A few weeks ago, I mentioned at the end of a post that multitasking might not be all bad. In fact, certain models of cognitive function (for example, Daniel Dennett's Multiple Drafts Model) make a case for constant multitasking as an essential component of cognition. As Cathy N. Davidson, a professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke says, "On a neuronal level, monotasking doesn't exist." In her new book, Now You See It, Davidson shows how the skills of focusing that we are taught actually lead to "attention blindness," which causes us exclude key information in our surroundings.
The most famous example to illustrate attention blindness is the gorilla experiment. Six people throw basketballs on a screen, three wearing white shirts and three black. Viewers are asked to count the number of passes made by the white-shirted players, ignoring the black. When Davidson participated in the experiment, she was the only one to notice the gorilla that suddenly appeared in the middle of the screen, and only, she says, because she wasn't paying attention and had given up counting. Because focusing our attention involves selection, we ignore ambient "noise" in any situation, but this feature can sometimes lead to missing what a scenario is really about, in this case, the gorilla.
The brain itself works as a network, and so, Davidson sees great potential in the networking nature of modern technology as a supplement to our brains, to counteract some of our own weaknesses. The damage we perceive as caused by the Internet (some of which I have discussed earlier in this blog), she claims, does not actually come from the Internet but rather from the disconnect between the tools we have for learning and working and the ways in which we are taught to learn and work. Rather than containing the changes created in the digital age, we need to modify our daily routines to accommodate and fully utilize them. She lauds innovators like Jane McGonigal (who we read earlier in the course) who find ways to bring digital tools into daily life.
This Amazon preview only has the introduction to the book, but I would highly recommend reading it- it's light and easy, and brings out a fascinating way of looking at the world. For a more informal summary, in this video interview, she describes some of the key points of her argument. Even more informally, here's her blog.
Davidson's view paints a refreshingly optimistic portrait of the changes the Internet is bringing into our minds and our lives, a welcome step away from the sensational doomsday portrayals usually publicized.
The most famous example to illustrate attention blindness is the gorilla experiment. Six people throw basketballs on a screen, three wearing white shirts and three black. Viewers are asked to count the number of passes made by the white-shirted players, ignoring the black. When Davidson participated in the experiment, she was the only one to notice the gorilla that suddenly appeared in the middle of the screen, and only, she says, because she wasn't paying attention and had given up counting. Because focusing our attention involves selection, we ignore ambient "noise" in any situation, but this feature can sometimes lead to missing what a scenario is really about, in this case, the gorilla.
The brain itself works as a network, and so, Davidson sees great potential in the networking nature of modern technology as a supplement to our brains, to counteract some of our own weaknesses. The damage we perceive as caused by the Internet (some of which I have discussed earlier in this blog), she claims, does not actually come from the Internet but rather from the disconnect between the tools we have for learning and working and the ways in which we are taught to learn and work. Rather than containing the changes created in the digital age, we need to modify our daily routines to accommodate and fully utilize them. She lauds innovators like Jane McGonigal (who we read earlier in the course) who find ways to bring digital tools into daily life.
This Amazon preview only has the introduction to the book, but I would highly recommend reading it- it's light and easy, and brings out a fascinating way of looking at the world. For a more informal summary, in this video interview, she describes some of the key points of her argument. Even more informally, here's her blog.
Davidson's view paints a refreshingly optimistic portrait of the changes the Internet is bringing into our minds and our lives, a welcome step away from the sensational doomsday portrayals usually publicized.
