Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa Talk

1. Writing notes extends your memory

1.1. Even writing 1-2 words here and there will trigger your memory, which is essential for learning

1.2. Writing by hand has a slight advantage over typing

2. Attention as saliency

2.1. When things are expressed enthusiastically and not monotonously, it is easier to pay attention

2.2. Multimodal delivery (visual, auditory, etc.) is more effective in drawing attention

3. Selective Attention

3.1. We tend to find what we are trying to find, rather than discovering new ideas

4. Attention Blindness

4.1. Example: "Did you see the gorilla?" video

4.2. Sometimes you focus so narrowly that you miss out on other things going on in the world

5. The benefits of mind-wandering

5.1. Sometimes your mind just drifts away, which allows you to naturally link up stuff that you learned

5.2. "The more you know, the more you can know"

5.3. This is very important for creative insight, which allows you to come up with better ideas

6. The two pillars of learning

6.1. memory

6.2. attention

7. heuristics are mental shortcuts that your brain uses

7.1. the brain uses the most energy in your body

7.2. We tend to jump to conclusions because it's easier and saves energy, but this can also be dangerous!

8. Attention bias to threat

8.1. Fear helps get a message across quickly and effectively because it triggers people's emotions

9. There is no such thing as multitasking

9.1. You can only handle 1 heavy-cognitive task at a time

10. Attention continuum

10.1. Our attention ranges from bored to high alert to high stress

10.2. Stress can be both positive (Eustress) or negative