Is it because learning as a child tends to center on very visual and tactile methods? Maybe that's where the tendency is from; we played with Tangrams when we were younger, physically having to move bits around to add up to a whole. Ditto jigsaw puzzles. Perhaps toys like Tinkertoys and LEGO are better examples, even, since they can be open-ended and require more imagination than necessarily working towards a specific whole.
There is probably a simple cognitive theory that perfectly explains this. I'm working on 10 things at once this week and my thoughts are like an untied shoelace at the moment, please forgive me!
EDIT [20 October 2008] I recently got some very interesting input from Christy of Living Breathing; I met her at Likemind last Friday.
maybe it has something to do with the idea of permanence / finality, and its association with typing/computers. i often don't even open up powerpoint when i start a presentation; instead, i'll lay out sheets of paper and handwrite the headlines and re-arrange. only when i'm sort of happy with the flow and "ready" will i put it into powerpoint. i'm wondering if there's something just more unofficial and casual and free form about physical writing - forgiving of mistakes too - which can sometimes lead to more inspired thoughts.Thanks Christy!
[photo courtesy of NaNa [supergirl] on Flickr]
yup me too, whenever writing, the walls of my apartment get full of printed pages that i move around as if I was in Minority Report. This makes me wonder if kids who are toddling about will still print in the future...
ReplyDeleteI think it's simply how our brains work - when we physically manipulate things, it helps our mind organize them. Not only can we SEE the connections, but we've physically MADE them (whether by drawing or moving pieces of paper around). When doing this on a computer, there isn't the same sense of "making" the connections. Although, this may change as multi-touch surfaces become prevalent; causing computing to become more ubiquitous.
ReplyDeleteI've been informally working on this in my spare time for a while now, since I can't keep track of papers. I recently switched to a tablet PC, and can say that the tacticle motion of scribbling with a pen or scrolling, sliding, and selecting directly with my hand helps enormously when I'm reading, taking notes, and organizing my thoughts. To pull an idea out of the air with no real evidence, I think it may be closer to the type of feedback loop we're used to, where the motor output is more directly related to the changes we see, allowing us to test and confirm expectations in terms of what thoughts will go together. The main limitation I run into now is limited screen space and resolution. Both of those are areas where a whiteboard or wall and thumbtacks beat any computer I've ever seen hands down.
ReplyDeleteMark - It might not change fully, even then. What you made me think about just then is that it might require SPACE. That third dimension without the limitations of the flat, rectangular space that is a computer monitor.
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Predictions of Memory - "where the motor output is more directly related to the changes we see, allowing us to test and confirm expectations in terms of what thoughts will go together." Wow. So, I moved this pen to the other side of the table, and I know that I did that, because it's physical movement instead of bits of data being moved around? It makes it more "real?"
Re: resolution... a friend of mine mentioned this today. You have that view in PowerPoint where it mimics the "pages on a wall" view, but there is always a problem of scale. It's not life-sized, unless your monitor is the size of an entire wall. Hm, there's an idea.
Super interesting stuff, thanks for adding some depth to this! I never thought a half-baked idea /notion /post would yield such cool theories and ideas.
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ReplyDeleteThat third dimension without the limitations of the flat, rectangular space that is a computer monitor.
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I suppose that would depend on what it is you are organizing (what type of ideas), as to whether or not you need the third dimension. Even then, it can be "emulated" - to an extent - on a flat surface (3d games do this, in one manner). And as technology advances, I believe we will see new ways of interacting with computers that - at least to the degree necessary to "fool" human senses - make use of the third dimension. Remember "virtual reality" and those lovely goggles? It didn't die yet, it just got relegated to R&D for a while. Carnegie-Melon has some interesting stuff going on here, at least through the ETC (started by Randy Pausch - if you haven't seen his "Last Lecture", watch it).
I'm no Microsoft fan, but their "Surface" idea moves in this direction (it's just a really cool implementation of a multi-touch surface, actually). In terms of the one point you hit on in your reply - "I know that I did that, because it's physical movement" - the MS Surface idea is aimed at that very "feeling".
now, this may just be me, but another advantage of "physical thought organization" is being able to see things in context (which allows me to organize myself better).
ReplyDeletewalls, whiteboards, etc. allow me to look at the bigger picture, something i just can't achieve via computer screen alone.
then again, i'm also when of those people who still does her first draft in pen.