Page 242 - A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science

16 McGilchrist 2010; Mihov et al. 2010.
17 Nielsen et al. 2013.
19 Immordino-Yang et al. 2012.
18 A differing layout of this problem was provided in de Bono 1970—that was the inspiration for the
problem outlined here. De Bono’s classic book contains a wealth of such insightful problems and is well
worth reading.
20 Although I’m speaking of lobbing between the focused and diffuse modes, there appears to be an
analogous lobbing process of information back and forth between the hemispheres. We can get some
sense of how information might flow back and forth between the hemispheres in humans by looking at
studies of chicks. Learning not to peck a bitter bead involves a complex back and forth processing of the
memory traces between the hemispheres over a number of hours (Güntürkün 2003).
Anke Bouma observes, “An observed pattern of laterality does not mean that the same hemisphere is
superior for all of the processing stages required by a particular task. There are indications that the [right
hemisphere] may be dominant for one stage of processing, while the [left hemisphere] may be dominant
for another processing stage. The relative difficulty of a particular processing stage seems to determine
which hemisphere is superior for a particular task” (Bouma 1990, p. 86).
21 Just move the coins as shown—do you see how the new triangle will point down?

Chapter 3: Learning Is Creating: Lessons from Thomas Edison’s Frying Pan

1 The cerebral distance model developed by Marcel Kinsbourne and Merrill Hiscock (1983) hypothesizes
that concurrent tasks will interfere more with one another the closer together the two tasks are processed
in the brain. Two simultaneous tasks using the same hemisphere and particularly the same area of the
brain can really mess things up (Bouma 1990, p. 122). Perhaps the diffuse mode may be more capable of
handling several tasks at once because of the unfocused nature of diffuse processes.
2 Rocke 2010, p. 316, citing Gruber 1981.
3 Ibid., pp. 3–4.
4 Kaufman et al. 2010, in particular the disinhibition hypothesis on pp. 222–224; Takeuchi et al. 2012.
5 In attempting to track down the provenance of this legend, I corresponded with Leonard DeGraaf, an