London : Our decision-making is heavily influenced by the world around us, a study has found, challenging the traditional idea that thinking takes place strictly in the head, says IANS.
The idea that thinking is done only in the head is a convenient illusion that doesn’t reflect how problems are solved in reality, said Gaelle Vallee-Tourangeau, Professor at Kingston University in Britain. “When you write or draw, the action itself makes you think differently. In cognitive psychology you are trained to see the mind as a computer, but we’ve found that people don’t think that way in the real world. “If you give them something to interact with they think in a different way,” Vallee Tourangeau added.
In the study, the researchers explored how maths anxiety – a debilitating emotional reaction to mental arithmetic that can lead sufferers to avoid even simple tasks like splitting a restaurant bill – could potentially be managed through interactivity. The study involved asking people to speak a word repeatedly while doing long sums at the same time. The results showed that the mathematical ability of those asked to do the sums in their heads was more affected than those given number tokens that they could move with their hands.
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