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The nautilus is a sea creature that in its life time builds a shell of progressively larger chambers to house a growing body. I used it as a metaphor in Mind Phases (2019) for the process we go through in life of building memory, acquiring experience and, eventually, expertise.
At the time I focussed on just information storage in memory. In this column I want to address the larger topic of expertise, or expert, skilled knowledge. A store of information is just one element in developing expertise. There are two more important parts to the process. The rules for how that information is used is also held in memory. The rules dictate the relationships between pieces of information, such as the rules of how they work. A box of pieces from Ikea is useless without schematics to identify how the pieces connect, and how to connect them. A set of rules for information covers relationships such as similarities, correlations, causality and sequential links of all kinds. The rules in a body of knowledge define how the pieces of information are assembled and operate.
For example, as a neuropsychologist I was trained in the interplay of elements and processes underlying human behaviour. I learned the names and locations of brain structures in neuroanatomy; a range of chemical and electrical interactions in neurophysiology; the dynamic interplay between brain regions in functional neuroimaging; how to test functions such as attention and memory in psychometrics; and a range of other variables that affected cognitive function such as mood, mental set, general health and medications. Each separate area of study had its own domain of information, and rules about how it worked. Once I began clinical practice I learned the principles of how to put the pieces together into an organized, coherent assessment.
The conscious mind acquires facts and relationships in huge quantities, and the unconscious memory stores them. We learn not just facts, but structures of rules and organizing principles. The information grows beyond static facts and becomes useful.
There is a third factor that dictates how useful any set of facts and rules will be, and that is practice, experience or training. This is the stage of learning how to apply the rules that operate on the information. Basic data (information) plus a structure of rules (operations) and experience (training) allow cognitive operations to run. Each area of knowledge will have its own set of information plus operations plus training. AI calls these entities knowledge packets. In neuropsychology I learned to see them as areas of expertise.
We all have them. They are as basic as fluency in a language, skills with tools and machinery, a trained eye for dog breeds, an ear for music. Each body of knowledge operates in the same general way: information + rules of operation + training. Each a chamber in the nautilus shell.
Except that these chambers, these bodies of knowledge, are not sealed off from each other. The training phase develops principles by which the rules operate. They are operational rules if you like, and can be generalized beyond information and the rules that apply to that particular set of data. Principles, the operational rules, become another level of useful information. Principles can be transferred. They can take a number of forms, such as logic, scientific methods, or regulations that define how laws will be applied. The rules of causality in one area can become more general principles that are useful in other contexts. One useful principle can be shared to organize other information.
The information and data needed to ride a motorcycle become an area of expertise after enough training and practice makes it possible for you to successfully ride the motorcycle from A to B. The information and data needed to drive a car share some similarities to the motorcycle set. Some of the principles of operating one can transfer to the other such as gas, throttle, brakes and turn signals. These are the transferable skills.
Information without rules is just rote learning, a very inefficient way to remember things. This is why narrative is such a powerful device for memory: the elements, the pieces of information, are learned alongside the rules that bind the elements. For example, one form of verbal memory testing is to provide a list of unrelated words, say twelve or fifteen, and ask the examinee to remember them. If the words are embedded in a story instead, the number of elements remembered increases. The story line is a set of rules governing the information. The relationships between the words, the story line, increases the usefulness of the information and the combination of the two is better retained in memory.
The rules accompanying a set of facts need not be a narrative. In a comprehensive education there is instruction in a range of rule types that link grammar to literature, numbers to mathematics, single notes to music. Each of the data sets, or academic subjects, use their own rules for their particular type of information. The separate rule structures can coexist quite easily. Musicians can also be scientists. Taken together, a collection of specific rules and principles governing different data sets becomes itself a set of information. Having such a collection is like arrows in your quiver, enabling you to negotiate novel situations as they arise.
Learning the rules is just as important as the information. Observe the child who relentlessly tests boundaries. You said this was a rule, but does it apply now? The same activity is carried out by the adult scientist, asking, What happens if I do this? We may spend years learning the rules for a specific domain of information. Consider the rules of acceptable social behaviour between children and adults, amongst childhood, adolescent and adult peers, and with partners. Each set has its own nuances. Over a lifespan we will learn many.
Learning another language is an example of acquiring expertise. To begin, you have to learn a simple vocabulary, then learn to form simple sentences, then learn enough of those things to begin to abstract the rules of grammar and syntax specific to that language. At that point you can begin to understand the spoken language, but it will take additional vocabulary and listening experience to have enough examples of the language to abstract some principles of verb expression. Then you can begin to speak fluently. If you know more than one language, you may abstract some of the more general principles of language.
A coherent collection of information, with its rules and operating principles, takes on an identity as something separate. What is now available for use is a body of distinct knowledge that can reliably guide behaviour. This is expertise. Such a body of knowledge covers quite a bit of information, more than you can bring to mind at once, and so it will be summed up in smaller units for conscious expression. Words to live by, if you will. The result will be a handy summary of things learned by experience. The expert chess player thinks in terms of groups of moves, not the basic moves of a single piece. The emergency room physician knows exactly what investigations to start when faced with a specific emergent case, but does not spend time considering the why of each blood test. When an expert teaches a novice they are forced to give up the summaries and restate the basics. Experts teaching novices describe it as an effort.
Groups of rules and principles form their own level of organized information. This is a mechanism by which operations can be transferred from one area to another. Having learned the principles of any activity, whether it be battle strategy, program management or formal logic, one can try to apply them more widely. These are transferable problem solving skills.
The metaphor of a nautilus implies that a body of knowledge is held separately, in its own chamber, apart from other information. This is not the case for expertise. Sometimes the principles governing a body of knowledge can be transferred to another area. How do we go about doing that? So, let me first ask how we go about solving a novel problem, a situation wherein such a transfer might be useful.
A very common technique we use to solve a problem is question and answer. In a simple situation, you may ask yourself, What did I have for dinner yesterday? or, What is that person’s name? A simple question pulls out basic information from memory immediately.
Presented with a novel situation, you might ask yourself, How do I approach this problem? This is a complex question. It asks, which is the best method of approach to use in this situation? Will logic work? Is it a social behaviour problem? Do I need something less linear? Is there a pattern here I am not seeing? The question is now asking for an in depth comparison amongst different sets of rules and operating principles. This will likely run well over the seven item limit of the conscious attention span.
The question and answer method is not just recall from memory. It is an information transfer between conscious and unconscious minds. If a complex question requires more consideration, beyond the attention limits of conscious thought, a sleep / wake cycle can be productive. This is the leave-it-on-the-back-burner approach, a sort of I’ll-sleep-on-it method that works because it loops in a phase of unconscious mental processing.
As I have argued in previous columns, the unconscious cognitive processes are better equipped to handle the more complex questions. Unconscious processes are better at lining up multiple elements for a solution when the conscious attention span is restricted to roughly seven items at a time. While you are asking yourself questions such as how shall I approach this problem? How would I design the experiment?, the unconscious mind, outside of conscious awareness, goes to work summoning details and lining up processes. The answer will be delivered when an answer has been organized at the unconscious level.
The attention span of the conscious mind falls at about seven units, plus or minus two. It is a very robust feature of attention. The units may be seven unrelated words or numbers; seven ways to build a bicycle; seven precedents in a legal brief. It does not matter whether the units are simple or complex, attention is limited to managing about seven at a time. This is the limit on the volume of information the conscious mind can grasp at one time. The flow of information from unconscious storage to conscious consideration will by necessity be restricted. The answer that develops in consciousness will be framed by the limits of the question and the conscious attention span.
You might think this is far too simple, to suggest that question and answer, a sort of need to know or on demand process, is a mechanism of information sharing between conscious and unconscious states of mind. It just might be that simple. The conscious mind asks the question that sets the parameters for the information it needs, and what it can use. Information, knowledge, skills, all these things are available for conscious use when actively recalled or triggered by the environment. To be useful, the answer needs to be in a scale and level of complexity the conscious mind can manage. Good answers need good questions in the first place.
If the feed from the unconscious mind appears to be providing information on an as-tolerated basis, it is reasonable to think there is some form of filter on what will emerge in consciousness. In the question and answer situation, information does not emerge randomly into awareness. If the question is well posed, what does emerge is an answer, or a set of options, or a method by which you can approach the problem. The unconscious provides useful answers. It has understood the original question, and it understands the kind of information that could be useful. The question and answer scenario is not too simple; it works.
One really interesting question from that line of thought is to what degree the unconscious mind is aware of the general environment and what the conscious mind is thinking. It also raises the question, what is the common language between the two systems? Is there a form of awareness at the unconscious level that it knows what the conscious mind is doing and how to give it information? Is the Kraken awake? Well, that’s fun.