Alexandra Hilbert QC 13 and Jim Stellar

We have been reading this 9/19/10 on-line paper with the title “Neural signatures of strategic types in a two-person bargaining game.” The paper aims to get at what the authors call “The management and manipulation of our own social image in the minds of others” particularly in the area of strategic deception, e.g. bluffing in a poker game.  The paper appeals to AH’s quantitative interests as an accounting major and both of our interests more generally in how people learn from each other through experience, using principles from the new field of neuroeconomics.  Let’s start with a basic summary of the paper and then get back to experiential education.

The paper uses a two person bargaining game between buyers and sellers to explore the behavior patterns exhibited by the buyer and what areas of the brain are activated when different strategies are employed. The game is played in rounds. The way each  round works is that the buyer is assigned a value for an object, for example $6 and the buyer then sends a suggestion to the seller for a price for the object, for example $5. The seller then accepts that price or not and if the accepted price is lower than the value the buyer receives the profit, in our example $1. The catch is that the seller does not know whether the trade went through or not, so the seller cannot learn from the outcome of previous rounds. The only information about the buyer the seller gets is the suggestions the buyer sends.

The paper only brain scanned the buyers.  But first it analyzed how the buyers used their suggestions in the game. The buyers fell into three categories: the “incrementalist” who was relatively honest with their price suggestions, the “conservative” who would consistently send low values and thus hope to make a profit every time, and the “strategists” who mimics the incrementalist while actively deceiving the sellers and behaving like a conservative when there is a high profit to be made. The paper focused on the strategist type.

The strategist takes the long view of the game they are trying to maximize their profit over the course of all the rounds and are willing to sacrifice a little profit to make more over the course of the game. Strategists realized that if they send low prices when they have high values and high prices when they have low values they will make more profit over the long run then if they are truthful about their suggestions. The paper was interested in what traits and what brain areas were associated with implementing such a strategic plan. Two traits that were not correlated with performance type was IQ and socioeconomic status, that is, strategic deceivers did differ in these traits.  What they did find was that the strategic group knew what they were doing and reported so in the debrief session after the study was over.

One of the brain areas activated in this group was the left-side, rostral or anterior (front of brain), prefrontal cortex.  This is an area of the brain known as Brodman area 10.

As an aside, these cortical areas come from painstakingly anatomical research by Korbinian Brodman in the early 1900s in which he identified each area by the different distribution of the cells that compose it.  The resulting map, much like a geographic map of regions of lakes, planes, deserts, mountains, guides much of modern neuroscience as very often functions attach to these areas. Perhaps the most famous is the primary visual cortex (V1 or Brodman area 17) where your cortical interpretation of input from the eyes begins in earnest. 

The activated left anterior prefrontal cortex has been associated with keeping in mind multiple strategies as one executes a particular task, a trait that would seem necessary in a complex world.  Another area they found activated was at the boarder of the temporal and parietal lobes of the brain (the Temporoprarietal junction), an area that may be associated with understanding the beliefs of others as well as re-orienting attention in tasks that do not involve understanding the minds of others or what is called Theory of Mind.

Understanding the minds of others or Theory of Mind is a very important concept in psychology and neuroscience where we attribute certain qualities to the unobservable mind of another (or ourselves) and then act accordingly. Clearly, in making a deal, even one as simple as executing a bluff in a poker game, one has to think about what the other person is thinking.  The concept seems simple, but is powerful as certain brain areas appear to be dedicated to it and important social concepts, such as empathy, may rely on it. It even applies to animals as one of the first theory of mind papers by Premack was on chimps.

The temporoparietal junction area is particularly interesting since its activation seems to be related to the value of the object (where the money is to be made by the deception).  The authors note that this area may play a role “particularly in the attribution of false or incongruent beliefs to another person.”

So what, if anything, does this study have to do with the theme of this blog, learning from experience.  We see a few important connections.  First, the paper shows that complex human interactions are starting to be studied now in terms of brain function to a surprising extent.  Will it be possible someday to brain scan a student returning from an internship experience to see what they have learned…probably not.  But the idea that there is an underlying mechanism begs the question of how we in higher education are preparing the students by training these mechanisms. If that makes you squeamish, how do you feel about someone practicing a skill such as playing the violin or learning calculus only to use that skill later in some important performance?

Another important implication to us, concerns the identification of the skill as a subject of learning in higher education.  One does not need a brain area or a brain scan to let us know that a subject area is important and can be mastered.  What Language or Accounting Department justifies itself in terms of neuroscience.  But when one refers to “soft-skills” being learned on an internship, one has to wonder whether that is fair.  Is learning to position oneself strategically with regard to others a soft skill if it leads to making money vs. something we can easily certify, like knowing calculus at the College level.  We are not sure, but it does seem to add emphasis to the conversation if one can also point to a brain region or regions that are specifically activated when one does it.

Shalini Singh CC’13 and Jim Stellar

Shalini took a neuroscience-based large general education course that I co-taught last spring to about 240 students.  She sat in the middle about 3 rows back from the front.  Because she was attentive in class I asked her a brief question from the floor.  Because she was 28 years old, she looked back at me solidly in the eye and answered.  I do not remember the question or the answer, but I remember in that fleeting moment thinking she was a good student.  I did not then know then her age. At my age (60), they all look young.  But I can tell when a student appears solid and ready to interact.  Let’s hear Shalini’s side of the story.

What Jim said is true…..I was moved by the course; every lecture from all of the professors contributed a clearer understanding of my past and current experiences. Therefore, to have the opportunity to speak with a professor was a privilege. After class lectures were over, he made himself available to answer student’s questions and it was quite noticeable he or his co-teacher did not judge their students based on a GPA number or the silliest questions one may ask.  

At the same time, I knew many students that did not take upon the opportunity to speak with either of the co-professors because they felt intimidated or may have had to rush to another class. I suppose I did not feel intimidated because of my age. I am 28 years old and eager to learn from individuals that can transform my life not just numerically but by enhancing my personality and perspective. Prior to my return to college to become a psychiatrist, I became an actress after leaving High School, which placed me in front of an audience at all times. I am aware this experience may have something to do with my direct response to Jim as he remembers it. 

This is nice and we teachers appreciate when students are not intimidated or have to rush to another class, but can you go farther now and talk about how experiences shaped you?

Besides innate aptitudes, experiences can form dynamic personalities as well as the individual’s ability to learn. For instance, there are many factors that characterize one’s intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. I have been fortunate to have met with professors that have changed my life. My first biology professor inspired me to fall in love with biology and I did exceptionally well in his class not just numerically but understanding life’s origin from a scientific viewpoint. I developed an interest to understand more about life’s formation and also developed an open mind. My second biology professor allowed me the opportunity to enter into QC as a research student because of my passion to learn more, I wanted hands-on experience which is referred to as active learning. My QC research mentor, revealed the importance of accommodating others in need and this is besides learning protocols for my experiments and how to operate specific equipment involving the research protocols. Finally, Jim has been attentive to my questions and helpful toward me to understand his course.

I have learned from all of these experiences mentioned above. I have also learned that you don’t disregard a student that does not come to you instead, you should go to them; one day they might just say, yes I need help. Noticeably, all of the above mentioned professors have enriched my personality and viewpoint as well as adding experiences to my life. I am grateful to each and every individual that has expanded my horizon of knowledge for the betterment of my future.

All of these experiences seem to be ones that affect the “other lobe of the brain” as we call it in this blog.  That part of the brain that may be automatic, hidden, or what one author calls “Incognito” in his book.  The thesis of this blog is that those systems do make judgments and those judgments can fit together with data.  You already had a bunch of experiences prior to our meeting in this course.  Is it just that simple?  Do we need to get 18 year old students to just have those experiences?  Is it important to have a series of them like you did?  Or is this kind of student maturity all down to age?  I have my ideas, but what do you think?

I am not a definite candidate toward successes at all times, however, I entered into college to succeed and I knew in order to succeed, I needed to be open-minded and utilize the materials of the courses and part of the course materials are professors. Perhaps, the “other lobe of the brain” became activated upon your question and I responded based upon my need to learn. I believe the simplest approach to 18 year old students may be to provide more internship opportunities, getting students to join a research lab based on their interest, or promoting students to explore the “real-deal” of the outside work environment right in a classroom by exhibiting workshop activities. The problem with many institutions of higher learning is that we have individuals graduating with high levels of intelligence in simple black and white text of their desired field of interest, but we don’t educate the students with an actual experience of these texts. Reading, discussions, and testing are all an essential part of learning in a specific course, nonetheless, I firmly believe it is important to give students an opportunity to excel in application of what they have learned. I was fortunate to have experience the outside world prior to entering into the inside world, college. Perhaps, this does make it easier for someone to apply knowledge.

I think you said it all in the last sentence.  If one can apply knowledge, one can make it their own.  These experiences outside the classroom but in the field do help students to make it their own.  When they do that, they look more mature.  It is not the years, it is the experience gained in those years and in institutions of higher education we can pack a lot of that experience, if we are careful, into the college years.

Raphael Spiro QC 12 and Jim Stellar

Raph has been reading a bit of the literature on neuroecomomics, something we have written about before in this blog.  We’d like to propose that the same brain areas that are involved in making decisions about purchases made with money are also be involved in “purchasing” with time and effort one’s major or field of study in College.  In particular, we wondered about the influence of others on these major-choice decisions.  Raph came across a series of studies that deal with the influence of others on decisions such as an auction where one is bidding against competitors.  Let’s begin by asking Raph to tell us about one of those studies.

Most people put a lot of thought into their economic decisions, and while we’d all like to think we’re above the influences of peer pressure and social competitiveness, it would seem that no amount of planning or intelligence can fight our natural inclinations.  In a 2008 study by Delgado et. al, brain imaging technology shed some light on the way in which the people around us affect our money management plans.  Participants in this study took part in two potential money-making tasks.  In both tasks, participants were asked to place a bid for the round.  If their bid was closer to the target value for the round than the competitor’s bid, they won the round and kept the difference between their bid and the value.  If they overbid, they did not win anything, nor did they lose anything.  The first task was an auction in which participants were pitted against a human competitor.  Before the auction, the participants met their counterparts.  In the second task, participants played a lottery, where the outcome was determined by a computer.  Unbeknownst to the participants, the computer and the human competitors used the same strategy when betting, based on a Nash Equilibrium.

The study found that when participants lost against their human competition in the auction game, they experienced a decrease in activity from baseline in their right ventral striatum (or what we also call the nucleus accumbens, a brain reward area).  This activation pattern is commonly seen in situations when money is lost.  Additionally, participants who experienced greater decreases in activity in their right accumbens after a loss were more likely to overbid.  That is to say, the participants who felt the effects of losing in front of a peer more were more likely to overbid.

Fascinating that the effects of losing in front of a peer was related so strongly related to overbidding, especially since we know from the work of Brian Knudson at Stanford  (and others) that believing one is going to make money activates the accumbens. 

One explanation for the results stems from the possibility that the participants in the study were not responding to a loss of money or points.  The loss of an auction carried no penalty.  Generally, a situation such as this would not be expected to produce decreased activation in the right accumbens.  The researchers suggested that the activation pattern produced was a result of the perceived loss in front of a peer.  This “loss reaction” and the overbidding it produces can be related to learning in and out of the classroom.  Both school and work place are rife with social competition and possibly analogous situations to the one examined in the Delgado et al. study.  In school, receiving marks on a test that are lower than the class average or than a specific classmate’s remarks might elicit a similar “loss reaction.”  In the workplace, receiving a bad review or being passed over for a project opportunity could produce similar effects as well.  While overbidding may be slightly maladaptive in the case of a monetary auction, in a work or school setting it seems like a positive reaction.

Overbidding in these settings would ensure a more successful outcome in all endeavors.  “Overbidding” on a test translates to over-studying.  A student who feels a very strong effect of losing will be likely to overinvest their resources (in this case time and effort) to ensure that they succeed on their tests.  Similarly, an employee or intern will work hard to ensure that they are the best candidate for a promotion or special project.

Social cues may can influence these decisions and lead to herd type behavior where one commits too much to an object (or a major?) on the advice and behavior of others.  This was shown in another fMRI accumbens study by Burke et al. 2010, where subjects were given the chance to buy stocks after observing the buying decisions of others (a group of 4 faces marked with a check for having bought the stock).  If all 4 faces were marked as having bought the stock, or did not buy the stock, the % buying by the subjects swung from 80% to 20% - the herd effect. The researchers found the subjects were also influenced by the pictures of chimpanzee faces and by data on the stocks themselves, but not as much as the herd.  The accumbens reacted to the herd effect and the authors argued that it did so independently of, and perhaps driving, the buy decisions.  Other brain areas (amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex) were involved, particularly when the buyers went against the herd, but that is another topic.

What does all this mean for experiential education?  For us it gives new level of power and weight to one’s reflections on the gut decisions in deciding if that experience is right for us.  For example, in a prior job, one of us (JS) saw that students studied abroad independently engaged in much less reflection than students who went as a group led by a faculty member.  We thought these students, participating in a program in Cairo, were sitting in their rooms at night talking over the day’s events and reflecting on lessons they had learned as they adapted to a culture and perspective that differed from what they had experience in America.  In that environment, some might have decided to become international human rights lawyers/workers.  If others in the group were also making such decisions, it is not hard to see how one could be sucked in.  In addition, this group decision could have been perceived similarly to bidding (if it took on a competitive air), leading to an occurrence of the over-bidding phenomenon, as one did not want to be perceived as making the wrong decision.  This is a common group effect that we have seen many times in social psychology and in the general course of human affairs.  But to us, it takes on a certain power and precision being linked to brain areas and quantitative economic studies.  The question is how do we in higher education leverage these phenomenon to produce better engagement and learning by our students in and out of the classroom?

Jungyo Kim QC’13 and Jim Stellar

From my perspective (JS) the story begins when JK took a class I co-taught last spring (PSY282) and we connected over an idea for a new club she is starting to promote emotional, mental, and physical health, on the Queens College campus.  But that led to conversations about learning from experience and that led to her joining a small group I run that explores the intersection of experiential learning in higher education and what might be called social neuroscience.  As part of that group, we had a conversation recently about how passion for a field or a project develops in a college setting.  We agree that passionately committed students do better in college as they put more time into their studies and may even just think more deeply about the subject matter in and out of class because they are so committed.  But the question is how one develops that passion in a student. 

From my perspective (JK), the story begins with the day back in last spring, when I first approached JS after a PSY282 lecture on eating behaviors and disorders. I had a growing inclination to talk to JS as the lecture came to an end; the information from the lecture struck me right through the heart. I had overcome an eating disorder myself, and it had always been my interest to raise awareness and help with this issue. After some hesitation on whether approaching him and his co-teacher was even a sane idea or not (after all, I was about to tell my professor that I was a recovered anorexic and that isn’t something you just yell out simply because you’re bored), I had made up my mind to take this on. And it’s interestingly one of best things I’ve ever done.

So, let’s talk about experience.  What do you think that teaches you as a college student and as a person?

I think one of the most beautiful things about life is that we as human beings have the stunning ability to take from all of our experiences from every moment of every day and learn, no matter how small, big, joyful, or painful these events may be to us. It’s just a matter of being aware of those events and their effect on us, and choosing to extract the good from them. I’m a firm believer in the idea that experiences are crucial to our growth, happiness, and health. My personal struggle with anorexia nervosa and its aftermaths was undoubtedly a painful experience, but one of the most rewarding events of my life that I am very thankful for.  

I’m grateful that I have learned. I no longer take myself or my health for granted. I truly appreciate even the silliest sounding things (like the existence of organic rose oil fragrance- it is heavenly) to the greater things we would all agree upon (like family). I’ve learned what it means to be truly happy. I am the healthiest, and happiest I’ve ever been. And I continue to grow.

What is learning to you?

Learning is a gift and a privilege. We start learning from the moment we take in our first breath of air. We also learn in school- as we try to write down our ABCs on a sheet of paper that seems too small to hold all that we want to scribble. We grow up to decipher the logic of chi squares statistics in college and the reasons to why the human brain feels pleasure when seeing a piece of chocolate cake. But we should never forget that we learn some of our most memorable, treasurable lessons through our personal experiences- whether it be the argument you had with your boyfriend over the true meaning of a love song, whether it be the first time you realized how thankful you are for your mother and all of her silly scolding, whether it be the old friendships you had chosen to end when you saw that the pain you were giving each other was too much too soon, whether it be the eating disorder that taught you to do all that you can to not have another soul go through the pain you went through.

Your story reminds me of a book I read by Chopra on leadership and the soul and another by Schwarz and Sharpe on the origins of practical wisdom.  It will not surprise you that these books, to me, emphasize learning from experience.

It is my plan and goal to apply my knowledge from experience to the process of leading an organization. My idea of a good leader has, among other traits, the willingness to understand the point of views of the people around her, whether those views agree or disagree with his/her own. Compassion and the ability to understand others are qualities that I felt lacked in eating disorder treatment centers of my personal experience. When I do start my organization, one of my goals would be to promote a clearer understanding of the “how” and “why” behind such important issues as eating disorders. I think one of our greatest strengths as human beings, is our ability to feel what other people feel; we are able to understand others if we try.

What other ideas do you have for your organization, and how do they relate to experiential learning?

I plan to connect the many different interests of studies on the QC campus such as psychology, history, literature, and art, with the importance of total health. Making connections is crucial to learning. I want this organization to sparkle and ooze experiential learning from within- with members taking part in fun, memorable activities and events that spark thinking, questioning, understanding, appreciation, and awareness. Student organizations are one way of strengthening what the students learn in class, all in an enjoyable and a refreshing way. In the long run, experiential learning as such would give students invaluable qualities and skills to be cherished for life.

So, in conclusion, why are you passionate about experiential learning? Why is it important to you? 

Learning is a big part of my happiness. Learning is a big part of my life. Someone wise once told me: “Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.” Sounds ludicrous to do something just for the heck of it- with nothing material to gain, doesn’t it? But I give the world the best I’ve got anyway, simply because I want to, simply because I know it makes me happy, simply because it gives me strength. I will continue to give the world my best by being true to all that is around me, and by taking what I have learned, learn, and will learn, to help those around me. I experience so that I may learn and as the Queens College motto says, “I learn so that I may serve.”

This conversation between us, illustrates where passion in learning comes from.  It seems to us both that it comes from personal experience.  In this case, it started with JK’s health condition, refracted through a class in which professors and student connected as people, and then went to something JK is building on her own (the club) outside of any curriculum. This real-world (“every day”) aspect of the experience is what gives it sustaining power when coupled with the student being in charge, when it is personal, and when it matters.  By contrast, a classroom can be a place where the student is not in charge, just watches a very nice display of knowledge, and is left in only a few minutes of question in or out of class to touch the material personally.  But in a service-learning project or even in an internship or abroad experience, the student is engaged because they cannot just watch.  They must participate and, in many cases, even lead and thus take that leadership responsibility.  These traits engage the Hidden Brain (another book we suggest you read), pump up the limbic/motivational system, and otherwise stimulate what we are calling the “other lobe of the brain.”  Then with a connection to the content area (after all this is college), we have the most effective higher education possible because we have a passionate student learner.

Michaela Tralli QC’12 and Jim Stellar

Michaela took a course I co-taught last spring.  We began to talk about how one finds one’s field and her field looks like it will be direct patient care in clinical psychology.  Often in this blog we write about how one discovers one’s passion through a combination of course work, internships (or some other form of experiential education), and mentoring.  But what about the people who came to college with a pretty good idea of what they want to do?  Where do those ideas develop and how does “other lobe of the brain” thinking apply to those cases?  Michaela may well be one, so let’s get her to tell us her history from the perspective of her long-term interest.

My interest in clinical psychology first developed when I was a young seventh grader.  To understand why my passion developed this young, it is important to know about my earlier education.  Growing up, I was not a great student.  I never got higher than mid-70’s except for a rare 80 here and there.  It was the same when I started middle school in seventh grade.  In most of my classes my grades were the usual.  I received mostly 70’s.  Maybe an 80 if I was lucky.  However, when I started health class, I grew so interested in everything we spoke about.  Whether it was drugs, physical or sexual abuse, family issues, or nutrition- I loved it all.  My passion for this information stuck out right away.  I studied hard for the class, not because I wanted a good grade (clearly that was not important to me), but because I LOVED what I was learning about.  The end of the semester came and I received a 100 for the class.  This was my first 100 that I remember receiving.  When I told my parents, they were ecstatic.  They praised me and told me how proud of me they were.  I felt great.  The love I had for this information, and the praise I received made me realize that I wanted to help people who were dealing with some of these issues, whether it was drug addiction, obesity, family life, and so forth. 

This story is terrific and I see myself in it.  So, let’s take the next step and talk about what happened when you got to college and how you ended up eventually in Psychology with a focus on being a one-on-one clinical practitioner.

When I first got to college, all I knew was that I wanted to help.  I started my education at Nassau Community College as a liberal arts major, since I was unsure of what field I wanted to work in.  Luckily, this major required that I take many credits worth of electives.  I took full advantage.  My courses ranged from nutrition to zoology, and everything in between.  For a while I thought about becoming a veterinarian so that I could even help animals.  However, by the time I graduated from Nassau, most of my credits were gained in nutrition classes, all of which I got straight A’s in.  This feeling of success was familiar.  I thought that nutrition was my calling.  I came into Queens College as a Dietetics major.  I loved most classes, and passed many with A’s.  It was the four credit sciences that gave me great trouble.  It took me two tries to pass basic chemistry, and when organic chemistry rolled around, that familiar feeling of failure hit.  I decided to seek the help of an advisor here at QC.  With her guidance, I realized that if I really wanted to be a nutritionist, I would find a way to pass organic chemistry.  After some thought, I discovered that I wanted something with more substance- something that I would be proud of, and that would enable me to encourage people who were suffering mentally to not give up on achieving the greatest life possible.  My advisor first suggested social work, and then she said- “clinical psychology.”  Clinical Psychology.  That was it. I questioned myself:  “How did I not think of this before?”

So it was an advisor who made the connection that clicked in your head, not an experience on an internship or something you did outside the academy.  We always say that internships and other forms of experiential education are a great supplement to a fine classical course-based education.  Your experience reminds us of the power of the classical education.  But, let’s pursue it a tad further.  Since that moment, you have obviously confirmed in your mind that this is the right course.  How did that happen…further course work, anything you experienced in the clinical psychology field?

It happened for me through personal experience with a social worker and a psychiatrist.  Over the past year, I had to begin therapy due to chronic severe panic attacks.   After a few months of seeing my therapist, I began to understand why these panic attacks occur.  I was getting better in that I understood the source of the pain, but I was still suffering tremendously.  Realizing this, my therapist worked together with a psychiatrist to get me on the right medication.  Understandably, I grew extremely close to these two women.  I started to realize how much they love their jobs.  They are passionate in what they do and they truly want to help.  My therapist even insists most weeks that she does not want to take my copay because she wants as little stress as possible in my life.  Seeing how happy they are when they help made me further realize that I want to be just as happy in my career.  It was then that I confirmed that this is the right course for me. 

Before we go into some analysis of what we just wrote (typical for this blog), I want to thank you for sharing your story with us.  It is compelling.  I understand now, for the first time, from where your self-confidence comes in your career choice.

What can we extract as a lesson from this conversation?  First, it is the power of teachers, there at the right moment in the classroom to spark an interest and change a life.  We must always remember that experiential education is the supplement to the facts and theories supplied by a classical education; and that this knowledge is given by people who have the power to touch us in what we might call the “other lobe of the brain.”  Next, it is the power of reinforcement.  The teachers who provide us with knowledge are, in fact, responsible for sparking an interest.  But without the reinforcement of others, that interest may never be pursued, and therefore, may never become a passion.  There is more, and it comes in this story through two therapists who modeled the behavior of loving one’s career that, like other forms of experiential education was transmitted personally, often without intention, seemingly as a side effect, but becoming a main effect, powerfully affecting the career.  Teaching by example, and reinforcing one’s success is just a piece to a much larger puzzle in expressing what is happening in experiential learning.

Luisa Melo NU’00 and Jim Stellar

Luisa was an undergraduate who worked on a senior honors project with me in behavioral neuroscience.  After graduation she worked in academic biochemistry research for years, pursued a Master’s in International Relations at the Fletcher School and has wound up in the Bentley University PhD program in Business. It was there she came across a concept in one of her business classes that begins our conversation and is taken from one of her papers.

Karl Weick, a professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, developed the action perspective in Organization Studies. It is relevant to experiential education and came out of his interest with cognitive dissonance.  The idea is that the human mind requires consistency when aware of conflicting results, and is flexible and resourceful in obtaining that consistency (Kogut & Zander, 1996; Weick Sensemaking in Organizations, 1995). Accommodating his psychological work to the business organization, Weick noted that “organizations begin to materialize when rationales for commitment become articulated.” He defined sensemaking as “committed interpretation” and as the “infrastructure of organizational inertia” (1977). Sensemaking in his view, the ability to accommodate cognitive dissonance, kept organizations from changing and highlighted a ‘reality’ of organizational life.

I would add that sensemaking sounds a bit like someone I have cited before, Barry Schwarz, who talked on TED about practical wisdom and with Kenneth Sharpe wrote a book in 2010 about the subject.  Practical Wisdom seems a bit like sensmaking.

Weick (1995) outlined the process of sensemaking as constituted by enactment, justification, selection and retention. Enactment is the action part of sensemaking, which by definition requires committed action. Weick pointed out that managers (or actors we believe to be important in an organization) acted first, then evaluated their action as to whether it was socially acceptable. Enactment (Weick 1977) “brackets raw data” and generates it, and is made up of four components: self-fulfilling prophecies, commitment, social information processing and retrospective sensemaking. Self-fulfilling prophecies capture the idea that people interpret things that happen as inevitable but actually bring them about through their actions. Commitment involves choice, irreversibility and public awareness of a decision. Weick quotes Pfeffer & Salancik who described commitment as “binding individuals to their behavior” (1978). Public awareness leads to evaluation and justification of an action socially acceptable. Retrospective sensemaking refers to the idea that action happens first, then is interpreted as having happened for a reason. Selection and Retention complete the cycle of sensemaking, and refer to the idea that interpretations of action are infinite. Actors ‘select’ those interpretations that they can accommodate, and retain via codification so that the “meaning of enactment is preserved in organizational memory.”

OK, enough with the professional speak. You went to Northeastern University, a co-op school, and had plenty of work experiences.  A lot of us regard you as having a high level of wisdom even as a college student that perhaps you gained from your experiences immigrating to the United States from Colombia as a child.  But to focus, what did you learn that you could call sensemaking from your experiences, particularly back in the day when you were an undergraduate.

Well, this is a really tough question! I would say there are a few ways to answer it. On one level, Weick’s greater point was that our chosen organizations are entities that do not function in the way we think. In a way, we create them based on our enactment. You can argue that a university education prepares us (i.e. socializes) for professional life and that suggests we enact based on whatever we have learned. However, the reality is that sometimes our education does not prepare us for how we behave as professional or how we have to adjust our behavior.

The opportunity for experiential education can challenge this expectation of rationality, or one-to-one correspondence very early on. My first co-op experience was one reason why I changed to behavioral neuroscience. I chose biology as the standard way to achieve a pre-med degree. My experience working in a community health center in pediatrics showed me that maybe there was a connection to be made between mental health and general health.

Another concept that Weick explores is that of improvisation. It comes out of Claude Levi-Strauss’ work on bricolage. Weick saw all of us a bricoleurs, or jacks-of-all-trade. He argued that working on your craft helped to build your tool box, and that the more fine-tuned this box was, the greater the ability to improvise. There is a tendency to use the concept of improvisation as building something out of nothing, but Weick and the jazz greats really improvise based on ‘something’. In that sense, sensemaking requires improvisation and experiential education is one way that we keep fine-tuning our tools.

When I worked in academic research after graduation, there were problems I faced that I instinctively improvised to solve. A coworker who had done exceptionally well at another Boston-area school once asked me how I was able to address so many issues. Who, she asked, had taught me, and why wasn’t she being taught. At the time I said I was “making it up as I went along because you have to solve these problems, you have to be creative”. In retrospect, I think my experiences working had fine-tuned the toolbox I took for granted at the time.

Way back in this blog’s history, is a post calling for industry and academics to partner to “co-create” the next generation of educated citizens that are work ready, who can sensemake out of their experiences at the moment and get to a goal when there is no path.  Classical Higher Education today is said to be out of step with what is needed in the workplace generating graduates who cannot sensemake (our words). We believe that this is situation can be fixed if colleges and universities would not only educate the cognitive lobes of the brain with facts and theories that establish knowledge and thinking ability, but also educate the “other lobe of the brain” which is more instinctive, cunning, sensemaking.  This is done with unstructured experience in a real world setting where what the student does matters to someone whether it is getting an experimental protocol right in a lab as an undergraduate research assistant or working in a business where if money is not made, people do not get paid.  Internships, service-learning, undergraduate research, and even abroad experiences in different cultures all do that.  Then, even in a struggling economy, a job awaits … but so does graduate, law, medical, or even business school.

Our references:

·         Daft & Weick, (1984), Toward a Model of organizations as interpretation systems. The Academy of Management Review, 9:284-95. 

·         Kogut & Zander (1996)  What firms do? Coordination, Identity, Learning. Organization Science, 7:502-18.

·         Weick, Karl. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

·         Weick, K. (2001) Making sense of the organization, Blackwell Pubs. This is a collection of Weick’s works, organized by him, with introductions for each section. From this collection, I cite:  “Sensemaking in organizations”, 1993; “Sources of order in underorganized systems”, 1985; “Organizational redesign as improv”, 1993; “Enactment Processes in organizations”, 1977

Corinne Freeman D’Ambrosio NU 02 and Jim Stellar

Corinne was a major in Anthropology with an Education minor who went into business after graduation and just received her MBA degree (congratulations!).  She also was head of the College of Arts and Sciences Student Advisory Council when I was Dean of the College at Northeastern and thus had a serious undergraduate leadership position.  We agreed to write something here about what a deep co-op based experiential education undergraduate education had to do with leadership and business entrepreneurship almost 10 years later.

So, here is my first question.  What do you remember from your co-op/leadership undergraduate experience that best applied to the entrepreneurship you lived in your years in the business world?

Despite the seemingly large divide between my undergraduate co-op positions related to Anthropology and my current occupation in technical sales, there were many valuable lessons taken from those early experiences.  Most important of these lessons was a determination to push through seemingly insurmountable obstacles in order to reach goals, both large and small.  I remember changing diapers at East End House in Cambridge as part of my very first co-op at Northeastern.  This was when I was developing an interest in Education and wanted to see how well I did with children.  Not well, it seemed, with 2 year olds!  Part of the co-op experience is learning what you DON’T want to do as much as it is learning what you excel at.  For many graduates of traditional 4 year universities, after diligently completing undergraduate work, upon entering the workforce in the chosen field the new graduate is faced with the shock, “I hate this job!” 

Many people say that on average, each person changes careers 5-7 times over the course of a lifetime.  Not just jobs (which most people will hold 7-10 different ones) but CAREERS!  I would like to think that my co-op experiences at NU helped me to eliminate one or two of those career changes along the way.  While I am no longer changing diapers, I believe the co-op experience helped to give me a stronger sense of self, a sense of self that gave me the confidence to go back to business school ten years later because I KNEW what goal I wanted to reach.  Those early experiences helped to bridge that continental divide between education and application, and served me well during completion of my Master’s program.

Some say that the students that do not do co-op or other serious internships and pursue a classical “ivory tower” academic education simply catch up in the first few years of work. Think about your first few years of work and comment on what if anything is enduring from experiential education?

The work ethic derived from full-time professional experience as an undergraduate is not something a student can “catch up on” if their choice has been to pursue a traditional “ivory tower” rather than co-op based education.  The reasons I have for making this statement is two-fold.  First and foremost, doors will open easier for those who graduate with an existing resume beyond flipping burgers or working in the local ice-cream parlor part-time.  Not only does co-operative education provide the classroom learning needed to perform a particular job, but real proof that a job candidate can apply that learning in the workplace setting.  Not only are the references from past co-op positions invaluable when trying to secure a first job out of college, but the networking gleaned from making and maintaining all of those contacts through the years multiplies a job applicants chances.

Secondly, there is a huge paradigm shift going from student to employee.  After years of full-time co-op positions interspersed with full-time study, the co-op program graduate has less of an adjustment to make, and in my opinion, will be able to hit the ground running more than a candidate graduating from a traditional program.  Sure, both will learn on the job, make contacts, and have to adjust to “real life”, but the co-op graduate has an advantage in all of these arenas. 

Why is this?  From where does this advantage come?

I would like to give two examples of why I feel strongly that my opinions given above are based on fact and not simply prejudicial judgment because of my own choice in education at Northeastern, a school with a longstanding history steeped in cooperative education. A good friend of mine from my graduating class took a co-op job working for the student radio station.  After gaining a following on campus, he was offered the opportunity to work as an intern for local radio station, KROQ.  After proving himself once again, he was offered a paid co-op position at KROQ, which led to his immediate hire after graduation at MTV in New York.  Without the contacts and experience from that first co-op at the school station, none of this would have been possible so early on in his career. 

Another less glamorous example compares my career track to that of a good friend of mine who graduated from a traditional program at UMass.  After working at East End House and discovering I was not cut out to work with toddlers I thought I would try my hand with school-aged kids and teenagers at the Wang YMCA of Chinatown in Boston.  After working as a summer camp counselor for two years, I was hired as camp director the next.  By the time I graduated from Northeastern I was immediately offered a full-time position as Youth & Teen Program Director with the YMCA, which I loved every minute of until I moved to California to pursue other things.  My friend who graduated from UMass was still working her way through the ranks at another YMCA since she had to start from ground zero as a counselor in their before and after school program.  She was hired upon my recommendation to fill my position after I left, and has since gone on to do wonderful things, including attaining her Master’s degree.  I believe that as such a talented and motivated young woman that she would have been years ahead in her career if she had the same opportunities I had through the co-op program. 

Notice above the clear practical advantages that Northeastern and other Cooperative Education schools often tout – a job after because along the way the student built a credible record in the eyes of the employer.  But there is something else we feel that may be more important and that is the development of the student.  Turn those eyes around from looking to the career and look at the student in college, going through the program, growing, finding out what they want to do, developing a passion for it, learning to negotiate a complex world beyond the structure of college, and getting a kind of confidence that matches the enhanced resume we just discussed. 

In a world of charges that Higher Education is not delivering (see “Academically Adrift”) and in a flood of new books that tell us that motivation is most properly intrinsic in a complex modern world (see “Drive”) the most important piece to really getting somewhere is to fire that internal passion to put in the time to develop into something awesome (see “Talent Code” or “Outliers”). In this blog, we even see brain or psychological implications as in the two previous blog posts.

To be simplistic, there is nothing wrong today with higher education that a good dose of paid internship or similar experiential education program would not fix by developing a cadre of passionate, self-confident, powerful student consumers of knowledge -  in college and for the rest of their lives.

Shoshana Korman QC’12 and Jim Stellar

Shoshana works in the laboratory of Dr. Carolyn Pytte who comes out of the bird song neuroscience tradition.  Shoshana and I agreed to write this blog with two intertwined themes: Neuroscience of brain plasticity and her own experiences being an undergraduate research assistant.  I find both stories to be encouraging of the idea that we can build the student’s capacity in college education as well as teach important facts and theories that will be useful to a career.

So, to start us off, Shoshana, can you explain in simple terms what it is happening when we say new neurons are born in the brain of adult birds and find a useful place in the brain circuit that underlies the production of bird song?

The first paper in the field was by Goldman & Nottebohm (1983), but my lab PI, Carolyn, often likes to quote an article by Bailey & Kandel (1993), who maintain that one of the key principles of behavioral neuroscience is that experience can modify brain structure long after brain development is complete. One of the most dramatic changes in the postnatal-brain is neurogenesis, where entirely new neurons are made in the brain of an adult. This phenomenon is seen across the animal kingdom, not just in birds. For example, animals that learn new odors have increases in new neurons in their olfactory bulbs. Similarly, increased neurogenesis in a memory related brain area, the hippocampus, has been shown to occur during spatial learning in rodents.

Our lab uses the zebra finch songbird to study the relationship between song learning and the brain and, I specifically to look at the song motor pathway (in pink, below).

Here, new neurons project from nucleus a brain area called the HVC to nucleus RA, which contains the motor commands for singing. RA projects to the motor neurons that innervate the muscles of the syrinx, the vocal organ in birds. Within HVC, new neurons are incorporated throughout a bird’s life.  For more detail see a 2005 article by Nottebohm.

That is very cool.  Who would have thought birds would have so much to teach us about brain plasticity?  But it was here that the phenomenon of new neurons in adult brains was discovered.  Now, please talk about another part of the lab’s work where you related song performance to the survival of these new neurons in HVC.

First, I have to point out that even though neurons are continually replaced in HVC, the songs of the bird that are the direct output of this motor pathway are stable. This is amazing in itself as the song itself is highly stereotyped and probably has to be to be useful to attract mates. An analogy can be made to human speech, which is also very stereotyped and stable and has to be to communicate well within the language spoken.  Like children who learn a first language without training, zebra finches learn the song of their social group when they are little.  They start to sing it in maturity and then auditory feedback from their own singing in comparison to what they have previously learned teaches them to perform well own song.

The new neurons that are continuously incorporated into HVC somehow must be “taught” to fit in to the ongoing song.  That is presumed to happen through auditory feedback because making it impossible for the birds to hear their own song leads to more individual variability in song performance and that may be a result of these new neurons “messing up” the existing song motor program without the correcting feedback. 

What is particularly interesting, and what you mention it above, is a recent result in our lab. We found that if one interferes with song production by treating the vocal apparatus with the drug Botox in otherwise normal birds, these new neurons in the HVC area of the brain do not survive.  They die by a process neuroscientists call apoptosis, which also happens in development when more neurons than needed for a brain circuit are produced and the extra ones are “pruned” away. 

It is almost as if the new neurons somehow knew they were not contributing to the song and died. Of course, I do not mean that individual neurons think…they are just cells.  But somehow their survival seems to depend on how well the brain circuit does in performing. Of course, there are other ways in which the nervous system can change in adults following experience, including the classical formation of new synapses to change the connections between neurons and a recent discovery that the myelin insulation around neurons may change with firing to affect timing of signal conduction to other neurons.

But let’s switch topics a bit and ask about what might be the result of changes in your brain.  You joined this lab some time ago and now you have certain skills you can do that I hear you teach other younger undergraduates.  How does it feel to have achieved this mastery in the lab?  Do you ever wonder if new neurons in your brain are finding a home in some area because you are learning new skills?

Coming into the lab my Freshman year, I was incredibly intimidated by the amount of tasks and level of skill necessary to complete the various experiments. I remember observing my upperclassmen and graduate student colleagues with awe, wondering if I would be able to perform lab tasks with the same degree of expertise. Sure enough, over the years I have been able to fine-tune my own skills in the lab to the point where many of my undertakings have become second nature. What I find particularly interesting is the similarity of my mastery of lab techniques with the stereotyped proficiency of a zebra finch’s vocalizations. Just as I have been able to learn lab protocols and methodologies from my mentor Carolyn, so too, the juvenile songbird is able to absorb the song of his tutor (who we even refer to as the “mentor”). From research, we know that neurogenesis plays a large role in the learning of the zebra finch song. Therefore, I think it makes sense to wonder if my own learned motor behaviors have someone caused a rewiring in my brain. When I think back to my early undergraduate experience and compare it to the way I am now, I can’t help but conclude that neuronal plasticity has allowed for the modification of my behavior.

This last statement says it all.  There are a number of books and other findings we will continue to review in this blog, but that last statement that you could come so far, and so could many of us, by happily learning from experience is the point.  And it is just too cool that the word “mentor” is used in your song bird research and again by you to refer to this important aspect of your experience as a student.  In an era where people say education is broken, this is education that works.

Eric Miller QC ‘12 and Jim Stellar

In his book “Drive,” on intrinsic motivation in the workplace, Daniel Pink mentions Mihayl Csikszentmihalyi and discusses the concept of “Flow.”  To begin with Csikszentmihalyi, he was born in Hungary in 1935 during the most volatile period of the 20^th century; World War II was raging across Europe. Hungary was under a fierce Nazi occupation and was being devastated by Soviet troops. At the age of ten, he left the country with his mother and two brothers, unaware that in five months a majority of his family would be dead. Later, Csikszentmihalyi recalls his ten-year-old self thinking at the time, “There has got to be a better way than this.”  That experience later inspired him to search for what made life meaningful in the field of psychology and still later led to do studies focused on creativity and play. It was during there that he developed his famous concept of “Autotelic experiences” (self-goals) or what he came to call “flow.”

Flow is defined as a transcendental, “spiritual” state in which everything being done seems perfect; goals are clear, feedback is immediate, success is assured.Flow is a state of complete engagement, producing a degree of focus and satisfaction which far surpasses routine motivation. The concept began to gain traction in 1990 when Csikszentmihalyi wrote his first book on the topic; the exposure to a wider audience produced a following. It has become a constituent in many theories of spirituality, self-help, education and business.

Flow underlies a majority of Pink’s arguments for inspiring a new sense of intrinsic motivation in employees who are working in organizations which “goes against” human nature. People want to be engaged in their work, not merely compliant. People crave autonomy- the freedom to do what they need to do in their own way and at their own pace alongside people they want to work with. They seek opportunities for mastery- to engage in “goldilocks tasks” which are not too easy and not too difficult, goals they can reach while still feeling a sense of accomplishment and betterment. Though mastery is admittedly asymptote- close but never caught- it is that which makes it both frustrating and alluring, constantly worth striving for.

Most importantly, people seek purpose. They want to know that what they are doing matters, not just for now or for themselves, but for everyone, everywhere, for all time. That is the ultimate goal, the greatest pursuit. Without the urge for achievement, correlated with our personal efforts and methods, we would not be human. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi would never have the opportunity to identify flow because it would never have existed. Flow is the key to rising above the need for survival and realizing self-actualization.

We have seen its existence in literature and movies, noticed it working out in the gym or performing duties on the job, observed it in the fervor of religious prayer. Its existence seems unquestionable. So what is its role in experiential education?

If colleges can design programs different from what Pink calls Motivation 2.0- the old system based on extrinsic rewards and punishments (e.g. classroom grades)- then perhaps they can create opportunities for flow. We agree with Pink that situations in which intrinsic motivation dominates are ones in which people, including students, have more potential for autonomy, mastery of a task, and working in sync with others. It is difficult in the classroom; the dedication to structure and fairness means little engagement and the possibility for failure is punishment rather than motivation. Rather those situations can powerfully occur in an internship, on a service-learning project, doing undergraduate research, or stepping into another culture/country on an abroad program.

When a student loses herself (flow is occurring) in a specific internship or community service moment, that experience can help clarify the choice of major (e.g. political science) and a career path (e.g. pre-law). The student only familiar with classroom experience cannot be as confident in their decisions. Flow is the positive side of the so-called “school of hard knocks” that most college students experience only as alumni. The sooner students are exposed to “real world” education the more engaged they will be in learning. Students can be passionate about their careers and put in the required hours Malcolm Gladwell calls for in his book “Outliers.” Where Alum and Roksa say colleges fail in their book “Academically Adrift” there can be achievement. Incorporating experiential education allows students to experience flow in the “real world” which compliments what happens in the classroom and curriculum. It allows upper education to be effective.

Andrew DeMasters QC12 and Jim Stellar

I (JS) remain interested in student leadership as a form of experiential learning right on campus.  But the question is what is a student leader? And what makes him or her tick?  To address those questions, I thought I would talk to one, someone I have known for a few years and who is making an important contribution to helping us raise our participation rates in the teacher evaluation process after it switched to on-line and suffered a classical drop in student participation rates. Oh…and Andrew writes his own blog.

Andrew, let’s begin at the beginning.  What is a student leader and why do you want to be one?

A student leader is not someone who walks around with a title. Rather what I have come to understand is that more specifically, it is about taking initiative that inspires others to do the same. I have had the unique experience of coming to understand this concept.  Ever since I could remember, I have always been in the active pursuit of trying to become part of a something more than myself. My sophomore year brought a lot of growth in the sense that I have to realize that having a title of “VP” or “senator” is meaningless unless you define it. My active engagement in trying not only understand myself but to look at what I was doing with a greater sense of purpose ultimately led me to become a student leader. In my time at Queens College, I have never held position in student government but I have made my best efforts to certainly change a campus I was invested in. Sometimes, without necessarily having “power” you can still make have friends, colleagues, supporters who realize the efforts you are trying to take to improve their lives as well. In my years here at QC, with the help of others, I am proud to be part of events such as Midnight Breakfast, War on Hate, Major/ Minor Fair, and more recently the Teacher Evaluation process. I believe that my continued experience has only been possible with the help of others who shared in the same vision as me. I do not say that I am a student leader. I often believe that I am the first follower of an idea and therefore the movement begins.

What do you think is the essential learning opportunity from being a student leader in or out of the student government?

 There only needs to be one significant trait: a willingness to take action. I believe that being involved outside the classroom is highly educational for several reasons. First, regardless of any organization, you meet fellow students from all walks of life, whether they grew up in a bad neighborhood or avoided a giant debt with an undergraduate degree. By having a firsthand experience of just meeting these people, this is simply a taste of what the world and working environment is like outside of college.  Second, you learn how to participate in meetings. By actively engaging within an organization you learn about the membership, member’s strengths and weaknesses, and what the purpose of the organization really is. Third, you learn how to actively engage yourself within your surrounding community through creating events that are run by students for students. What is a better feeling than that of helping to bring something awesome to your college that will be fun and beneficial? Fourth and finally, you really get to discover what your potential can be through active participation. I have found that remember your college campus and participating in it helped to shape the type of person I am today. I often find myself doing things that I never thought I could do, e.g, sitting in a room doing paperwork or having coffee with a fellow member in the dining hall.  I believe it is some these basic truths that you receive outside the classroom that are so beneficial. In a way its learning that is optional, not required in a class. I have a firm belief that participating in an organization and having a chance to make a difference can certainly go a longer way, far past the perfect 4.0 GPA student.

How do you see this tying back to your major field of study and what you hope to do (at this stage) for your career?

            I really see that the experiences I have had in college have provided me with tremendous insight and planning for my future. I plan on attending law school with a Juris Doctor in Public Interest Law. I am attracted to this field because I have a deep sense for being involved with government related work.  My college career as a student leader has given me important skills such as scheduling meetings, policy research, public speaking, event organizing, and more importantly how to take an idea and put it into action. As both a double major in Political Science and Sociology, I believe that I have learned a great deal about how to understand and work with people, how to make successful policy, and how government should work for it’s people.  I have taken two seminar classes in Political Science: NYC Politics and Immigration Law. Each has given different perspectives of what problems are facing our country as well as extensive background information.  In Sociology, I have taken courses such as Deviant Behavior and Mass Media Pop culture that have exposed me to real problems, how information is relayed, and how it affects society as a whole. It is my intent to bring the same passion that motivated me as a student leader to my next challenge. My experiences as a student leader have certainty opened up the doors for what it is I want to do for the rest of my life: serve the public, make a difference, and be happy. I could not have asked for a better place as Queens College to further develop my skills, become a student leader, and have unforgettable experiences that provided me with how life after college will be.

Notice the use of the word “passion” just above.  Passion makes people act.  Some think it improves learning.  Certainly it improves time-on-task and that makes learning better.  In today’s world where so much of higher education is under criticism for not delivering a better educated student into the next level of schooling or into the workforce, this is an important concept.  Why?  Because a passionate student educates themselves as well as consuming what the college/university offers.  So the academic facts-and-theory learning is better because the student sees the point.  But more than that, the student sees the value.  Remember the old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but cannot make him drink.” that common wisdom has set for us?  Well experiences like being a student leader can fire that thirst which we are calling passion.  It can happen in the classroom, for sure.  But why not build programs outside the classroom that make it more likely to happen.  Why not let students help us build those programs?  Is that not experiential education itself?  Then we can leverage that passion with the curriculum, drive higher standards, enhance learning, and deliver the best educated student possible.