Fun With Sensing
By estanford on 05-07-2008
The inspiration came from my studies of Logic -- a discipline which has a great deal of material to learn in terms of helping to improve the Thinking function. It has bugged me for some time that there seems to be no such systematic programme for developing the other three cognitive functions of Feeling, Intuition and Sensing. To rectify that situation (at least in part) I went on a bit of an adventure to find out what I could about Sensing and see if there was anything I could apply.
My first progress along this line is based on my studies of heraldry and Medieval history. When reading a coat of arms, it is traditional to describe the background first and work one's way forward into the foreground. Heraldry is a very old discipline, having built up a vocabulary and set of conventions over hundreds of years. As I studied heraldry, I remembered that there was some scientific literature at one point that mentioned how people who grow up literate in Western languages tend to look at things from left to right and then work their way down, as though they were reading from pages in a book. Now, the low literacy rates of the early to high Middle Ages are a well-established historical fact. During this time, the heraldic convention of reading arms from back to front was established -- by mostly illiterate people.
So I wondered: if they thought it was natural to read a coat of arms from back to front, can we generalize that to how they saw the world in other contexts?
My experiment: as I was walking around, I decided to pay attention to the background and then layer my attention to visual details in order of how close the object was to me. Immediately, I noticed that my depth perception became spectacular; it was much easier to reckon spatial distances, notice small changes in the environment, and so on. I was not only more aware of distance -- I'd never noticed before how much my perspective changes when I turn in this or that direction.
I still engage in that practice on a fairly regular basis, mostly when I'm out of doors.
The second visual trick I found was based on a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science for 2005. The authors of the paper noted that during their eye-tracking studies, American graduate students tended to focus their gaze on single objects while Chinese students tended to flicker through background details. The conjecture they gave is that Chinese culture is made up of a richer social network than in the United States, with in-groups and out-groups and so on. The Chinese students had developed a way of seeing the world suited to a heightened state of awareness with regard to their social environment.
My experiment: I decided to go to the grocery store and keep my eyes moving as often as possible -- no settling on focal objects if I could help it, just scan the background and look for context as much could be decently done. Sure enough, the effect on my social awareness was immediate. I've never been much of one for picking up on subtleties of facial expression and body language, but it was practically effortless as long as I pushed myself into keeping my eyes in motion. Striking up conversations, being friendly with strangers, and so on was much easier than it had ever been in the past, since while I was talking I was continually refreshing my impression of a person's attitude based on visual cues.
My conclusion: about half of the human brain is dedicated to sight. To a certain extent, it doesn't matter how much or little we think about what we see, as long as we reach out and keep looking. The brain can take care of the rest, as long as we supply the incentive. To my knowledge, there is no single discipline which trains people to see more intelligently, but a lot of good could come out of establishing such a discipline.
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Posted by Lesley on May 8, 2008
If only I could stop staring at this computer screen and pay attention to what's going on around me. |
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Posted by estanford on May 8, 2008
(Shrugs) Other people may have less of a problem with it than I do -- I'm a sort of archetypal Absent-Minded Professor who barely watches where he's putting his feet on account of all the daydreaming. |
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Posted by Lesley on May 8, 2008
I'm going to try to keep moving my eyes too & see what happens. |
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Posted by Keillan on May 20, 2008
I think Faucethead has a great point. From what I understand, top quarterbacks in football visualise the whole of the field, seemingly able to know what is happening overall. That seems to be based on training more than on natural ability. |
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Posted by BonnieMaeD on Aug 13, 2008
I found this online in an article about improving brain health. Thought you might like it. Learn the word “neurobics.” A melding of the words “neuron” (brain cell) and “aerobics,” neurobics is the brainchild of the Duke University neurobiologist Lawrence Katz and author Manning Rubin. In Keep Your Brain Alive, they outline an unusual brain exercise program that’s based on a solid foundation of neuroscience research. Specific kinds of sensory stimulation, they believe, causes brain cells to secrete molecules called neurotrophins that act like nutrients to improve cellular health. What’s the best sort of stimulation? Katz and Rubin offer 83 activities that make you “experience the unexpected and enlist the aid of all your senses.” Try showering with your eyes closed, tuning in to the sounds and feel of water on your skin. Use your non-dominant hand to brush your teeth or comb your hair. Wear earplugs at the dinner table. Take one of your children to work with you. Learn to read Braille. What’s important is that the activity be completely removed from your regular routine. And the more senses you engage, the better. If you normally go to work using the same route, try a different one. At a stop light, roll down the window and close your eyes, listening to the sounds, feeling the air on your face. Your brain is forced to work with a new set of sensory inputs, which builds connections in your neuronal network. Humans are hardwired to seek novelty, yet in our tame modern environment, that’s more difficult to do. By consciously exposing your brain to novel situations, it responds like a long underused muscle to a weight training program: It grows! Scott McCredie is a Seattle-based health writer whose book Balance: In Search of a Lost Sense comes out in June 2007. |
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Posted by estanford on Aug 15, 2008
Interesting. I'd heard about something similar in the literature, but not any kind of systematic program like the kind you're describing -- thanks for the tip! |
Suggestion for improving sensing functions: Play sports.