More Tidbits

Ever wonder why kids sometimes start to behave worse when you try to teach them something or change a behavior? Ever wonder why when learning something you all of a sudden get worse at it? Doesn't this seem counter-intuitive?

I love learning about things that are surprising or counter-intuitive.

In today's Bulletin (the local rag) there was an article on dog training that made the following statement:

"As the dog is learning what behavior works for it and what doesn't, it will test you frequently to be sure, meaning the [problem being corrected] will occur more often before fading completely. This is referred to as extinction burst and is a good sign.

Extinction burst! I love that term. I've observed this phenomenon more than once (in kids as well as dogs) and wondered about its roots. Seems like the brain is simply verifying that an old behavior is no longer rewarding before it gives it up.

But there's another setback in learning that I think is unrelated to extinction burst. When I'm learning something new, like a new drum rhythm or dance step or anything memorized, I'll get better as I practice, and then suddenly get worse. I don't know if there's an established name for this, but I think of it as the "transition effect".

My belief is that you start by learning something consciously. You're thinking about it and rehearsing it and correcting yourself until you start getting it right. But then, after you've started getting it right, the brain wants to move that knowledge from your conscious "workspace" to your subconscious, to another part of the brain. It wants to make it "muscle memory" or some other long-term storage. I think it's when your new skill gets transferred from short-term memory to long-term memory that there's a glitch as the new location works out problems in the transition. But if you keep practicing, now you're exercising the long-term storage and you'll get it so it works better and longer without you having to think so much about it.

I think something similar happens to kids as they grow up. Their minds seem to go through phases and changes as they go from infancy to pre-adolescence to adolescence to maturity. Each time the mind reconfigures itself I think this messes up a lot of behaviors that have to adapt to the new environment. If a boy goes from disliking girls to liking girls, for instance, this takes some getting used to and has ripple effects.

Now, on another topic altogether, here's a simple recipe for grapefruit soda that I love:

1 cup fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice (about one grapefruit)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup club soda

The ratio can change depending on your preferences and the sugar content and water content of the grapefruit you picked, so start low and add more to taste. I just made a batch from four grapefruits and it beats any bottled grapefruit juice or soda out there.


Posted by Dave    Blog Tag: Chatter