Before reading “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” by Daniel Kahneman, I could have told you that it is much easier to recognize other people’s mistakes than our own. After having read through the first two parts of the book, I better understand WHY. Kahneman does a thorough job explaining the differences between FAST thinking (System 1) and SLOW thinking (System 2): System 1 - Operates automatically and quickly with little or no effort and with no sense of voluntary control. System 2 – Allocates attention to effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. Knowing that slow thinking is time consuming and tedious, the best I can do is to learn to recognize situations where mistakes are likely and try hard to avoid significant mistakes when the stakes are high.
Something I found interesting: Kahneman discusses in detail how cognitive effort and self-control are forms of mental work. Self-control and deliberate thought draw on the same limited budget of effort. I have seen this phenomemonin my 9-year old, for most of his childhood. He is a very intelligent child, who is always lost in thought and asks deep questions; yet has struggled with self-control and impulsivity. For example, he will often be lost in thought as he’s observing something near him, and inadvertently knock over a glass of water by moving too quickly, or not considering the consequences of chosen actions before executing. This seems to be a classic example of my child's deliberate thought draining the resources necessary for him to execute self-control. Simultaneously, my 12-year old does not struggle with self-control. He loves to think, inquire and be challenged intellectually, but rarely daydreams. Could the difference be related to a varied amount of mental effort each brain requires to ponder and process? Kahneman’s book has taught me that anything which occupies one’s working memory reduces their ability to think. When people are engaged in a mental sprint, they become effectively blind. This happens to me quite often in a classroom full of students who are all demanding my attention simultaneously; or even at home with several young people desiring my attention while I’m trying to read, study, or plan lessons. I find it encouraging that Kahneman says, “Increased skill in a task leads to diminished demand for energy input.” The more I teach, the less cognitive draining the planning will be. Interestingly, highly intelligent individuals need less effort to solve same problems. Makes me jealous of those “highly intelligent individuals”! ha ha
Reflecting on what I’ve read, trying to make connections to Self-Efficacy, I find myself wondering: How does each System influence self-efficacy? According to Chapter 8, System 1 is quick to jump to conclusions by making intuitive judgments it knows nothing about. Could these quick assumptions lead a person to false self-efficacy? Looking forward to pursing the potential connections further.
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