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How the Body Knows Its Mind_The Surprising Power of the Physical Environment to Influence How You Think and Feel

Page 22

by Sian Beilock


  15. J. Herbert et al., “Crawling Is Associated with More Flexible Memory Retrieval by 9-Month-Old Infants,” Developmental Science 10 (2007): 183–89. Crawling infants exhibited more flexible memories than same-age noncrawling babies. There was no difference in babies’ memories for how to use the same toy they had encountered in the past (e.g., what to press on the toy to have it move or make a sound). It was only when babies encountered a new, but similar, toy that crawling infants showed a memory advantage.

  16. A. Siegel and R. Burton, “Effects of Babywalkers on Early Locomotor Development in Human Infants,” Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics 20 (1999): 355–61.

  17. J. A. Sommerville, A. L. Woodward, and A. N. Needham, “Action Experience Alters 3-Month-Old Infants’ Perception of Other’s Actions,” Cognition 96 (2005): 1–11.

  18. As told on the dyspraxia.org website, http://www.dyspraxiausa.org/in-the-news/radcliffe-story/.

  19. M. H. Bornstein, “Physically Developed and Exploratory Young Infants Contribute to Their Own Long-Term Academic Achievement,” Psychological Science (2013), doi:10.1177/0956797613479974. This study looked at both infants’ motor maturity and exploratory activity as indicators of later academic achievement.

  20. K. H. James, “Sensori-Motor Experience Leads to Changes in Visual Processing in the Developing Brain,” Developmental Science 13 (2010): 279–88. The reader should note that printing practice was somewhat better for letter recognition than naming practice. Though this result fell just short of significance, other work suggests the benefit of printing. See also B. D. McClandiss, “Educational Neuroscience: The Early Years,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2010), www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1003431107.

  21. F. H. Rauscher, G. L. Shaw, and K. N. Ky, “Music and Spatial Task Performance,” Nature 365 (1993): 611.

  22. Kate Connolly, “Sewage Plant Plays Mozart to Stimulate Microbes,” Guardian, June 2, 2010, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/02/sewage-mozart-germany.

  23. Rochelle Jones, “Mozart’s Nice but Doesn’t Increase IQs,” CNN.com, August 25, 1999, http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9908/25/mozart.iq/.

  24. C. F. Chabris, “Prelude or Requiem for the Mozart Effect?,” Nature 400 (1990): 826–27.

  25. J. Pietschnig et al., “Mozart Effect—Shmozart Effect: A Meta-Analysis,” Intelligence 38 (2010): 314–23.

  26. K. M. Nantais and E. G. Schellenberg, “The Mozart Effect: An Artifact of Preference,” Psychological Science (1999), doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00170.

  27. See http://mathcounts.org/.

  28. See http://thefundsa.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html for details.

  29. M. Andres et al., “Contribution of Hand Motor Circuits to Counting,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19 (2007): 1–14; M. Andres et al., “Actions, Words, and Numbers: A Motor Contribution to Semantic Processing?,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 17 (2008): 313–17; M. Andres et al., “Common Substrate for Mental Arithmetic and Finger Representation in the Parietal Cortex,” Neuroimage 62 (2012): 1520–28.

  30. For example, see E. Mayer, “A Pure Case of Gerstmann Syndrome with a Subangular Lesion,” Brain 22 (1999): 1107–20.

  31. L. R. Moo et al., “Interlocking Finger Test: A Bedside Screen for Parietal Lobe Dysfunction,” Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, & Psychiatry 74 (2003): 530–32.

  32. S. Di Luca, A. Granà, C. Semenza, X. Seron, and M. Pesenti, “Finger-Digit Compatibility in Arabic Numeral Processing,” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 59 (2006): 1648–63. See also M. H. Fischer, “Finger Counting Habits Modulate Spatial-Numerical Associations, Cortex 44 (2008): 386–92; F. Domahs et al., “Embodied Numerosity: Implicit Hand-Based Representations Influence Symbolic Number Processing across Cultures,” Cognition 116 (2010): 251–66.

  33. B. Butterworth, The Mathematical Brain (London: Macmillan, 1999), quoted in M. Noel, “Finger Gnosia: A Predictor of Numerical Abilities in Children?,” Child Neuropsychology 11 (2005): 413–30. Others have argued that the relations found between math and fingers could be due to the fact that the brain areas underlying these two abilities are merely close together rather than the same.

  34. For a review of the literature regarding these findings, see M. P. Noël, “Finger Gnosia: A Predictor of Numerical Abilities in Children?,” Child Neuropsychology 11 (2005): 413–30; M. Gracia-Bafalluy and M. P. Noël, “Does Finger Training Increase Young Children’s Numerical Performance?,” Cortex 44 (2008): 368–75; I. Imbo et al., “Passive Hand Movements Disrupt Adults’ Counting Strategies,” Frontiers in Psychology 2 (2011): 1–5; M. Penner-Wilger and M. L. Anderson, “The Relation Between Finger Gnosis and Mathematical Ability: Why Redeployment of Neural Circuits Best Explains the Finding,” Frontiers in Psychology (2013), doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00877.

  35. See B. Butterworth, The Mathematical Brain (London: Macmillan, 1999), quoted in M. P. Noël, “Finger Gnosia: A Predictor of Numerical Abilities in Children?” Child Neuropsychology 11 (2005): 413–30.

  36. M. Gracia-Bafalluy and M. P. Noël, “Does Finger Training Increase Young Children’s Numerical Performance?” Cortex 44 (2008): 368–75. See also J. P. Fischer, “Numerical Performance Increased by Finger Training: A Fallacy Due to Regression toward the Mean?” Cortex 46 (2010): 272–73. M. Gracia-Bafalluy et al., “Consequences of Playing a Musical Instrument on Finger Gnosia and Number Skills in Children” (2007, June), paper presented at Numbers, Fingers, and the Brain symposium at the Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences Annual Meeting at the Université Catholique de Louvain. A. B. Graziano et al., “Enhanced Learning of Proportional Math through Music Training and Spatial-Temporal Training,” Neurological Research 21 (1999): 139–52. V. J. Schmithorst and S. K. Holland, “The Effect of Musical Training on the Neural Correlates of Math Processing: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study in Humans,” Neuroscience Letters 354 (2004): 193–96. K. Vaughn, “Music and Mathematics: Modest Support for the Oft-Claimed Relationship,” Journal of Aesthetic Education 34 (2000): 149–66. The reader should note that more work on the relation between music and math is needed.

  Chapter 3

  1. See http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/news/daniel-wolpert-real-reason-brains. For more on the sea squirt, see R. Llinas, The I of the Vortex (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001).

  2. O. Hauk, I. Johnsrude, and F. Pulvermüller, “Somatotopic Representation of Action Words in Human Motor and Premotor Cortex,” Neuron 41 (2004): 301–7.

  3. A. M. Glenberg et al., “Activity and Imagined Activity Can Enhance Young Children’s Reading Comprehension,” Journal of Educational Psychology 96 (2004): 424–36.

  4. See J. P. Gee, “Reading as a Situated Language: A Sociocognitive Perspective,” in R. B. Ruddell et al. (eds.), Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading, 6th edition, Newark, DE: International Reading Association (2013).

  5. For a review, see G. Lakoff and R. E. Nunez, Where Mathematics Comes From (New York: Basic Books, 2000).

  6. For a review, see J. P. Gee, “Reading as a Situated Language: A Sociocognitive Perspective,” in R. B. Ruddell et al. (eds.), Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading, 6th edition, Newark, DE: International Reading Association (2013).

  7. A. M. Glenberg, B. Jaworski, M. Rischal, and J. R. Levin, “What Brains Are For: Action, Meaning, and Reading Comprehension,” in D. McNamara (ed.), Reading Comprehension Strategies: Theories, Interventions, and Technologies, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum (2007).

  8. Kyle Spencer, “With Building Blocks, Educators Going Back to Basics,” New York Times, November 27, 2011.

  9. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics, Reston, VA: NCTM (2000). See also Jean M. Shaw, “Manipulatives Enhance the Learning of Mathematics” (2002), http://www.eduplace.com/state/author/shaw.pdf.

  10. M. Montessori, The Absorbent Mind (C. A. Claremong, trans.) (New York: Holt, 1967), cited in A. M. Glenberg, B. Jaworski, M. Rischal, and J. R. Levin, “What Brains Are For: Actio
n, Meaning, and Reading Comprehension,” in D. McNamara (ed.), Reading Comprehension Strategies: Theories, Interventions, and Technologies, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum (2007).

  11. K. Schaffer, E. Stern, and S. Kim, Math Dance with Dr. Schaffer and Mr. Stern, Santa Cruz, CA: MoveSpeakSpin (2001).

  12. As quoted in “Do the Math Dance,” Science Daily, May 1 (2008), http://old.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/0503-do_the_math_dance.htm.

  13. As described in Lisa Traiger “1 + 1 = Pas de deux,” Dance Teacher Magazine, March 15 (2010), http://www.dance-teacher.com/2010/03/1-1-pas-de-deux/.

  14. “Tom Daley Fears He May Grow Too Tall to Dive,” BBC News, October 14 (2010), http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/11541138.

  15. Malcolm Folley, “This Medal’s for You Dad! Poster Boy Daley Delivers Bronze in Diving Thriller,” Daily Mail (UK), August 11 (2012), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/olympics/article-2187152/London-Olympics-2012-Tom-Daley-wins-diving-bronze.html.

  16. For a review, C. Kontra, S. Goldin-Meadow, and S. L. Beilock, “Embodied Learning across the Lifespan,” Topics in Cognitive Science 4 (2012): 731–39. In this work, we specifically talk about our experiments exploring the concept of angular momentum and the related concept of torque.

  Chapter 4

  1. See M. Gick and K. Holyoak, “Analogical Problem Solving,” Cognitive Psychology 12 (1980), 306–56; M. Gick and K. Holyoak, “Scheme Induction and Analogical Transfer,” Cognitive Psychology 15 (1983): 1–38; K. Duncker, “On Problem Solving,” Psychological Monographs 58 (1945), 270.

  2. L. E. Thomas and A. Lleras, “Moving Eyes and Moving Thought: On the Spatial Compatibility between Eye Movements and Cognition,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 14 (2007): 663–68. See L. E. Thomas and A. Lleras, “Covert Shifts of Attention Function as an Implicit Aid to Insight,” Cognition 111 (2009): 168–74, for evidence that simply shifting attention (an act that often precedes actual eye movements) to the problem solution produces similar results.

  3. E. R. Grant and M. J. Spivey, “Eye Movements and Problem Solving: Guiding Attention Guides Thought,” Psychological Science 14 (2003): 462–66.

  4. D. Kirsh, “Creative Cognition in Choreography,” paper presented at Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Computational Creativity. Mexico City, Mexico (2011, April 27-29).

  5. A. K.-Y. Leung et al., “Embodied Metaphors and Creative Acts,” Psychological Science 23 (2012), 502–9. A reader interested in these findings might also read G. Francis, “The Frequency of Excessive Success,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (in press). For more effects of movement on problem solving and creativity, see K. Werner and M. Raab, “Moving to Solution: Effects of Movement Priming on Problem Solving,” Experimental Psychology 60 (2013): 403–9, and M. Oppezzo and D. Schwartz, “Give Your Ideas Some Legs: The Positive Effect of Walking on Creative Thinking,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 40, 1142–52.

  6. Quoted in Nadia Goodman, “3 Postures to Boost Productivity Now,” Entrepreneur.com, May 31, 2012.

  7. D. R. Carney, A. J. Cuddy, and A. J. Yap, “Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance,” Psychological Science 10 (2010): 1363–68. See also Nadia Goodman, “3 Postures to Boost Productivity Now,” Entrepreneur.com, May 31, 2012. See also J. Cesario and M. M. McDonald, “Bodies in Context: Power Poses as a Computation of Action Possibilities,” Social Cognition 31 (2013): 260–74. Note that more information about the body position tips mentioned can be found in these citations, including information about how the context one is in can modulate the effect that power poses have on perceptions of power. Also, note that there is some controversy regarding whether power poses change perceptions of power via hormones, such as testosterone or other mechanisms. See E. Ranehill et al., “A Reassessment of Power Posing and Risk Tolerance: No Effect in a Large Sample of Men and Women,” Psychological Science (in press).

  8. See S. E. Gaither and S. R. Sommers, “Having an Out Group Roommate Shapes Whites’ Behavior in Subsequent Diverse Settings,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 49 (2013): 272–76, doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2012.10.020; J. N. Shelton, J. A. Richeson, and J. Salvatore, “Expecting to Be the Target of Prejudice: Implications for Interethnic Interactions,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 31 (2005): 1189–202.

  9. H. Aviezer et al., “Body Cues, not Facial Expressions, Discriminate between Intense Positive and Negative Emotions,” Science 338 (2012), doi:10.1126/science.1224313.

  10. A. J. Yap et al., “The Ergonomics of Dishonesty: The Effect of Incidental Posture on Stealing, Cheating, and Traffic Violations,” Psychological Science (2013), doi:10.1177/0956797613492425.

  11. T. Noice and H. Noice, The Nature of Expertise in Professional Acting: A Cognitive View, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum (1997). See also T. Noice and H. Noice, “What Studies of Actors and Acting Can Tell Us about Memory and Cognitive Functioning,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 15 (2006): 14–18.

  12. H. Noice, T. Noice, and C. Kennedy, “The Contribution of Movement on the Recall of Complex Material,” Memory 8 (2000): 353–63.

  13. Example taken from T. Noice and H. Noice, “What Studies of Actors and Acting Can Tell Us about Memory and Cognitive Functioning,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 15 (2006): 14–18.

  14. H. Noice, T. Noice, and G. Staines, “A Short-Term Intervention to Enhance Cognitive and Affective Functioning in Older Adults,” Journal of Aging and Health 16 (2004): 1–24.

  15. For a review, see H. L. Roediger, III and J. D. Karpicke, “The Power of Testing Memory: Basic Research and Implications for Educational Practice,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 1 (2006): 181–210.

  16. For a review, see P. F. Delaney et al., “Spacing and the Testing Effects: A Deeply Critical, Lengthy, and at Times Discursive Review of the Literature,” Psychology of Learning and Motivation 53 (2010): 63–147.

  17. For a review, see J. Dunlosky et al., “Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Direction from Cognitive and Educational Psychology,” Psychological Science in the Public Interest 14 (2013): 4–58.

  Chapter 5

  1. For details, see “McCain Puts Obama on the Spot in Final Debate,” CNNPolitics.com, October 16, 2008, http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/15/presidential.debate/.

  2. See Larry Vellequette and Tom Troy, “ ‘Joe the Plumber’ Isn’t Licensed,” Toledo Blade, October 16, 2008, http://www.toledoblade.com/Politics/2008/10/16/Joe-the-plumber-isn-t-licensed.html.

  3. See a video of the third 2008 Presidential Debate at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvdfO0lq4rQ.

  4. See D. Casasanto and K. Jasmin, “Good and Bad in the Hands of Politicians” (2010), PLoS ONE 5, e11805, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011805; D. Casasanto and E. G. Chrysikou, “When Left Is ‘Right’: Motor Fluency Shapes Abstract Concepts,” Psychological Science 22 (2011), 419–22; D. Casasanto, “Different Bodies, Different Minds: The Body-Specificity of Language and Thought,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 20 (2011): 378–83.

  5. D. Casasanto, “Embodiment of Abstract Concepts: Good and Bad in Right-and Left-Handers,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 138 (2009): 351–67.

  6. D. Casasanto and K. Jasmin, “Good and Bad in the Hands of Politicians” (2010), PLoS ONE 5: e11805, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011805.

  7. Abha Bhattarai, “Executives Turn to Body Language for an Edge,” Washington Post, February 24, 2013.

  8. Personal communication with Daniel Casasanto, September 26, 2011.

  9. M. L. Slepian et al., “Quality of Professional Players’ Poker Hands Is Perceived Accurately from Arm Motions,” Psychological Science (2013), doi:10.1177/0956797613487384 (as judged at the 2009 World Series of Poker tournament).

  10. S. W. Cook and S. Goldin-Meadow, “The Role of Gesture in Learning: Do Children Use Their Hands to Change Their Minds?,” Journal of Cognition and Development 7 (2006): 211–32; S. Goldin-Meadow, S. W. Cook, and
Z. A. Mitchell, “Gesturing Gives Children New Ideas about Math,” Psychological Science 20 (2009): 267–72.

  11. A. B. Hostettler and M. W. Alibali, “Visible Embodiment: Gestures as Simulated Action,” Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 15 (2008): 495–514. For an interesting discussion of these issues, see R. Stevens, “The Missing Bodies of Mathematical Thinking and Learning Have Been Found,” Journal of Learning Sciences 21 (2012): 337–46.

  12. See S. Ehrlich, S. C. Levine, and S. Goldin-Meadow, “The Importance of Gesture in Children’s Spatial Reasoning,” Developmental Psychology 42 (2006): 1259–68; S. Goldin-Meadow, S. L. Levine, E. Zinchenko, T. K. Yip, N. Hemani, and L. Factor, “Doing Gesture Promotes Learning a Mental Transformation Task Better Than Seeing Gesture,” Developmental Science 15 (2012): 876–84.

  13. For a review, see S. Goldin-Meadow and S. L. Beilock, “Action’s Influence on Thought: The Case of Gesture,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 5 (2010): 664–74.

  14. See webpage of chemistry professor François G. Amar, http://chemistry.umeche.maine.edu/~amar/amar.html.

  15. S. W. Cook, T. K. Yip, and S. Goldin-Meadow, “Gesturing Makes Memories that Last,” Journal of Memory and Language 63 (2010): 465–75.

  16. For a review of the QWERTY keyboard, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY. See also P. David, “Clio and the Economics of QWERTY,” American Economic Review 75 (1985): 332–37.

  17. Jared Diamond, “The Curse of QWERTY,” Discover Magazine, April 1, 1997, http://discovermagazine.com/1997/apr/thecurseofqwerty1099/#.UkswzoYqjzY.

  18. See entry on Typing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typing#Alphanumeric_entry. Several other typing competitions have come on the scene in the past decade (e.g., The Ultimate Typing Championship), and many new records have been set (e.g., fastest typing of numbers).

  19. K. Jasmin and D. Casasanto, “The QWERTY Effect: How Typing Shapes the Meaning of Words,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (2012), doi:10.3758/s13423-012-0229-7.

 

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