Whenever you see an article or video full of useful information, your usual choices are:
A: Knowledge must be eaten while it is hot! Watch it now!
B: Very good, let's go into my favorites and eat ashes!
If you pick A, then congratulations, it's a good habit.
If you choose B, congratulations, you've become one of the thousands of digital hamsters.
In today's Internet era, almost everyone has more or less collected some network resources that they can't bear to miss, and even sorted them out in different categories for future needs or later viewing, a phenomenon called "digital hamster disease" by netizens.
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If you don't believe it, go and look through your favorites on major websites and apps now, and within ten seconds you will blurt out: "When did I bookmark this?" ”
Why do we like to collect useful web resources so much, but often end up in ashes? And how do we make the most of the valuable information we have collected? Let's discuss it today.
Favorite=Completed?
It's easiest to lie to yourself
The reason why it's easy to forget the articles or videos we've collected is actually a well-known memory effect in psychology: the Zeigarnik effect, which refers to the fact that people are more impressed with unfinished things than they have been done. That is, we are more likely to forget about those things that we think have been accomplished.
This effect was first discovered by Soviet psychologist Zeignik in a memory experiment in which she asked 47 volunteers to complete 22 simple tasks, such as writing down a favorite poem, stringing beads, counting down, etc., but only half of the tasks were allowed to be completed by the volunteers, and the other half were stopped halfway through. The final experiment found that people had better memory of unfinished tasks, with an average recall rate of 68% compared to only 43% for completed tasks.
When we see a great article but don't have time to savor it, or we have a very practical teaching video but haven't had time to put it into practice, "savoring the article" or "putting it into practice" is an unfinished event for us.
Just imagine, when you always have something to do in your heart that has not been completed, do you feel unsure? But the action of "collecting" helps us to let go of the stones in our hearts, because when we think of the method of collecting, our psychology will undergo a subtle transformation, and the unfinished event will then become "collecting articles/videos", so the collection will end for you, creating an illusion in our brain that the event is completed.
That's when the Zeignick effect kicks in, causing the brain to begin to perform the forgotten program: "Now that these things have ended in a collection, what am I going to remember?" I just forgot about it, I have to deal with other things! ”
Favorites = Learned?
Knowledge: You want to be beautiful
Another interesting explanation for digital hamster disease is that we really seem to think that that knowledge is in your favorite, which is equivalent to your own brain.
This explanation is based on the Theory of Goal Pursuit in cognitive psychology, which argues that the human brain is inherently goal-oriented, not only constantly focusing on an existing goal, but also unconsciously looking for a goal even when it is aimless. So, even if we are just boring scrolling through our phones, our brains are not idle and we are always looking for something to do for ourselves.
However, in today's Internet era of information explosion, we can brush up on useful information from time to time, where does the brain have so much energy to pursue so many goals at the same time?
The brain is smarter than we think, and it may do two things, one is not to make this thing a goal, and your inner line is probably "Forget it, I'm too lazy, although it works, I definitely won't do it." ”
The second is to accomplish these goals in a very simple and hassle-free way. So what can be done with one click?
That's right, it's just to collect it.
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Imagine when you see a useful instructional video, but you don't have time to watch it right now, so you choose to add it to your favorites, and you are thinking, "Save it first, and when I'm done, I'll open the video and learn it." Such an idea is actually a simple plan of action in the brain.
It's a simple plan of action that can make us less cognitively invested in the unfinished goal, and the brain will no longer be able to focus on the goal, with the result that we will soon forget that the instructional video exists.
In 2011, psychologists Masicampo & Baumeister proved this hypothesis in a series of experiments in which 68 college student volunteers were divided into three groups: the target group, the planning group, and the control group, and their goal was to do well in the final exam two weeks later.
Next, the control group needs to describe what activities they usually participate in and what activities they plan to participate in in the coming weeks, the target group needs to describe why the final exam is important, and the planning group needs to develop a detailed study plan for the final exam, such as what content will be reviewed when and where.
Finally, the researchers used a word-filling task to examine the degree of attention of the three groups of volunteers to the goal of the test, and if one group of volunteers filled in more test-related words in the word-filling task, it means that the group of volunteers maintained a higher and more sustained attention to the goal, that is, the cognitive engagement was higher.
The final results showed that the planning group filled in significantly fewer test-related words than the target group, and there was no difference from the control group, indicating that planning can reduce people's cognitive input to a goal, and the goal is more likely to be shelved. (Of course, this is not to say that the plan is not important, the key is to see if it can be executed)
This validates the saying: "What is the difference between knowledge in my favorites and my brain?" ”
How can favorites not eat dust?
We collect useful resources with the intention of improving ourselves in our free time, or enriching our lives, so the favorites themselves are a great tool to use. The following methods may help you make better use of the collection function and make your favorites no longer eat dust.
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1. Selectively collect
There are a lot of useful resources on the web, but if we add all the useful resources to our favorites without filtering, it will only make us think of it as a storehouse rather than a tool to help us learn. It is advisable to collect only those knowledge that is really valuable to you and are more likely to be put into practice, and minimize the amount of information that needs to be processed.
2. Discard favorites
I believe that many people already have a lot of long-standing favorites, which are useful but no longer suitable for their own resources, it is time to give up their favorites, delete those resources that are no longer needed, and leave only the resources that are still valuable to themselves, so that they can gradually digest these knowledge.
3. Make a study plan
Whether it's a new collection of resources or a resource left behind after cleaning, we can make a series of learning plans for them, including what to learn at what time, and we can also use mobile phone software to remind ourselves to complete the study plan on time. Note that the point of planning is that we don't have to think about so many things at the same time in order to focus on the present moment, rather than letting the learning tasks go straight to the schedule.
4. Review regularly
According to your actual situation, make a regular review cycle for yourself, such as finding a weekend every month to review your favorites, clean up unneeded resources, and make a suitable study plan for valuable collection resources.
Well, after reading this article, why don't you hurry up and collect it......
bibliography
[1] Seifert, C. M., & Patalano, A. L. (1991). Memory for incomplete tasks: A re-examination of the Zeigarnik effect.
[2] Moskowitz, G. B. (2002). Preconscious effects of temporary goals on attention. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38(4), 397-404.
[3] Masicampo, E. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of personality and social psychology, 101(4), 667.
Planning and production
Author丨ACC Psychology Science Popularization
Audit丨Yang Xiaoyang is an associate professor at the School of Psychology, Sichuan Normal University
Planning丨Ding Kun
Editor丨Ding Kun
Reviewer丨Xu Lai, Lin Lin