The Extended Mind

March 22, 2021
Science journalist Paul (Brilliant: The New Science of Smart) pushes back against the idea that brains are “a cordoned-off space where cognition happens” in this thoroughly reported look at myriad types of thinking. She posits that bodies, physical spaces, and the minds of other people expand one’s ability to decide, analyze, focus, and solve problems. As such, being aware of one’s bodily signals (such as an increased heart rate) allows people to make better decisions beyond using solely intelligence, and she offers as an example successful Wall Street traders who hit it big by trusting their gut. As for physical spaces, Paul makes a case that nature allows for better focus, and tells of a medical researcher who found architecture so inspiring that it led to intellectual breakthroughs. And people tend to think better alongside others, Paul explains: physics students, for example, become more nimble problem solvers when they socialize with other physics students. Paul’s knack for finding real-world scenarios to illustrate scientific ideas makes this pop and lends much credence to the theory that an isolated mind isn’t the sole source of intelligence and creativity. Her fresh approach hits the mark. Agent: Tina Bennett, William Morris Endeavor.

May 15, 2021
A look at the science behind the parts of our consciousness and ideation that lie outside the body. Marshall McLuhan famously called media "the extensions of man." Science writer Paul updates this notion to battle what researchers have called neurocentric bias "and our corresponding blind spot for all the ways cognition extends beyond the skull." We acquire much information via the processing of the senses into mental furrows and synapses, but we also have other avenues of thinking: for instance, what Paul describes as a well-developed "interoceptive sense." This involves teaching ourselves how to become more aware of what's happening in our bodies through an exercise called the "body scan," imagining that breath occurs elsewhere in the body than in the pulmonary tract. Mindfulness meditation also extends awareness of the parasympathetic nervous system, itself a source of information. Paul examines the well-known effects of walking on mind improvement and the use of gesture to both build memory and to pull words out of the air (or mental databanks, more properly) as we speak. The author uses recently deceased Zappos founder Tony Hsieh as a model for someone who strived to forge "a sense of unity and cohesion among the firm's employees," re-creating the as-oneness he experienced at drug-fueled raves. The mind can be expanded, and not necessarily by drugs, by compartmentalizing it so that others store information for us. Intriguingly, Paul explores an experimental learning technique in which students are divided into groups and then assigned to learn a segment of a topic, later combining the information they've mastered in an example of "a transactive memory system." Though less fluent than other popular-science writers such as Malcolm Gladwell and Elizabeth Kolbert, Paul does a good job of drawing together the many extensions of mind that surround us, exhorting readers to "re-spatialize the information we think about." It helps to have a brain to think with, but Paul capably shows that there's much more to the process than all that.

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June 1, 2021

What are the benefits of "thinking outside the brain," and what are some useful techniques for doing so? As a journalist and advisor at the Yale Center for Teaching and Learning, Paul has explored how thinkers, from Friedrich Nietzsche to Jonas Salk to Jackson Pollock, have extended their brain power. She surveys research done by neuroscientists and cognitive scientists that shows the value of pursuing various and multiple kinds of thinking; her book makes the case that this research has sharpened our interoceptive senses (our awareness of what's going on inside our bodies, of sensations like hunger, thirst, and pain), useful for guiding decision-making and managing mental processes. Paul also carefully considers using particular modes of physical activity to restore focus and increase creativity; using social interaction to allow other people's cognition to augment our own; designing workspaces for greater productivity and performance; and, in general, "how to offload, externalize, and dynamically interact with our thoughts." In each chapter, she writes accessibly, allowing readers new to these scientific concepts to easily follow along. VERDICT A practical and mind-expanding guide for writers, artists, teachers, and anyone who wants to increase their brain power and help others do the same.--Marcia G. Welsh, formerly with Dartmouth Coll. Lib., Hanover, NH

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