Persistent Brain Myths: Learning Styles

by hkatz, posted in General Learning

There’s a popular theory about learning styles: Some people are visual learners, for example, while others do better with audio. But is there any evidence to support the theory?

Apparently not. Preferred learning style doesn’t appear to impact people’s ability to learn, one way or another.

Interestingly, the article I linked to mentions a couple of approaches to teaching that seem to work better, and I plan to look them up (a multimodal approach and an active learning “flipped classroom” style).

BetterHelp’s Privacy Violations

by hkatz, posted in Struggling Striving Healing

Ads for BetterHelp have popped up all over the place in recent years, and its online counseling services became especially attractive during pandemic lockdowns.

Unfortunately, as reported by the FTC earlier this year, BetterHelp violated customer trust and its privacy promises by selling sensitive data to Facebook, Snapchat, and other companies.

These deceptions have surely helped people along on the road to better mental health.

Some Ray Bradbury Writing Advice

by hkatz, posted in Writing

In his collection of essays, Zen in the Art of Writing, one of Bradbury’s inspiring suggestions is as follows:

Make a long list of nouns (or titles), like THE LAKE or THE CAROUSEL. Pick one of these nouns and do a freewrite on it (mix prose and poetry, fiction and essay writing, just write). Then, at some point, maybe in the middle of the page, a character will appear. Something will click and come together. You’ll discover a story that you now need to tell.

Does this always work? I’m not sure, but it’s a fun exercise anyway. It may give you something, even if only one sentence (an observation, a joke) that you wind up using somewhere.

Does a Growth Mindset Matter?

by hkatz, posted in Research, Self-Development

Years ago, I read about how a “growth mindset” can boost your chances for academic success. According to this popular theory, students are more likely to succeed if they believe that they can change their personal traits and abilities.

For example, instead of assuming that they have a fixed amount of talent for a particular ability – like solving algebraic equations or drawing portraits – they recognize that they can learn and grow. They don’t have a fixed level of skill, and the mistakes they make aren’t a sign of some hopeless lack of talent.

This theory makes sense. When learning something, I’d rather go into it with an attitude of perseverance and skill building, instead of a defeatist mindset that prompts me to give up at every mistake or struggle.

But what happens if you try to teach growth mindset in a classroom? Do interventions that aim to cultivate growth mindset among students actually work?

A systematic review and meta analysis of the existing research didn’t find significant positive effects for these kinds of interventions. What it found was poor study design and researchers influenced by financial incentives to produce stronger positive results.

One of the authors of this review and meta analysis also posted a Twitter thread (called an X thread now?) that’s worth reading, partly because it responds to a different meta analysis that seems to regard growth mindset interventions more favorably.

At this point, there doesn’t seem to be good solid evidence that these interventions work for students. Maybe you can personally find a way to make growth mindset work well for you and help you achieve your goals (academic or otherwise). But the current interventions introduced to groups may not do much at all on average. They appear to be overhyped.

And yes, it’s also depressing to read about low-quality research in psych and how often it gets cited and reported without criticism.

ADHD Productivity Tips Video

by hkatz, posted in Struggling Striving Healing

If you have ADHD, typical productivity advice may not work well for you, as discussed in this YouTube video. For example, breaking a larger project into a list of smaller tasks may make you feel even more overwhelmed with all of the steps you need to take, or you may wind up just wasting time writing lists of what you have to do.

Starting around 12 1/2 minutes into the video, there’s a discussion about different components of motivation followed by some productivity suggestions that may be more useful (although, as with any advice, effectiveness isn’t always the same for each person or for each set of circumstances).

One example is working in brief “micro commitments” – instead of declaring that you’ll clean your whole kitchen in a single day, start by saying that you’ll put away three dishes. Don’t think about or list all of the things you need to do. Just tackle one small commitment. Maybe doing this will lead to a buildup of momentum, and if it doesn’t, at least you got something done. Other pieces of advice include making a particular task more like a game or using a Pomodoro timer with a work-break ratio that’s calibrated to you.

Also, even if you don’t have ADHD, it may be worth checking out the suggestions, because maybe they could still be effective for you.

Three good novels with old characters

by hkatz, posted in Readings

One reason I recommend these novels is because they show some of the absurdities and terrors of old age while giving the characters dignity too. The authors, who are all English, mix humor with devastating observations.

First, Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym, where two out of a group of four old people retire from the office where they all work. Up until that point, they were able to get by on small plans and routines, and just enough company to keep away unbearable loneliness.

Second, Old Filth by Jane Gardam, where a man who established a successful career as a lawyer and judge looks back across his life and revisits old relationships and places. A sworn enemy may become something of a friend. Periods of love or terror may surface in memory and change what remains of his life.

Then there’s Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress). An old woman asks a young man to pretend to be her grandson, so she can save face in front of others and not appear so lonely. Meanwhile, he uses her for material for his novel. I’m going to share one excerpt from Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, because the line stuck with me even after I returned the book to the library:

“She did not explain to him how deeply pessimistic one must be in the first place, to need the sort of optimism she now had at her command.”

Can ChatGPT write a YouTube script?

by hkatz, posted in Psychology

Worried that ChatGPT could do a better job at writing one of the scripts for her videos, YouTuber Jill Bearup set it a task that’s typical for her channel: commenting on and rating the boots worn by female action heroes. The results were practical and functional and stylish and practical.

I liked how the ChatGPT-generated script made sense in certain ways but also revealed such hollowness, especially as it went on.

Want to learn how to write flash fiction? A book rec

by hkatz, posted in Writing

Flash fiction, which generally refers to short stories under a 1,000 words, poses an enjoyable challenge. You need to work within the tight limits on length to create a memorable story.

If you want to learn more about the different possibilities for flash fiction, I recommend Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook by David Galef.

The book introduces you to different types of super short stories, including character sketches, vignettes, letters, lists, and what-if scenarios explored briefly and powerfully. It offers advice for strengthening your writing, and each section comes with its own writing exercises or prompts. Plus, it serves as a story anthology (with Steve Martin’s “Disgruntled Former Lexicographer” as one of the highlights).

On campaigns against disinformation

by hkatz, posted in Psychology

I appreciate that Tablet Magazine did this deep dive into government-backed initiatives against disinformation, and how they often just result in more disinformation: propaganda, a manipulation of narratives, a system ensuring that certain facts never surface and that reasonable but uncomfortable questions remain unheard and unaddressed.

One excerpt:

The first phase of the information war was marked by distinctively human displays of incompetence and brute-force intimidation. But the next stage, already underway, is being carried out through both scalable processes of artificial intelligence and algorithmic pre-censorship that are invisibly encoded into the infrastructure of the internet, where they can alter the perceptions of billions of people.

It’s important to make time to read this article and better understand the ways that technology is wielded by powerful entities (governments collaborating with huge corporations) to shape us – what we know, what we think, how we think.

Two types of AI scams

by hkatz, posted in Psychology

Artificial intelligence is a social disruptor. Although it may deliver benefits across different industries and in private life, it’s also a potential weapon, and there are already scammers taking advantage of it.

In one type of scam, criminals use AI voice-generating software to imitate your loved ones and pretend they’re in distress, maybe suffering a medical or legal emergency. Their goal is to scare you and get you to send money.

Another type of scam uses AI-generated artwork to convince you to donate to what you think is a legitimate charitable cause, like disaster relief for earthquake victims. The images stir up emotions and prompt you to act quickly. But the money just goes to scammers.