The Nine Mile Walk

Nicholas Welt is the English professor who features in Harry Kemelman’s 1947 collection of fascinating short stories, The Nine Mile Walk.

"An inference can be logical and still not be true...Give me any sentence of ten or twelve words," he said, "and I'll build you a logical chain of inferences that you never dreamed of when you framed the sentence." Nicholas Welt in The Nine Mile Walk by Harry Kemelman.

And so, he uses inductive reasoning and logic to delve into the cryptic line: "A nine mile walk is no joke, especially in the rain."

The story inspired director Alvaro Brechner’s 2003 award winning film of the same name (watch Part 1 of 2 above). You can also watch the film in two parts here: Part 1 and Part2.

"I was teaching a class in advanced composition and trying to show my students that words do not exist in vacuo but have meanings that can transcend their usual connotations, that even short combinations can permit a wide variety of interpretations." Kemelman

A must read for anyone interested in words, writing, logic and reasoning.

Sorry, but could you please repeat that?

In my last post, I wrote about the Monkey Business Illusion.

Picking up from where I left off - what do we really learn from this type of research?  I recently stumbled upon two interesting discussions on LinkedIn, related to retention and memory.  Participants in the discussion shared several links to some very useful research that provided the connecting dots.

I’ve abstracted a short gist from Smith and Kosslyn’s Cognitive Psychology: Mind and Brain (2007): Chapter 3: Attention

“In the context of human information processing, attention is the process that, at a given moment, enhances some information and inhibits other information. The enhancement enables us to select some information for further processing, and the inhibition enables us to set some information aside.”

These instances of perceptual blindness are known as “failures of selection in space and time”.  As we are assaulted by an almost constant stream of information, a continuous sifting or filtering process selects information that is likely to be meaningful over information that is perceived to be irrelevant. It is this selective attention that helps us make a coherent picture of the world by averting an information overload. One aspect of this is change blindness (or change deafness) or the failure to detect changes in the physical aspects of a scene.

The Invisible Gorilla is one among many experiments that provide evidence that attention is necessary for effective encoding.  Encoding is the process by which “information is transformed into a memory representation”.

When we concentrate on one source of input, we are paying focused attention to relevant information and excluding all other irrelevant data.  When we are focused on counting the number of passes of the ball, we simply do not take in any information about the gorilla.

One of the reasons for poor encoding is divided attention. There are other factors that influence the quality of encoding. Encoding is influenced not just by how much we pay attention to information. The quality of encoding also depends on the extent to which we elaborate or try to make sense of that information or connect it to other information. Conscious retrieval and practice, especially practice that is spaced out in time also help encoding (as opposed to being presented with information).

Reference:

Smith and Kosslyn (2007): Cognitive Psychology: Mind and Brain, Pearson

The Monkey Business Illusion

If you watched the video in my last post (Perceptual Blindness)---did you spot the gorilla?

Believe it or not, in the original research conducted by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, roughly half the audience missed the gorilla!

“Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a fully-visible but unexpected object when you are focusing attention on something else.”

Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris have recently published their insights and findings related to inattentional blindness (also called perceptual blindness) in their book The Invisible Gorilla. 

What does the study prove? That we often see only what we choose to see. And the testimony of witnesses may not always be reliable (understatement!). And that learning designers need to keep their content design simple, uncluttered,  and focused. Especially if the resource is likely to be viewed only once. 

Perceptual Blindness: To See Or Not To See?

Watch this original video of a 1999 study conducted by cognitive psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris. I'll write more about this and the latest research on this subject in my next post!.

Modest, Humble, Unobtrusive Design

“Good design is as little design as possible.” Dieter Rams


That’s the part many of us often get wrong.  As a designer, I always keep a list of Dieter Ram’s Principles of Good Design  with me to ponder over whenever I need direction. Inksie came up with a 10-part series on each of these principles, with some very useful insights from different writers and illustrators.


For more insights on design, I’m still trying to get my hands on Paul Rand’s book Design, Form and Chaos, now considered something of a classic.  

     ‘When form predominates, meaning is blunted;
       When content predominates, interest flags;
       Genius comes in when both of these fuse.”  Paul Rand

Embrace the Space

“It seems to be human nature to favour filling blank spaces with objects and elements over leaving spaces blank or empty” (Elephas Design Journal)


If you lived in Mumbai, you would cherish space! Today's post is about space and the human tendency to clutter and fill up space unnecessarily. 

In art and design, the term Negative Space is used to describe the space around an object. It is the opposite of an identifiable object. It is used to define and set off the boundaries of the object. It gives balance to a composition and makes it less noisy. 

The term horror vacui (fear of empty space) describes the filling of the entire surface of an art work with detail --- design that is cluttered or suffocates. 

Generally in design, less free space is perceived to be of lower value. Minimalist design with more free space comes at a premium. 

I think this is especially true in the design of e-learning. We need to think about the noise that is created when a learner is assaulted by too much information – be it through text, pictures or rambling audio-visual media.

In the delivery of learning programs there is a similar reason to think about giving learners space and time --- through spaced repetition:

The spacing effect describes the observation that instruction which is repeated at intervals which are farther apart in time have a greater impact on improving memory than repetitions closer together in time (Ebbinghaus, 1885).

So let's get rid of the clutter. And embrace the space.

A Tribute To My Father - O Captain! My Captain!

"O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;


The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:


But O heart! heart! heart!

O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.


O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;

For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here Captain! dear father!

This arm beneath your head;

It is some dream that on the deck,

You’ve fallen cold and dead.


My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;

The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;

From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

But I, with mournful tread,

Walk the deck my Captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead." Walt Whitman