Automation has today penetrated nearly every aspect of our lives. Most of us now drive cars equipped with computers that automatically engage the brakes and reduce transmission power when we hit a patch of rain or ice, often so subtly we never notice the vehicle has anticipated our tendency to overcorrect. We work in offices where customers are routed to departments via computerized phone systems, emails are automatically sent when we\u2019re away from our desks, and bank accounts are instantaneously hedged against currency fluctuations. We communicate with smartphones that finish our words. Even without technology\u2019s help, all humans rely on cognitive automations, known as \u201cheuristics,\u201d that allow us to multitask. That\u2019s why we can email the babysitter while chatting with our spouse and simultaneously watching the kids. Mental automation lets us choose, almost subconsciously, what to pay attention to and what to ignore.
\nAutomations have made factories safer, offices more efficient, cars less accident-prone, and economies more stable. By one measure, there have been more gains in personal and professional productivity in the past fifty years than in the previous two centuries combined, much of it made possible by automation.
\nBut as automation becomes more common, the risks that our attention spans will fail have risen. Studies from Yale, UCLA, Harvard, Berkeley, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and elsewhere show errors are particularly likely when people are forced to toggle between automaticity and focus, and are unusually dangerous as automatic systems infiltrate airplanes, cars, and other environments where a misstep can be tragic. In the age of automation, knowing how to manage your focus is more critical than ever before.
\nYou can think about your brain\u2019s attention span like a spotlight that can go wide and diffused, or tight and focused,\u201d said David Strayer, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Utah. Our attention span is guided by our intentions. We choose, in most situations, whether to focus the spotlight or let it be relaxed. But when we allow automated systems, such as computers or autopilots, to pay attention for us, our brains dim that spotlight and allow it to swing wherever it wants. This is, in part, an effort by our brains to conserve energy. The ability to relax in this manner gives us huge advantages: It helps us subconsciously control stress levels and makes it easier to brainstorm, it means we don\u2019t have to constantly monitor our environment, and it helps us get ready for big cognitive tasks. Our brains automatically seek out opportunities to disconnect and unwind.
\n\u201cBut then, bam!, some kind of emergency happens\u2014or you get an unexpected email, or someone asks you an important question in a meeting\u2014and suddenly the spotlight in your head has to ramp up all of a sudden and, at first, it doesn\u2019t know where to shine,\u201d said Strayer. \u201cSo the brain\u2019s instinct is to force it as bright as possible on the most obvious stimuli, whatever\u2019s right in front of you, even if that\u2019s not the best choice. That\u2019s when cognitive tunneling happens.\u201d
\nCognitive tunneling can cause people to become overly focused on whatever is directly in front of their eyes or become preoccupied with immediate tasks. It\u2019s what keeps someone glued to their smartphone as the kids wail or pedestrians swerve around them on the sidewalk.\u00a0 \u201cCognitive tunneling\u201d\u2014a mental glitch that sometimes occurs when our brains are forced to transition abruptly from relaxed automation to panicked attention.\u00a0 It\u2019s what causes drivers to slam on their brakes when they see a red light ahead. We can learn techniques to get better at toggling between relaxation and concentration, but they require practice and a desire to remain engaged. However, once in a cognitive tunnel, we lose our ability to direct our focus. Instead, we latch on to the easiest and most obvious stimulus, often at the cost of common sense.
\nReactive thinking is at the core of how we allocate our attention, and in many settings, it\u2019s a tremendous asset. Athletes, for example, practice certain moves again and again so that, during a game, they can think reactively and execute plays faster than their opponents can respond. Reactive thinking is how we build habits, and it\u2019s why to-do lists and calendar alerts are so helpful: Rather than needing to decide what to do next, we can take advantage of our reactive instincts and automatically proceed. Reactive thinking, in a sense, outsources the choices and control that, in other settings, create motivation.
\nBut the downside of reactive thinking is that habits and reactions can become so automatic they overpower our judgment. Once our motivation is outsourced, we simply react. One study conducted by Strayer, the psychologist, in 2009 looked at how drivers\u2019 behaviors changed when cars were equipped with features such as cruise control and automatic braking systems that allowed people to pay less attention to road conditions.
\n\u201cThese technologies are supposed to make driving safer, and many times, they do,\u201d said Strayer. \u201cBut it also makes reactive thinking easier, and so when the unexpected startles you, when the car skids or you have to brake suddenly, you\u2019ll react with practiced, habitual responses, like stomping on the pedal or twisting the wheel too far. Instead of thinking, you react, and if it\u2019s not the correct response, bad things happen.
\nPeople who are particularly good at managing their attention tend to share certain characteristics. One is a propensity to create pictures in their minds of what they expect to see. These people tell themselves stories about what\u2019s going on as it occurs. They narrate their own experiences within their heads.\u00a0 They are more likely to answer questions with anecdotes rather than simple responses. They say when they daydream, they\u2019re often imagining future conversations. They visualize their days with more specificity than the rest of us do.
\nPsychologists have a phrase for this kind of habitual forecasting: \u201ccreating mental models.\u201d Understanding how people build mental models has become one of the most important topics in cognitive psychology. All people rely on mental models to some degree. We all tell ourselves stories about how the world works, whether we realize we\u2019re doing it or not.
\nPeople who know how to manage their attention and who habitually build robust mental models tend to earn more money and get better grades. Moreover, experiments show that anyone can learn to habitually construct mental models. By developing a habit of telling ourselves stories about what\u2019s going on around us, we learn to sharpen where our attention goes. These storytelling moments can be as small as trying to envision a coming meeting while driving to work\u2014forcing yourself to imagine how the meeting will start, what points you will raise if the boss asks for comments, what objections your coworkers are likely to bring up\u2014or they can be as big as a nurse telling herself stories about what infants ought to look like as she walks through a NICU.
\nIf you want to make yourself more sensitive to the small details in your work, cultivate a habit of imagining, as specifically as possible, what you expect to see and do when you get to your desk. Then you\u2019ll be prone to notice the tiny ways in which real life deviates from the narrative inside your head. If you want to become better at listening to your children, tell yourself stories about what they said to you at dinnertime last night. Narrate your life, as you are living it, and you\u2019ll encode those experiences deeper in your brain. If you need to improve your focus and learn to avoid distractions, take a moment to visualize, with as much detail as possible, what you are about to do. It is easier to know what\u2019s ahead when there\u2019s a well-rounded script inside your head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Automation has today penetrated nearly every aspect of our lives. Most of us now drive cars equipped with computers that automatically engage the brakes and reduce transmission power when we hit a patch of rain or ice, often so subtly we never notice the vehicle has anticipated our tendency to overcorrect. We work in offices …<\/p>\n