#neuromyths — Public Fediverse posts

How did I forgot to tag @marick my longest #NeuroMyths friend

Note that David Dunning disagrees with these conclusions: https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/dunning-kruger-effect-and-its-discontents - however until I see convincing evidence with better statistical analysis this one is now on ice from my own tool set.

4/4 #NeuroMyths

Run the same analysis that they did, and we get a similar result.

## References
For the eager I have four references - the first two are human readable, the last two are full blown academic papers.
- https://theconversation.com/debunking-the-dunning-kruger-effect-the-least-skilled-people-know-how-much-they-dont-know-but-everyone-thinks-they-are-better-than-average-195527
- https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2022/04/08/the-dunning-kruger-effect-is-autocorrelation/
- https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1188&context=numeracy
- https://gwern.net/doc/iq/2020-gignac.pdf

3/4 #NeuroMyths #Dunning-Kruger

The problem is that the effect is statistical noise. I'm not a statistician so I recommend reading the original critiques for details. The core problem appears to be that the data on the two axes test score vs self assessment, aren't independent. The #Dunning-Kruger can be made to show up from random data. Create a dataset of a '1000' students. Randomly assign a 'student', a result and a guess as to how well they would do.

2/4 #NeuroMyths

I want the #Dunning-Kruger effect to be real. I've used it the past when discussing problems of [[Cognitive Bias]] in the context of why we're bad at Estimating.

The Effect claims that people with a small amount of knowledge in an area will not be aware of their incompetence. We all know cases where we've observed this and so hearing about Dunning-Kruger effect made me very happy when I learned about it.

1/4 #NeuroMyths

For other good summaries on the subject see:

http://anniemurphypaul.com/2013/05/an-expert-in-10000-hours-maybe-not/
https://nesslabs.com/10000-hour-rule
https://www.6seconds.org/2022/06/20/10000-hour-rule/

#NeuroMyths 5/5

A meta analysis: https://artscimedia.case.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/141/2016/09/14214856/Macnamara-Moreau-Hambrick-2016.pdf suggests that in chess it predicts 26% of performance; 21% for music and 18% for sports.

Other factors that maybe as or more important?
- Genetics _I should have picked better parents_
- Age when you started _My hockey career is over_

Another research group studying how long it takes chess players to achieve "master" status found it ranged from 728 to 16,120 hours

#NeuroMyths 4/5

- The students in the study were already exceptionally good violinists. This was about going from exceptionally good to world class.
- It was a narrow study, in a small area, not a good source for a generalist book

Others have shown since:
- Deliberate practice works well in fields with stability where the rules don't change often: chess, classical music, tennis etc. In areas where the landscape is changing then deliberate practice

#NeuroMyths 3/5

Some of the problems:
- The original study was about deliberate practice with the intention of improving performance, with focus and feedback. Without deliberate intention and feedback, we might be experiencing the same **HOUR** over and over again, repeating the same mistakes.
- 10,000hrs was just a catchy number in the original paper by Anders Ericsson, it wasn't magically. If was an average then Gladwell missed that the group would be spread to either side of that number

#NeuroMyths 2/5

# 10,000 Hrs of Practice will make you...
I call this the Malcolm Gladwell myth, since it his book the popularized and distorted already questionable research.

As usual, I'm not a psychologist. I don't have a PhD in any science. I do coach Agile and Scrum. I also explode the balloons I call NeuroMyths. As a general rule, if Gladwell writes about it, tread carefully.

In "Outliers", Gladwell suggests that completing 10,000 hrs in their chosen discipline will excel.

#NeuroMyths 1/5

- Self-descriptive test scores represent how the applicant wants to present themselves -- it may not be reality
- DISC wasn't designed to measure job performance and there is no evidence that it correlates with success at work
- Easy to cheat - want sound dominant, select the adjectives that sound like who want to project
….

**Strengths**
- Can get people to talk to one and other

We could find more weaknesses, however at a certain point, we're shooting fish in a barrel.

3/3 #DISC #NeuroMyths

- Equal Weighting for answers - as above some things may matter very little to you as an individual, yet the answer will be used to place you in a category
- Scales can't be used to compare with other people - two people might both score as 'D' Dominant, that doesn't mean they would have the same level of dominance.
- There isn't a standard test
- Originally designed in the early 1900's to assess the "Mental Energy" of army recruits

2/3 #DISC #NeuroMyths

I'm not a psychologist. I don't have a PhD. I do explode the balloons I call #NeuroMyths. DISC (and its friend Myers-Briggs) are among the ones I have the most fun with.

My notes are a summary of: https://thepracticalpsych.com/blog/disc-personality-types and a few others that have since fallen off the web. (If you need I have PDF archived copies - DEVONThink :-)

**Weaknesses**
- Forced Choice Questioning - must choose a position on a line for things that might not matter for that person

1/3 #DISC #NeuroMyths

Eustress in humans is poorly studied, some make the case it doesn't exist: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.201900238, while others https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8872528/ are attempting to measure it.

My takeaway - at worst it doesn't exist. If it does exist, then it isn't yet well enough defined to be useful.

(1) Yerkes, R.M., and Dodson, J.D. (1908). The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit formation. _Journal of Comparative Neurology of Psychology, 18_(5), 459-482.

#NeuroMyths #WorkMyths
4/4

I recently saw an article that invalidated Yerkes-Dodson Law: https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2024/2/29-1 in the context of education. And I thought, that's Eustress.

All sources I could find for Eustress point back to Yerkes-Dodson Law as the source for the idea (1). This is a paper from 1908. The age isn't in itself a problem.

Instead:
1. The original only showed the inverted U shape response to stress in one of three experiments.

#NeuroMyths #WorkMyths
2/5

Eustress is a popular idea in the world of work. The idea that some stress can be positive (improving performance) to a point and then past that point the stress hurts performance.
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56acc1138a65e2a286012c54/223fd63d-1212-49f5-999c-6c0722255472/HebbianYerkesDodson.jfif?format=1500w

I can just imagine some leaders I've met sizing individuals up and asking themselves (cue the cackle): "How much pressure can I apply to this person for better performance."

#NeuroMyths #WorkMyths

1/5

Worse the idea of ego depletion maybe actively harmful, causing us to give up or believe we have no control, when we do.

Other minor details - it has been suggested that a quick hit of sugar (lemonade) might be will power juice. In practice, the sugar can't get into the bloodstream fast enough to account for the claimed effects.

Research from Carol Dweck and co, suggests that if we believe will power is a limited resource then we behave as if that is true.

4/5 #Myths #Neuromyths

Roy Baumeister did a study in 1998 that show if participants were given a plate of cookies that they had to resist using will power, that later they had less persistence in completing a puzzle.

This was replicated a number of times in published studies and became a touch point for many authors. Hint the problem is in only successful replications got published.

2/5

#Myths #NeuroMyths #Willpower

From time to time the hosts of some of my favourite podcasts mention Will Power/Ego Depletion, citing the work of Roy Baumeister. It may not be common knowledge but the original work fails replication. As I document in this note sharing the theory has negative consequences since people believe they have limited will power. I'm pasting my notes on the subject from my Obsidian vault. These are rough and ready, they've not even been polished by Grammarly.

1/4

#Myths #Neuromyths #Willpower

There was (in)famous paper a few years ago: "The Pen is mightier the Keyboard". It got great press when it first appeared. I used to tell people about it as well. Then I noticed: https://www.michellemillerphd.com/a-new-replication-study-revives-the-question-is-taking-notes-by-hand-really-better-for-students/ - it failed to replicate.

Now I tell people use the tool that brings you joy.
(2/2) #NeuroMyths #Myths

#NeuroMyths #Myths - I just saw a quote on a book review saying that writing by hand is important for deep thinking. Ugh

"However, it is less effective for deep thinking and idea generation than writing by hand. This is because writing by hand engages different areas of the brain and allows for deeper processing and understanding of the information."

In doing so they repeat a common neuromyth, that handwriting is better than your digital notetaking. (1/2)

🏏Kathryn & I are back at it discussing common #neuromyths. From buy buttons to mind control, we dive into sensationalized claims often taken from #neuroscience or #behavioralscience for flashy clickbait.
Tune in to this episode to hear us clear the air on misconceptions and give our opinions about where the field of “neuro-marketing” is going.

🎥 YouTube: http://ow.ly/Hst150M0T6l
🎙️ Anchor: https://lnkd.in/e4v5pVnR

When bad science and bad fiction collide, you get #neuromyths:

You’ve heard it. You’ve read it. You’ve seen it. Whenever a writer thinks they need a lazy explanation for superpower, the factoid that we only use some small percentage of our brain is trotted out. 10%, usually. The righteous know it is to be mocked until in slinks back into the darkness whence it came (Whence did it came? Well, thereby hangs a tale….)

https://neurontosomething.wordpress.com/2020/02/16/your-brain-through-history-the-nonsense-you-use-10-of-your-brain-trope-that-wont-die-and-why-1/