“Are you reading my mind right now?”
How studying psychology actually changed my perspective
Psychology students are bound to come across this question at one point or another, especially when meeting people for the first time. The answer, of course, is “no”. Even psychologists studying the human ability to think and reason about the mental states of others, a subfield known as Theory of Mind, do not have any insight on what others are currently thinking — thankfully.
Recently, I was asked a different and more interesting question: “Have you incorporated anything you learnt throughout your degree into your everyday life?”
And for once, I was able to say “yes”.
In fact, psychology’s relevance for the everyday life is what drew me to it in the first place. Four years later, I am still most fascinated by topics that have a real impact on you, me, and everyone else. Given my interest in cognitive neuroscience (the intersection of neuroscience and psychology) and so-called higher order brain functions, this includes research on the processes involved in learning, memory, forgetting, cognitive ageing, decision-making, and problem-solving — all of which affect how we experience the world, both today, and in the future.
Learning about these topics has influenced and inspired me in many ways. However, two examples stand out, as they involved a conscious effort to change my habits.
Challenging my study techniques
Firstly, studying the cognitive neuroscience of learning and long-term memory, I learnt that some commonly celebrated study techniques are not supported by empirical evidence. For example, many of us are familiar with the idea that different people have different learning styles. Usually, this refers to some people identifying as ‘visual learners’, reporting to learn best when given visual information, whilst others identify as ‘auditory learners’, and so on. However, various researchers, such as Krätzig and Arbuthnott (2006), have reported that preferred learning styles are not associated with better outcomes. Instead, combining styles when encoding new information results in better performance on later retrieval. This is referred to as multimodal learning and is easily incorporated in self-study sessions, for example by listening to a podcast, watching a lecture recording, and reading a textbook on the same topic.
Furthermore, I have started to test myself throughout the revision process, rather than waiting to do the mock paper just before the end-of-term exam. Most of the forgetting takes place shortly after encoding new information. Thus, it can sometimes feel like we are learning things from scratch when it comes to exam time. This can be avoided by revising new information soon after it has been learnt. Doing so at increasing time intervals (e.g., after 30 minutes, a few hours, a few days, a week, a month, and so on) saves you from having to relearn most of the information at the end of the semester. Incorporating short-answer questions throughout this process is particularly effective as it strengthens our long-term memory. At the level of the brain, a memory consists of connections between neurons. By accessing a memory (for example by retrieving information on a test), these connections are reinforced. This is known as long-term potentiation.
If you are interested in these processes, you might want to read a short introductory article I wrote on the topic of learning, memory, and revision for the Edinburgh University Science Magazine.
Challenging my bilingual brain
My native language is German. I started to learn English in primary school, but only became a fluent speaker when I was studying in English and living in English-speaking environments.
Since my psychology degree was taught and assessed in English, I tend to lack the appropriate vocabulary and anecdotes to express thoughts on psychological research in German — which can be quite embarrassing. Thus, I initially avoided discussing psychology in German.
A few months into my degree, this became increasingly frustrating. Around the same time, I first learnt about the bilingual brain. Unlike often assumed, being able to hold conversations in two or more languages is not accompanied by separate vocabulary or grammar stores in the brain. Bilinguals are not two monolinguals in one person — quite the opposite. Thus, in any given context, bilinguals need to choose the appropriate language to communicate with. When speaking to a German friend, who is not familiar with English psychology jargon, I select to speak in German. To do so successfully, I have to suppress my English vocabulary on the topic. In some contexts, switching between languages can happen flexibly and frequently, within the timespan of just a few seconds or minutes. The ability to do so is referred to as code-switching and has been associated with various cognitive advantages. For example, Alladi and colleagues (2013) reported that bilinguals, independent of their sex, education, and occupation, benefitted from a delayed onset of dementia of about four years, compared to their monolingual peers.
Engaging with research in this area convinced me to challenge myself to engage in conversations on all topics in both languages — both to enrich my social life and to foster my ability to code-switch.
So, whilst I cannot read your mind (or psychoanalyse you, for that matter), I have learnt to challenge some of my habits, and to invest time and effort in the present — in my studies and day-to-day communication — to possibly have it a bit easier later down the line.
References
Alladi, S., Bak, T. H., Duggirala, V., Surampudi, B., Shailaja, M., & Shukla, A. K. (2013). Bilingualism delays age at onset of dementia, independent of education and immigration status. Neurology, 81(22), 1938–1944. https://doi.org/10.1212/01.wnl.0000436620.33155.a4
Krätzig, G., & Arbuthnott, K. (2006). Perceptual Learning Style and Learning Proficiency. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(1), 238–246. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.98.1.238
