THINKER'S ALMANAC - February 8

How can studying London taxi drivers encourage us to continue to learn throughout our lives?

Subject:  Hippocampal Plasticity - London’s Taxi Drivers

Event:  The movie Taxi Driver, released 1976

On this day in 1976, the film Taxi Driver was released.  The film is a psychological thriller that tells the story of a New York taxi driver, played by Robert De Niro, and his descent into insanity, which includes a plot to kill a presidential candidate.  

While the events of Taxi Driver are fictional, there is a very real psychological battle going on in the streets of London, England, where potential London taxi drivers must use their minds to conquer one of the most taxing of all exams.

The streets of London are such a confusing labyrinth that taxi drivers are required by the city to pass a grueling exam that tests their ability to recognize and navigate the city’s 25,000 streets.  The exam is appropriately called “The Knowledge.”  Most drivers spend three to four years studying and practicing for the exam, and even after investing all that time and effort, only about 50 percent pass.

                                                        Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay 

Seeing a unique opportunity to study the human brain and its memory, neuroscientist Eleanor Maguire of University College London designed an experiment to determine how much the intensive study by London’s cabbies actually impacted the growth of their brain.  Specifically, Maguire was interested in the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped part of the brain’s limbic system, integral in the formation of new memories and in the retention of long-term memory.

Maguire followed two groups:  one was made up of 79 cabbie candidates and the other was 31 people who did not drive taxis but were similar in age, education, and intelligence to the drivers in training.  At the start of the study, Maguire measured the size of all the participants’ hippocampi with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).  

After four years, MRIs revealed that the hippocampi of the 39 trainees who had passed “The Knowledge” grew larger.  

As explained by Scientific American writer Ferris Jabr,

There are several ways to explain the ballooning hippocampus. The hippocampus may grow new neurons or hippocampal neurons may make more connections with one another. Non-neuronal cells called glial cells, which help support and protect neurons, may also contribute to the increase in hippocampal volume, although they are not generated as quickly as neurons. (1)

The results of the cabbie study support the concept of neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to continuously change and learn throughout an individual’s life span, not just in childhood or adolescence.  Just as physical exercise produces physical changes in the body’s muscles, cognitive exercise produces changes in the brain.

In recognition of her research on hippocampal plasticity, Eleanor Maguire was awarded the 2003 Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine.  The Ig Nobel prizes are awarded each year to scientists whose work “first makes people laugh -- then makes them think” (2).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: What are neuroplasticity and the hippocampus, and why should everyone, not just taxi drivers, be interested in Eleanor Maguire’s research?

Challenge - First Laugh, Then Think:  Do some research on past winners of Ig Nobel Prize. Find one study that you find particularly interesting. What was the study, and why do you find it interesting?

ALSO ON THIS DAY:  

-February 8th Each Year:  Parinirvana is a Buddhist festival that commemorates the death of Buddha, who said, “Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.”  Buddhists believe that having attained enlightenment in his lifetime, Buddha left this world at 80 years-old in a state of meditation, free from the cycle of death and rebirth.

-February 8, 1834:  Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleev was born in Siberia.  Mendeleev’s great invention was his Periodic Table of Elements, which he said came to him in a dream:

In a dream I saw a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper.

Sources:   

1-Jabr, Ferris. “Cache Cab: Taxi Drivers' Brains Grow to Navigate London's Streets.” Scientific American 8 Dec. 2011.

2-List of Ig Nobel Prize Winners

Reading Check:

-Why did Eleanor Maguire study London cab drivers?

-What is neuroplasticity?

THINKER'S ALMANAC - February 7

How can a fly in an airport urinal help us understand how people are subtly influenced to act more responsibly?

Subject:  Nudges - The fly in the Airport Urinal

Event:  The New York Times publishes an article on nudges, 2009

What can a fly in a urinal in an Amsterdam airport teach us about human thinking? 

An article published in The New York Times on this day in 2009 answers this question.  The article “When Humans Need a Nudge Toward Rationality” explores the work of behavioral economist Richard Thaler and his colleague Cass R. Sunstein.  The work of these two men is built on the premise that humans are not rational creatures and that they often make decisions that are not in their own best interest.  The antidote for this irrationality is “nudges,” changes to the environment that Thaler says “attract people’s attention and alter their behavior in a positive way, without actually requiring anyone to do anything at all.”

                                                        Image by Virvoreanu Laurentiu from Pixabay 

The fly in the urinal is a great example of a nudge, a feature in the environment that influences or alters our behavior or decisions. First came the problem of spillage in the airport men’s restroom.  How might these men be subtly influenced to improve their marksmanship?  Second, comes the nudge:  an image of a fly was etched near the urinal drain.  The addition of a target worked, reducing spillage by 80 percent.

In their book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, Thaler and Sunstein review multiple examples of how nudges can be employed to improve the physical and financial health of people, helping them to eat less, save more, and act more sensibly.  Sustain and Thaler describe their mission as “libertarian paternalism,” the idea that public and private institutions can create environmental structures that help encourage individuals to make better choices (1).

One example of how nudges work on a national level is organ donation.  In the United States, despite the fact that over 85% of Americans are in favor of organ donation, fewer than one-third grant permission.  For example, when you renew your driver's license, you must check a box to give explicit-consent to donate your organs.  In contrast, many European countries practice presumed-consent, which means a person becomes an organ donor by default and must check a box to opt-out.  In countries like Austria, France, and Poland, where the presumed-consent nudge is practiced, over 99% of citizens are organ donors.  Often when people make difficult decisions, they don’t want to do the complex thinking required to make a decision.  As a result, they most often resort to the default as the path of least resistance.  As seen in the organ donation example, defaults should be an area of examination for individual citizens as well as governments, for they play an important role in the decisions we make (2).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is a nudge, and how can airport urinals and organ donation teach us about human thinking and decision making?

Challenge - The Existing State of Affairs:  One phenomenon that relates to nudges is the status quo bias.  Do some research on this bias; then, write an explanation of what it is and how it helps us to better understand human thinking.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

-February 7, 1837:  Today is the birthday of James A. H. Murray, first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).  To accomplish his task of completing the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language, Murray needed help.  Gathering quotations from published sources to illustrate each world would require an army of readers.  Long before the internet, Murray used crowdsourcing to get the job done.  To advertise for volunteers, he created a pamphlet called, “An Appeal to the English-Speaking and English-Reading Public in Great Britain and the British Colones to read books and make extracts for the Philological Society’s New English Dictionary.”  Murray distributed the pamphlet to newspapers, bookshops, and libraries.  When volunteers responded to Murray’s call, he provided them with slips of paper upon which to record their quotations along with a standard format for citing each one.  Readers sent their slips to Oxford, specifically to Murray’s office, which he called the “Scriptorium.”  There Murray and his charges filed each slip alphabetically, creating an archive from which to research and document each definition.  Murray worked tirelessly as editor from 1879 until his death in 1915, but unfortunately, he never lived to see the complete OED.  The original plan was to produce a four-volume dictionary in ten years, but the complete project took 44 years.  When completed in 1928, the OED encompassed twelve-volumes, containing 414,825 headwords and 1,827,306 illustrative quotations. 

-February 7, 1825:  Today is the birthday of German zoologist Karl August Mobius.  He conducted a famous experiment with a fish tank.  In one end of the tank, he placed a pike; in the other he placed some smaller fish.  The pike and the smaller fish were separated by a glass panel.  Early in the experiment when the pike became hungry, he attempted to launch himself at the small fish.  Each time, however, he failed, banging his nose against the invisible barrier.  After several repeated, painful attempts, he ceased to attack.  At this point, Mobius removed the glass divider.  Although the divider was gone, the pike still did not attack the smaller fish; he had “learned” to associate attacking other fish with pain.  Like Mobius’ fish, we humans sometimes come down with Pike Syndrome, allowing false assumptions based on past experience to limit our beliefs and our willingness to explore new territories.

-February 7, 1910:  Today is the anniversary of the premiere of Chantecler, a play by Edmond Rostand, based on an ancient French fable.  The play’s main character is a rooster who believes that his crowing causes the sun to rise.  The rooster’s misconception concerning cause and effect led some to call his error the chanticleer fallacy; it’s also known as post hoc ergo propter hoc or “after this, therefore because of this.” Regardless of what you call it, this fallacy is one of the most common, since humans -- like roosters -- love to fool themselves into thinking that they can explain the causes and reasons behind how and why things happen.

Sources:  

1-Sommer, Jeff.  “When Humans Need a Nudge Toward Rationality”

The New York Times  7 February 2009.

2-Johnson, E. J., & Goldstein, D. (2003). Do defaults save lives? Science, 302(5649), 1338-1339.

Reading Check:

-Why is the fly in the urinal a good example of a “nudge”?

-How do European countries increase organ donation?

THINKER'S ALMANAC - February 6

In 1921, what great American athlete pioneered sports psychology by visiting a university psych lab?

Subject:  Sports Psychology - Babe Ruth Visits a Psych Lab

Event:  Birthday of Babe Ruth, 1895

How to hit home runs: I swing as hard as I can, and I try to swing right through the ball... The harder you grip the bat, the more you can swing it through the ball, and the farther the ball will go. I swing big, with everything I've got. I hit big or I miss big. -Babe Ruth

Baseball great Babe Ruth was born on this day in 1895.  Twenty-six years later, sports psychology was born when a sportswriter took Ruth to visit the Columbia University Psychological Laboratory.

The writer was Hugh S. Fullerton, who was curious to know the secret behind Ruth’s unrivaled athletic ability.  Not only was Ruth the best hitter in baseball but also his numbers dwarfed those of all other players.  In 1920, for example, Ruth hit 54 home runs, which was more than the total number of home runs hit by 14 of the 16 major league teams.  Ruth still holds the Major League Baseball record for slugging percentage at .6897; Ted Williams is in second place at .6338 (1).

Based on Ruth’s visit to Columbia, Fullerton published the article “Why Babe Ruth is the Greatest Home Run Hitter” in Popular Science Monthly in 1921. In the article, Fullerton detailed the battery of tests administered to Ruth.  In the following passage, Fullerton describes a test that revealed Ruth’s superior vision:

For instance, they had an apparatus with a sort of a camera shutter arrangement that opened, winked, and closed at any desired speed. Cards with letters of the alphabet on them were placed behind this shutter and exposed to view for one fifty-thousandth of a second. Ruth read them as they flashed into view, calling almost instantly the units of groups of three, four, five, and six letters. With eight shown he got the first six, and was uncertain of the others. The average person can see four and one half letters on the same test.

                                                            Image by Keith Johnston from Pixabay 

Summing up the conclusions of all the tests, Fullerton said the following:

[The scientists] of Columbia University discovered that the secret of Babe Ruth's batting, reduced to non-scientific terms, is that his eyes and ears function more rapidly than those of other players; that his brain records sensations more quickly and transmits its orders to the muscles much faster than does that of the average man. The tests proved that the coordination of eye, brain, nerve system, and muscle is practically perfect . . . . (2)

Fullerton’s vision for combining sports and psychology was way ahead of its time.  Sport psychology would not become a psychological specialty until the 1960s. 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How did the tests administered to Babe Ruth in Columbia’s psych lab identify what set him apart from other players as a great hitter?

Challenge:  Where There’s a Will There’s A Win:  Successful athletes frequently attribute their success not just to their physical abilities but also to their mental abilities.  Do some research on quotations by athletes, talking about their mental approach to their sport.  Identify one quote that you particularly like, and explain why it stands out to you.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

-February 6th Each Year:  On this day the people of Switzerland celebrate Hom Strom, the ceremonial burning of a straw man that symbolizes the approaching end of winter.  This event reminds us of how flimsy the straw man argument is, and how we should construct our arguments with the much more sturdy steel man (See THINKER’S ALMANAC - January 8 or April 18).

Sources:

1-Baseball Reference.  “Career Leaders, Slugging Percentage”

2-Fullerton, Hugh S. “Why Babe Ruth is Greatest Home-Run Hitter.”  Popular Science Monthly, 1921.

Reading Check:

-When tests were administered to Babe Ruth, what parts of his body were shown to be the secret to his athletic ability?

-In what publication did Hugh S. Fullerton publish his article on Babe Ruth in 1921? 

THINKER'S ALMANAC - February 5

For Seneca, how was life like a dog tied to a cart?

Subject:  Premeditation - Seneca’s Prescription

Event:  Earthquake in Campania, Italy, 62 AD

A commander never puts such trust in peace that he fails to prepare for a war. 

-Seneca

 

The Stoic philosopher Seneca was born in Spain in 4 B.C.  He was educated in Rome.  After achieving a prestigious position in politics as a financial clerk, his fortunes took a dark turn.  Accused of committing adultery with the emperor’s niece, he was exiled by the Roman Emperor Claudius to the island of Corsica.  Seneca’s fortunes changed eight years later when Claudius’ wife Agrippina allowed him to return to Rome as the tutor for her son and future emperor, Nero.  After working as Nero’s tutor for five years and as his aide for another ten, Seneca found himself again at the bottom of Fortune’s wheel.  After Nero uncovered a conspiracy to have him removed as emperor, he executed a purge of the people in his inner circle.  This included Seneca who was sentenced to death by suicide.  In 65 A.D. Seneca bled to death after he severed veins on his arms and legs. 

 

Three years prior to his death -- on February 5, 62 A.D. -- an event occurred in Pompeii, Italy, that served as an allegory for Seneca’s view toward fortune.  Seventeen years before a volcanic eruption buried Pompeii, the city suffered a tremendously destructive earthquake. In the months following the earthquake, as inhabitants began to leave the region, Seneca commented on the futility of their actions, arguing that there is no place on earth where we are free from Fortune’s fickle finger:  

 

Perhaps tonight or before tonight, today will split open the spot where you stand securely.  How do you know whether condition will henceforth be better in those places against which Fortune has already exhausted her strength or in those places which are supported on their own ruins? We are mistaken if we believe any part of the world is exempt and safe. . . . 

                                                            Image by Angelo Giordano from Pixabay 

 

Instead of moving to a different region to avoid bad fortune, Seneca had a different prescription which involves a metaphorical shifting of ground.  He called it the premeditatio malorum -- or premeditation. This daily morning ritual is an exercise of the imagination where an individual contemplates what might possibly go wrong during the day ahead.  Rather than being a pessimistic, negative practice, the premeditatio is meant to build optimistic self confidence.  In other words, we can lessen fortune’s blows by mentally anticipating and preparing for them.

 

As Seneca said:  

 

What is quite unlooked for is more crushing in its effect, and unexpectedness adds to the weight of a disaster. This is a reason for ensuring that nothing ever takes us by surprise. We should project our thoughts ahead of us at every turn and have in mind every possible eventuality instead of only the usual course of events….

 

To illustrate the inescapability of fortune, Seneca used the metaphor of a dog tied to a cart.  Like the cart, fortune moves capriciously.  We have degrees of freedom of movement based on the length of the leash, but once the cart begins to move, we must either move with it or be dragged by our necks.

 

In Seneca’s words:

 

An animal, struggling against the noose, tightens it... there is no yoke so tight that it will not hurt the animal less if it pulls with it than if it fights against it. The best alleviation for overwhelming evils is to endure and bow to necessity. (1)

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the “premeditatio malorum,” and how does it relate to his attitude toward fortune and his attitude toward unfortunate events like an earthquake?

 

Challenge - Seneca’s Sage Sayings:  Research some wise quotations by Seneca, the Younger. For example, he said, “There are more things . . . that frighten us than injure us, and we suffer more in imagination than in reality.”  Select one quotation that you think provides especially smart insights.  Quote it and follow the quotation with some commentary explaining why you like it.

 

Also on This Day:

February 5, 1922:  The first edition of Reader’s Digest was published. The magazine was the brainchild of DeWitt Wallace, who was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1889.  Recovering from wounds suffered while serving in World War I, DeWitt began working on his idea of publishing a monthly periodical featuring condensed version of articles from other magazines.

Sources:

1-De Botton, Alain.  The Consolations of Philosophy. New York:  Vintage Books, 2000.

Reading Check:

-The daily ‘premeditation’ recommended by Seneca involves what?

-To illustrate the inescapability of fortune, what metaphor did Seneca use?

THINKER'S ALMANAC - February 4

Besides the actual medicine in a pain reliever, what other factors impact a pill’s effectiveness?

Subject:  Placebo Effect - Anesthesiology in World War II

Event:  Henry Beecher’s birthday, 1904

 

While serving as an anesthesiologist in Europe during World War II, Henry Beecher -- born on this day in 1904 -- made an observation that changed the way we see both medicine and human cognition.  Beecher observed that soldiers who were scheduled to return home felt less pain than soldiers who were not returning home.  Also, when he ran out of the painkiller morphine, Beecher replaced it with a saline solution but told the wounded soldiers that it was morphine.  About half of the soldiers who received the saline reported that their pain was relieved.  

                                                                Image by Ewa Urban from Pixabay 

 

Beecher’s observation led to what today we call the placebo effect, which tells us that we cannot discount the important role that the mind plays in any medical issue experienced by the body.  In other words, any expectation of medical treatment plays a part in the healing process.

 

Even today we don’t know exactly how placebos work, but neuroscientists believe that the mere expectation of treatment releases natural chemicals that mimic the actual effects of drugs on the body.  Drug companies use placebos when testing the effectiveness of their drugs.  They give one control group the drug and another a sugar pill placebo.  Doing this, they can compare results to see what positive effects result from the drug beyond just the placebo effect (1).

 

The British marketing guru Rory Sutherland discusses the power of the placebo effect in economics in his book Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business and Life.  When marketing a pain reliever, for example, Sutherland says it’s all about “the packaging and the promise.”  A brand name pain reliever is more effective; similarly, the more narrowly defined the condition, the more effective.  For example, a drug that is labeled as targeting  “back pain” will be more effective than a more general pain reliever.  Studies show that even the color, shape, or taste of medicine can impact its effectiveness; for example, the most effective color for a painkiller is red (2).

 

The basic moral of the placebo effect story is the power of the human mind and the power of great expectations to promote a positive mindset.

 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the placebo effect, and what does it tell us about the power of the human mind?

Challenge - Pushing Your Placebo Buttons:  A 2004 story in The New York Times reported on signs mounted at New York City intersections that read, “To Cross Street, Push Button, Wait for Walk Signal.”  The question is, does the button actually work to speed up the changing of the “Don’t Walk” sign to “Walk”?  The NY Times article reports that 2,500 of the city’s 3,250 walk buttons “function essentially as mechanical placebos . . . .” Do some research on placebo buttons in your town.  Are the buttons at your hometown’s intersections placebos?  You might also check out the “Close Door” buttons in elevators.  Do they really work, or are they there just to give riders a false sense of empowerment? (3).

 

 

Sources:

1-Perry, Susan.  “The Power of the Placebo.” BrainFacts.org  31 May 2012.

2-Sutherland, Rory.  Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business and Life. New York: HarperCollins, 2019.

3-Luo, Michael.  “For Exercise in New York Futility, Push Button.”  The New York Times 27 Feb. 2004.

Reading Check:

-Beecher’s idea for using placebos began when he noticed what?

-What factor is the most important when it comes to the power of the placebo effect?