar with his work, he did a great job with Larry D. Rosen to put it all together in a great format. Not too long, not too short, packed with great scientific, yet understandable, useful information.
Multitasking is more of a problem than a solution. If you praise yourself of being a good multitasker, read this book. Being connected 24/7 is more of a problem than a solution. If you praise yourself of answering super fast and being on top of what's happening on social media faster than anyone else, read this book. Being focused and just doing one task at the time is more of a solution than a problem. If you work and would like to achieve more with better results, read this book.
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