ladiesattheback

[ladiesattheback]

THE SERIES OF MIND IN MOTION

You might need to go under your blanket before proceeding!!!

The Moving Mind: In the Darkness of Attention

The Theory of Signal Detection: When Quietness Screams the Loudest

Your mind, like a radar, constantly seeks signals in the endless hall, but not all noises are genuine or quiet is secure.

Signal detection theory explains human perception of inputs through bias, noise, and uncertainty, with four possible brain reactions to possible events:

There are moments when you act on a real sense—a victory.

There were moments when you missed something.

Sometimes nothing causes you to panic—shadows make your mind race.

Sometimes you may disregard the emptiness with composure because it really is nothing.

In a storm, you may hear a false alarm, but it might buzz without your knowledge.

Paying attention is risky. And without all the cards, your brain is playing.

Selective Attention: Searching for a Voice in the Silence

There are lots of voices in this hallway. However, your brain selects one.

Selective attention is what that is. You silence the rest and concentrate on what you want to hear. It's similar to setting a radio to the only station that counts.

Have you ever observed that even in a noisy room, you can hear your name? That is the effect of a cocktail party.

Shadowing is like going through fog with only one flickering light; you have to repeat one speaker's remarks while ignoring others.

Selective attention can lead to overlooked tasks, such as running into traffic or a lamp post, as everything else becomes less noticeable.

Selective attention is a resource, and its supply is limited, according to Lavie (2005).

Divided Attention: When the Hall Divides in Half

Imagine now that you're simultaneously moving down two hallways.

Multitasking involves sending texts, watching videos, and paying attention to lectures, but it can be challenging due to divided attention, like dividing a candle across two rooms.

Strayer and Johnston's 2001 research shows that people using cell phones while driving miss twice as many traffic signals, despite the brain's natural attentional divide.

Automatic VS Controlled Processing: What Scares You, What You Desire

There are certain things you do without thinking. You have to force yourself to make some.

Automatic processing is necessary when tasks become instinctual. Unexpected arithmetic problems in class cause controlled processing, which necessitates full brain focus and attention.

Schneider & Shiffrin (2003) suggest that regulated tasks can become automatic with enough repetition, but avoid controlling too many spirits simultaneously until then.

To reduce hallway noise, silence static, wear invisible headphones, focus on one haunt at a time, use Pomodoro charm for 25 minutes, and divide work into manageable chunks.

How about some romance to chase away your fear?

Forget Me Not: Love, Loss, and the Leaky Brain

Way back in 1968, two brainiacs—Atkinson and Shiffrin— cooked up this thing called the Multi-Store Model of Memory. Basically, they decided your brain is like a chaotic dating reality show with three dramatic phases.

Sensory Memory: Tingly Senses

It's a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it spin cycle where every sound, sight, and questionable text message bursts in uninvited—and then disappears before you can even react. Unless you’re actually paying attention (which, let’s be real, is hard when you’re busy wondering if your crush liked your Insta story), it just peaces out. Gone. Ghosted. Left on read.

Short-Term Memory (STM): What Was Your Name Again?

This is the brain’s version of a goldfish bowl with commitment issues. It holds, like, seven things tops. Maybe your grocery list, your crush’s birthday, and the lyrics to that one song you pretend not to love. If you repeat stuff (like rehearsing your coffee order so you don’t say “grande cappo-mocha-latte-chaos”), it might stay longer. But otherwise? POOF. It’s gone like your will to study.

Long-Term Memory (LTM): You’re Not Just in My Heart, In My Brain Too

This is your brain’s messy attic. Everything you’ve ever thought about, loved, or ate at 2 a.m. lives here—forever. Probably even that weird dream you had in third grade. But only if the memory actually made an emotional splash—not just a polite wave.

Lucy’s Love Loop: A Memory That Just Won’t Stick

So let’s talk about Lucy from 50 First Dates. Her STM? Working overtime. Her LTM? Missing-In-Action. Every morning she wakes up thinking it’s the day of her accident. Like, “Hi, I’ve never seen you before,” even though she’s literally in a full-on romcom. Meanwhile, Adam Sandler’s just out here trying to make her remember he exists. Talk about emotional cardio.But how do you make a memory actually stay put? Like, Velcro-to-your-soul kind of memory? Enter: The Levels-of-Processing Theory—aka, “Did you really think about that or nah?”

Shallow thinking? That’s just reading words like “cute dog” and moving on. It fades quicker than your motivation after 9 p.m. But deep thinking? That’s connecting stuff to your life, your feels, your love for curly fries. That’s what sticks.

So, want to actually remember something—or someone? Don’t just mindlessly repeat it like a robot in love. Make it weird. Make it personal. Make it funny. Your brain (and your heart) only keeps what feels like it matters. Especially the cringe, the cute, and the completely chaotic.

Grab your magnifying glass! It's the last journey!

The Cold Case of the Mind: Dissecting Knowledge Representation

As a detective investigating a complex case, you gather a range of evidence, such as witness testimony, CCTV video, reports, and suggestions. But simply having this information is not enough; it must be organized and understood in order to form a coherent argument. This intricate process, known as knowledge representation, is comparable to how people's minds arrange and comprehend common information. It explores formation and alteration of our mental images of the outside world.

This "case file" is based on two primary categories of knowledge: declarative knowledge (also called "knowing that"), which includes information that can be recalled, like time of the crime or the identity of the suspect's jacket, and non declarative knowledge (also called "knowing how"), which includes skills like fingerprint dusting or quick visual searches. Both are necessary for effective cognitive function, which enables us to recall and take action.

Verbal and Visual Coding: Techniques For Questioning

For information, our minds use two primary codes: the verbal code for words and symbols (e.g., verbal description "tall and scarred") and the imaginal code for sensory experiences (e.g., mentally visualizing a suspect from a description). Stronger memories are produced by combining both, like when witness testimony is visualized. The theory—that our comprehension and memory are improved when we use both our verbal and visual systems—is supported by this result, Anderson, R. B. (1991). Beyond this, the propositional hypothesis posits that pictures and words are reduced to abstract propositions, their essential meanings deprived of distinctive features. For instance, "The suspect entered the bank" and the CCTV video that goes with it both become "ENTERED (Suspect, Bank)." This abstract representation is particularly crucial for unclear information.

The Influence of Mental Images: Reconstructing Crime Scenes

Mental imagery is a strong cognitive tool, even in the face of abstract thought. According to the Functional Equivalence Hypothesis, our mental images act like actual objects. For example, similar to physical scanning, mentally "scanning" a rebuilt crime scene takes longer for bigger regions. This is supported by research on mental rotations and picture scaling; it takes more work to rotate a mental image, such as a weapon. This demonstrates how dynamic and changeable our mental representations are, enabling us to "walk through" scenarios or "rotate" material in our minds.

Getting the Hang of Learning: The Investigator's Guide

Make use of both verbal and visual processing to improve your capacity to learn challenging information.

Mind mapping is a great tool; to improve comprehension, an investigator might use an imaginary picture to link a suspect's verbal identification, locations, and reasons.

Create clear mental pictures of novel concepts, such as the blood flow in the circulatory system.

The more ways you can envision it, the more powerful and accessible your information becomes.

To solve mental case files, are you ready?

How’s the journey? Did you have fun going on a journey with Mind while learning the complexities of our brain? Well if you are then you’re welcome to come back for more as the upcoming release of the sequel of The Series Mind in Motion will come out soon!

References:

Bransford, J. D., Franks, J. J., Morris, C.D., & Stein, B.S.(1979). Some general constraints on learning and memory research. In L.S. Cermak & F.I.M.

Clark, J. M., & Paivio, A. (1987). A dual coding perspective on encoding processes. In Imagery and related mnemonic processes: Theories, individual differences, and applications (pp. 5-33). New York, NY: Springer New York.

Craik(Eds.), Levels of processing in human memory (pp.331–354). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum AssociatesInc.Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11(6), 671-684.

Kass, S. J., Cole, K. S., & Stanny, C. J. (2007). Effects of distraction and experience on situation awareness and simulated driving. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 10(4), 321–329. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2006.12.002

Mayer, R. E., & Anderson, R. B. (1991). Animations need narrations: An experimental test of a dual-coding hypothesis. Journal of educational psychology, 83(4), 484.

Murphy, G., & Greene, C. M. (2016). Perceptual load affects eyewitness accuracy and susceptibility to leading questions. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01322

Schneider, W., & Chein, J. M. (2003). Controlled & automatic processing: Behavior, theory, and biological mechanisms. Cognitive Science, 27(3), 525–559. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog2703_8