FriendlyBrain Tip 303: Neural Priming We've been getting excited here at Kaizen Training about new research on how we can literally 'prime' our learners' brains to make learning faster and more effective. Read on for how YOU can get involved. The Emerging Art and Science of 'Brain Frames' Seriously, though, your brain really is hugely sophisticated. And while it seems that with each answer provided by neuroscience, another three questions emerge, we are, as a culture, making some exciting strides forward in our hands-on application of the findings. The brain, as a simple analogy, operates in the same way. Information travels along neural pathways and to allow it to get to the right place at the right time, quickly, efficiently and intact. So, certain areas of the brain need to be either 'activated' (green light), deactivated (red light) or neither (amber light). In other words: Remember, this goes far beyond what you have learned about in our Brain Friendly Learning workshops, or even Beyond Brain Friendly Learning. This material is new and therefore previously unavailable.
Newsflash - your brain is.COMPLEX!
Why invest 3 minutes to read this now?
For one, because you may learn something fascinating. For another... well, what happens when you magine finding a resource so powerful that it allows you to access specific areas of a person's brain, in order to help them learn, perform, recall and respond to what you are saying, at a new, super-successful level?
Well, recently, we all got rather excited about a workshop that Dr. Patricia Riddell, Kaizen team psychologist & neuroscientist, designed for us at a private event.
The Metaphor...
To understand the idea in a nutshell, perhaps we might think about it as follows. Imagine the road network in a busy city from a bird's eye view. See and hear the traffic, like ants, flooding around the city. See the traffic lights: some on red, some on amber and some on green.
The combinations of which lights are red, amber or green determine where traffic flows, how much traffic, how quickly and how efficiently. Imagine what would happen if there were no lights, or if all the lights changed to red/amber/green at the same time.
Clear enough to read on?
The key here is that this seemingly involuntary process is not as involuntary as you may have thought previously! It turns out that by creating pre-conditions for ourselves or others, through, language, sequence or activities, we're instructing our traffic - leading to a huge difference to performance. And you're doing it to yourself and others anyway, so why not do it purposefully to get the effects they need?
Brain Frames: What's the Science?
An example is probably the best way to go here. Imagine you want to train a group of learners in a new skill. However, the people in question aren't very open to these new ideas. You could get them into a curious state and that would be better than nothing, but neither as sophisticated nor effective as deftly setting up the correct traffic lights to create maximum interest in the new learning, what we're calling purposeful neural priming or 'brain frames.'
The typical pattern of brain activity for 'disinterested learners' is as follows:
Red: Long term reward (prefrontal cortex) because we can't see the benefit in learning the new skill
Red: Inhibition of previously rewarded responses (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) because we are happy to do things the same we as we always do so don't need to inhibit these responses.
Amber: Imitation and visualisation (premotor cortex) because we are not looking for new ways to do things
Amber: Planning (prefrontal cortex) because we do not need or want to think ahead
Green: Gut instinct for risk (ventromedial prefrontal cortex) because we are not convinced that things need to
change and change might be risky
Green: Short term reward (nucleus accumbens) because we are focussing on what works today and away from the
extra work that learning a new skill will involve
Green: Procedural memory (basal ganglia) because we are using the motor patterns that we always use
One key area of the brain where the activity has to change for people to want to learn new skills is the prefrontal cortex - the area that calculates the long-term reward that might accrue if we change our behaviour now. If we want people to be excited about putting the effort in to learning a new skill, they have to be convinced that it is worthwhile. Ideally, both the short term (nucleus accumbens) and the long-term (frontal cortex) reward systems should be green.
In this, and other ways, when people are excited about new learning they show a very different pattern of red, green and amber. Their typical pattern will be:
Green: Long term reward (prefrontal cortex) because high motivation to learn has been associated with highly
positive long-term benefits of the learning ~ What will continue to get better once I have learnt this new technique?
Green: Inhibition of previously rewarded responses (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) because we understand
that there is benefit in doing things differently! How might resisting changing cost me and others, going forward?
Green: Imitation and visualisation (?) (premotor cortex) because we are on the look out for the new skills and
processes. Who is already doing this task really well? What can I learn from observing them?
Green: Planning (prefrontal cortex) because we are looking ahead to how we can implement the new ideas Looking back, how will this new idea have been useful to me & others? When will I use it?
Red: Gut instinct for risk (ventromedial prefrontal cortex) because we know why the new skill is necessary and
therefore do not perceive any risk. In what ways is adopting this new skill a 'nobrainer'
Green: Short term reward (nucleus accumbens) because we are enjoying the new learning process. What progress am I already noticing, however small, in others and myself?
Red: Procedural memory (basal ganglia) because we are learning new motor patterns. What new skills do I need, what new motor patterns must I develop, to learn this new skill?
Now with this in mind, we can design questions, statements, diagnostic work, sequences or activities to specifically switch components on or off, to give your people the greatest chance of success.
An example might be asking the person or group:
"What is the cost involved in not learning the new skill and what is the benefit in learning it?"
In other words, how are you going to turn on your prefrontal cortex so that it provides the motivation necessary to work towards that long-term goal? And, before this, you might ask yourself and stakeholders, "What is our company doing to reward new learning and the acquisition of new skills?"
Our request!
We ask that you join the majority of our readership and respond to this request directly, because we want a really BIG response from all our wonderful clients, subscribers, friends and fans.
The invitation
We're excited to create a valuable toolkit based on this technology that trainers, facilitators, coaches, consultants, leaders and influencers can invest in to become skilled in brain-framing. What we'd love to know from YOU is this:
What 'effects' you would like to create that would be valuable enough for you to invest in this new service? Some examples might be:
In order to be even more useful for your clients (learners/coachees/customers/people), what specific brain conditions would you like to direct within them to help them excel?
Do let us know: Kimberley@kaizen-training.com
Don't let your voice be left behind and.watch this space!
Thanks in advance!
Enthusiastically awaiting your suggestions,
The Team at Kaizen Training
www.kaizen-training.com