Presented without comment
Gwern Branwen
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Henry-Morton-Stanleys-Unbreakable-Will.html?c=y&story=fullstory
, Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney:
> You might think the energy spent shaving in the jungle would be better devoted to looking for food. But Stanley’s belief in the link between external order and inner self-discipline has been confirmed recently in studies. In one experiment, a group of participants answered questions sitting in a nice neat laboratory, while others sat in the kind of place that inspires parents to shout, “Clean up your room!” The people in the messy room scored lower self-control, such as being unwilling to wait a week for a larger sum of money as opposed to taking a smaller sum right away. When offered snacks and drinks, people in the neat lab room more often chose apples and milk instead of the candy and sugary colas preferred by their peers in the pigsty.
>
> In a similar experiment online, some participants answered questions on a clean, well-designed website. Others were asked the same questions on a sloppy website with spelling errors and other problems. On the messy site, people were more likely to say that they would gamble rather than take a sure thing, curse and swear, and take an immediate but small reward rather than a larger but delayed reward. The orderly websites, like the neat lab rooms, provided subtle cues guiding people toward self-disciplined decisions and actions helping others.
--
gwern
http://www.gwern.net
Arky
what I don't need, and then organizing the rest. Don't know if there
have been benefits yet.
My bigger problem is the organization of my virtual environment...
On Nov 30, 5:26 pm, Gwern Branwen <gwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> from "Henry Morton Stanley's Unbreakable Will"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Henry-Morton-Stanle...
Arky
On Nov 30, 5:26 pm, Gwern Branwen <gwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> from "Henry Morton Stanley's Unbreakable Will"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Henry-Morton-Stanle...
The.Fourth.Deviation.
I'm extremely messy because I live in a very internal world. This
world is disorganized, but it manifests itself in my life as a
compulsive routine of studying and self-improvement through exercise,
practice of music etc. I am currently waiting 8 months to begin
working an 80,000 per year job, which I have signed a contract for.
And I am waiting a year to begin graduate school, as opposed to
selecting a lesser school to get in immediately.The above study seems
to define all this as "discipline".
But how so, if I cannot be bothered to ever clean or shop for
groceries. When given the choice between saving money on groceries or
dining out, I dine out about 90% of the time. I lack the self-control
to grocery shop because I must study compulsively, and it takes away
too much time. So how do we define discipline? (disclaimer, I have
asperger's so I am probably atypical..this study probably applies to
"neurotypical" people)
On Nov 30, 7:26 pm, Gwern Branwen <gwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> from "Henry Morton Stanley's Unbreakable Will"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Henry-Morton-Stanle...
γενβιρΟ
control. I have never noticed this with regular n-back however.
Also, I think there is a simple distinction to be made between
disciplining your self to behave in the way you want to behave and the
way you don't want to behave. E.g. you want to study, play music etc,
however, you don't want to go shopping for groceries even though it
may be a smarter option. So, I think doing the things you don't want
to do but should do is probably a better indicator of you self
control. Just speculation.
P.S - Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but how are you doing to complete
graduate study and a full time job at the same time? I suspect
graduate study is perhaps just part-time, job only goes for a few
months or job doesn't place to much of a time constraint on you?
On Dec 3, 1:19 am, "The.Fourth.Deviation." <davidsky...@gmail.com>
wrote:
The.Fourth.Deviation.
What other differences did you note from arithmetic variable N back?
My grad program is part-time
Colin Dickerman
This mirrors your mind as you build something. You start very slow and
methodical, but as you go it gets messier and messier as you hurry to
finish.
On Nov 30, 5:26 pm, Gwern Branwen <gwe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> from "Henry Morton Stanley's Unbreakable Will"http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Henry-Morton-Stanle...
γενβιρΟ
On Dec 4, 6:17 am, "The.Fourth.Deviation." <davidsky...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hello
> What other differences did you note from arithmetic variable N back?
>
> My grad program is part-time
>
The.Fourth.Deviation.
> > > > > gwernhttp://www.gwern.net- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
γενβιρΟ
I've had more 'working memory' improvements with regards to this mode
however. Especially if working memory is encapsulated by tests such as
OSPAN (which it is understandably not).
This affect has been most noticeable while trying to maintain
conversations with people.
For example, at a _party_ I could be having an in-depth discussion
about something with someone, stop after having asked them if they
want a beer, and on my way towards getting them a beer I may be
distracted by someone who then involves me in some elaborate
discussion about the 'meaning of life' but then suddenly an uproar
arises out of people singing "happy birthday to you", so naturally
that gets put to rest because I'm naturally obliged to join in. After
that's done and dusted, I redirect my attention back towards getting
the beer, go where my friend was waiting, contribute to any
conversation they maybe trying to polish off, then easily continue at
the level we previously were with our initial conversation. And
suddenly through all of that, I'm able to draw up some analogy about
how the "birthday song", getting the beer while being interrupted by
another conversation and then nursing the new conversation to an end,
can relate to what we may be discussing in some abstract way.
Regular n-back has never given birth to a similar experience. Yes, it
helped and still helps with recognition tasks as well as simple digit-
span, however, if I needed to do such tasks in the face of distraction
(similar to the above) or under conditions that required _ACTIVE_
recall under cognitive manipulation (you'll see what I mean by this
if you give the mode a try), I wouldn't be able to, or at least not to
a great extent. I'm not saying that one shouldn't train with regular n-
back, no, I think it has unique attributes, obviously, I am just
saying that I think variable-arithmetic n-back taps different areas,
areas which I think needed some kind of reconciliation with my other
attributes, prior to training.
Anyway, just take it with a "grain of salt", as people say.
On Dec 5, 9:51 am, "The.Fourth.Deviation." <davidsky...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> > > > > > gwernhttp://www.gwern.net-Hide quoted text -