Using the Focused and Diffuse Modes--Or, a Little Dali will do You

So let’s take a look at some famous people from history who used their different thinking modes to help them with their problem solving.

If you look at that guy right there, he was Salvador Dali, a very well known Surrealist painter of the 20th century.

He was the very definition of a wild and crazy guy. You can see him here with his pet ocelot, Babou. Dali­ used to have an interesting technique to help him come up with his fantastically creative Surrealist paintings.

He’d relax in a chair and let his mind go free, often still vaguely thinking about what he had been previously focusing on. He’d have a key in his hand, dangling it just above the floor.

And as he would slip into his dreams, falling asleep, the key would fall from his hand and the clatter would wake him up, just in time so he could gather up those diffuse mode connections and ideas in his mind.

And off he’d go back into the focused mode bringing with him the new connections he’d made while in the diffuse mode. Now you might think, well, you know, that’s okay for an artist, but what is it have to do with more scientific or mathematical kinds of thinking? Well, if you look down here, this guy was Thomas Edison, one of the most brilliant inventors ever.

According to legend, what Edison used to do was he’d sit and relax in his chair, holding ball bearings in his hand.

He’d relax away letting his mind run free, although it would often noodle back in a much more relaxed way to what he’d been focusing on previously. When Edison would fall asleep, the ball bearings would drop and clatter to the ground just as with Dali­. And it would wake Edison up and off he’d go with his ideas from the diffuse mode, ready to take them into the focused mode and build on them.

So the bottom line is, when you’re learning something new, especially something that’s a little more difficult, your mind needs to be able to go back and forth between the two different learning modes. That’s what helps you learn effectively.

You might think of it as a bit analogous to building your strength by lifting weights. You would never plan to compete in a weight lifting competition by waiting until the very day before a meet and then spending that entire day working out like a fiend. I mean, it just doesn’t happen that way. To gain muscular structure, you need to do a little work every day, gradually allowing your muscles to grow.

Similarly, to build neuro-structure, you need to do a little work every day, gradually allowing yourself to grow a neuro-scaffold to hang your thinking on, a little bit every day and that’s the trick.

In summary then, we learned that analogies provide powerful techniques for learning.

We learned about how the brain’s two different thinking modes, focused and diffuse, each helps us learn, but in very different ways. And finally, we learn that learning something difficult can take time. Your brain needs to alternate its ways of learning as it grapples with and assimilates the new material.

Thanks for learning about learning. I’m Barbara Oakley.