Sabine Doebel: How your brain's executive function works -- and how to improve it
萨宾 · 德贝尔: 你大脑的执行功能是如何运作的——以及如何提高这一能力
Sabine Doebel studies the developing mind to understand how experience shapes our thinking and executive control skills. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
when you first learned how to drive?
was so conscious and deliberate?
completely wiped out mentally.
我的脑力完全耗尽。
I know that this is because I was using
导致这个现象的原因,
called executive function.
to consciously control our thoughts,
它能帮助我们有意识地
to break away from habit,
抑制冲动和提前计划时,
when things go wrong.
我们才会明确感觉到它。
poured orange juice on your cereal?
把橙汁倒入麦片中?
you've missed a meeting?
on the way home from work
instead on autopilot?
in executive function.
every day in all aspects of our lives.
各个方面都发挥着功能。
that it predicts all kinds of good things
mental and physical health,
生理及精神健康、
are so interested in understanding it
a huge self-improvement buzzword.
成为一个自我提升的热门词汇。
through brain-training iPhone apps
许多方法提高这个能力,
和电脑游戏,
例如国际象棋。
like playing chess.
to train it in the lab
或者是其他与之相关的能力,
and other things related to it,
这些猜想都是错误的。
about executive function is all wrong.
无法提升执行功能,
executive function in a broad sense
让执行功能兴奋起来,
exercising it in a narrow way,
in which we actually use it.
function app on your phone,
pouring OJ on your Cheeerios twice a week.
your executive function
how it's influenced by context.
that we use in the lab
in young children
cards in one way --
通过某种标准给卡片分类,
旧的标准给卡片分类,
keep sorting the cards in the old way
them of what they should be doing.
If it's red, put it here.
如果是红色的,放在那里。
a different game.
另一个不同的游戏。
the color game anymore.
汽车形放这里,好吗?
and all the trucks go here, OK?
汽车形放这里。
汽车形放这儿。
汽车形放这里。
自己的执行功能。
to use her executive function.
来训练她,
and others like it
her executive function outside of the lab?
她需要运用执行功能做的事情
she'll need to use executive function
between shape and color.
from adding to multiplying
情绪变成体贴朋友。
to thinking about her friend.
depends on things
以及你的同伴在做什么。
and what your peers are doing.
on the strategies that you execute
in a particular situation.
that context really matters.
from my research.
一个我研究的例子。
经典的棉花糖测试,
to do the classic marshmallow test,
of delay of gratification
a lot of executive function.
等我走到另一个房间,
to go to the other room
that second marshmallow,
How long can they wait?
来研究环境因素的影响。
to look at the effects of context.
a green T-shirt to wear.
等到了第二个棉花糖,
waited for two marshmallows,
for two marshmallows
观察他们能等多久。
to see how long they waited.
for two marshmallows
that they'd never even met.
I still didn't know
因素导致了这个结果。
or if it was something deeper than that.
一些照片,上面有两个儿童,
I showed them pictures of pairs of kids,
喜欢马上获得东西,
likes to have things right away,
more of these things."
do you like more
who believed that their group waited
一队会等待的孩子
who liked to wait for things.
made them value waiting more.
使他们更倾向于等待。
to help themselves wait,
或是扭头不去看棉花糖,
or turning away from the marshmallow
is just how much context matters.
执行功能好或者差,
had good executive function or bad,
更好地运用这个能力。
helped them use it better.
for you and for your kids?
有什么启示呢?
to learn Spanish.
with other people who also want to learn,
that you really like.
积极地运用执行能力。
to use executive function.
your child do better on her math homework.
提高数学水平。
to use executive function
before she starts studying
after studying for an hour.
like context is everything.
由数不清的因素所组成。
and it's shaped by numerous factors.
your executive function
your goals matter more to you,
in that particular situation.
when they said, "Know thyself."
环境对你行为的影响,
how context shapes your behavior
朝更好的方向发展。
to change for the better.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sabine Doebel - Cognitive scientistSabine Doebel studies the developing mind to understand how experience shapes our thinking and executive control skills.
Why you should listen
Sabine Doebel conducts research with children in an effort to understand the nature of the mind, with much of her work focusing on how children develop the cognitive abilities that serve us so well as adults, like controlling impulses, thinking ahead, and staying on task.
Doebel is an incoming assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where she will direct the brand new Developing Minds Lab. She earned her PhD from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota and subsequently was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in Psychological Science, Cognition, Developmental Psychology and Child Development. A full list of her publications can be found here.
Doebel is also a passionate advocate of open science and has received funding from the National Science Foundation to help developmental scientists adopt transparency-enhancing practices that will allow them to build more easily on each other's work.
Sabine Doebel | Speaker | TED.com