Saccades and Fixations

Interesting quesiton this morning from Peter Eckerman, our national director of FINK Australia, on a disruptive little trick I embedded in the Bible Song theme slides. Here's Peter's email, and my response.

Subject: Bible Song Review

Hi Rich,

In connection with a Bible Song Review:
I regularly receive comments on the theme review. Theme titles that enter from above, below and from the right as you look at the screen are all easily readable as they appear but theme titles that appear from the left as you look at the screen are difficult to read. In my home BS it creates a little disruption as children call out the titles with some children scrambling for their journals and some struggling to guess. Probably only minor in the big picture. If this could be changed it would be helpful.

 

Peter,

We could change it easy enough, but just so you know, having 1/4 of the titles come in from the left was a deliberate brain teaser.

Making the brain anticipate, work, and try to figure things out creates both better attention and retention. If they kids are actually scrambling for their journals GREAT!

In "Proust and the Squid" brain researcher Maryanne Wolf talks about the eye and how it darts back and forth and fixing on the known while scrambling for the unknown by reading forward and then going back. (It's called "saccades and fixations" for anyone who likes these things.) The brain loves puzzles, and loves the satisfaction of trying to figure things out. An unstimulated brain simply shuts off, or looks elsewhere for a challenge.

Case in point:

The polar bears at the San Diego Zoo were getting progressively moodier and dangerous. They brought in an animal psychologist who spent a few hours with them and announced: "They're dreadfully understimulated. Bored. They no longer have to work for their food or use their thinking skills. Here's what you do: You put their fish in a block of floating ice one day. You hang it from a tree the next. You put it in a container they have to figure out how to open the next. Etc."

The bears perked up and everyone was happy.

Anyway, I understand it would be easier to feed them all easy words (above, below, right), but having 1/4 of the titles involve just a little more work is just enough to keep them on their toes.

I'll put this on the list of future notes, but for now you know the meaning behind the maddness.

Rich

(PS - Get that book if you are looking for a fascinating view on how to make meaning in the slightly disordered brain.)

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