I have to apologize for geeking out on this book, but I just encountered a snippet I had to share.
The author shares a study in which two groups were asked to study a stack of index cards with vocab words on them. Each card had a different color, but this was irrelevant to what would be tested. One group would get a reward for how well they did on the test, the other group was offered no reward. The interesting find was that the 'no-reward' group did much better on being able to recall card color--something termed 'incidental learning'.
It reminded me of something I did in high school. I was motivated to be a scientist and wanted to plumb the mysteries of the universe, by my high school didn't have any higher level courses. I was a teacher's aide to our science teacher, and during this period I would often just read an old college chemistry book. I couldn't make much sense of it, and I was just kind of staring at it in bewilderment for the most part, trying to make sense of it. I'd had high-school chemistry but this stuff was truly bizarre. Every now and then I'd make some sense of it, but for the most part I felt like it was way over my head. I wasn't very systematic about it, either. I'd just find something that looked interesting. I didn't set myself to solving a bunch of chemistry questions, either, but sometimes you had to do a little math to understand what they were getting at in the text.
Ok, point being, when I got accepted to the Academy they gave us all entrance exams for placement, and one of those was in chemistry. Surprisingly, I scored the highest out of every single person there, and validated both semesters of my college chemistry requirement. I couldn't believe it, it came as a bit of a shock. When I look back at it now, the intrinsic motivation to just understand a mystery resulted in one of the best 'classes' I'd ever taken.
It makes me a bit sick at our education system now that I think about it.
Originally Posted by Sting
Both would stem from a lack of self-confidence in oneself correct? Their confidence relied on that praise rather than something they built up themselves, right?
Which is similar, in that both over-praising, and under-praising lead to a lack of self-worth.
Am I on the right track there?
I am now a third of the way through Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour
This is the second of his books i have read thanks to a recommendation by Hawg.
It is just glorious.
Think i might buy a bottle of bulleit rye this weekend, and possibly destroy a few fingers worth whilst reading some wonderful prose about the west
I have a 3.5 hour drive tomorrow - would like to download an audio book to listen to... Any great non-fiction recommendations?
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