Our short-term memory has a capacity of 80-120 bits within six seconds. For this reason, we act largely unconsciously. If we want to change our behavior sustainably, we need implicit, action-oriented forms of learning to improve the unconscious control of our behavior. This game from the book "Spielbar III" shows you how you can make the limited capacity of consciousness tangible for the participants in your seminar.
Aim
- To draw the group's attention to the fact that people have a limited capacity for consciousness.
- To arouse emotions and curiosity for the question: "How can we control our behavior with so little conscious capacity?" (Answer: Not at all, we need implicit behavioral control, i.e. emotional intelligence or implicit knowledge).
- Awaken a willingness to cultivate implicit behavioral control.
- Raise awareness of forms of learning in which new implicit behavior and not new cognitive knowledge is learned.
Procedure
Write ten numbers from 0 to 9 in any order on a moderation card. Example: 5 2 9 1 3 7 4 6 2 8 Turn to the participants: "Have you ever thought about how you control your behavior? You probably have the feeling that you consciously decide what you do throughout the day. Controlling our behavior is a fascinating thing that we want to get to the bottom of here. We will now test together how much capacity we humans have available in our consciousness to control our behavior.
I will now slowly read ten numbers to you. Please listen carefully and memorize the numbers in the correct order. I would ask you to repeat the numbers out loud in plenary when I have read them out." You read out the numbers once slowly and clearly, but do not repeat them even when asked by the participants. The participants then try to repeat the ten numbers in plenary. As often as I have done this exercise, no participant has ever been able to repeat more than 7-8 numbers correctly. Normally, 5-6 numbers are correct, after that the participants don't know what to do.
After the participants' attempts, you can pass on some interesting factual information: "You can do 5-7 numbers. Then the processing of the numbers has occupied the capacity
of our short-term memory, which has a capacity of 80 to 120 bits depending on the person. You need 15 to 18 bits per number. You can also stack information for around six seconds, which is known as the 'present duration'. After that, the information that was perceived first falls out again or you have to store the information in long-term memory, for example by repeating it. However, if you repeat, you can no longer listen at the same time. So you can see that short-term memory is quite a bottleneck."
With this in mind, everyday situations are particularly interesting: how much capacity do you need to cope with an everyday situation? Think about the last meeting, for example: you have to understand the context of an issue, formulate an answer, stand up to write something on the flipchart, listen to speakers, choose a color for a pen, raise your arm, observe the other participants, use the correct grammar in your formulations, etc.
Short-term memory has too little processing capacity
Brain research can now prove that you need far more bits of processing capacity than are available in your short-term memory. This is the only way to perform all the parallel and coordinated tasks. In addition, it is now empirically measurable on the basis of brain waves that many conscious actions are preceded by extensive activities in the brain, all of which you are not aware of.
You will be familiar with this from everyday life, for example from driving a car: At the beginning, it's a huge stress: you have to keep an eye on the signs, change gear, brake, pay attention to traffic on the right and left. Your brain is under constant threat of overload. Later, with more routine, you sometimes wonder how you drove the last 20 kilometers. Or you drive almost automatically, but suddenly all your conscious attention is focused on two children playing at the side of the road. Here you can see how the entire capacity of consciousness is focused on the really important aspect of the situation, while all other activities continue virtually unconsciously."
Now summarize the ten numbers on the moderation card into five two-digit numbers 52, 91, 37, 46, 28 and turn to the participants again: "I will now read the ten numbers to you again. Please repeat the numbers in the group. The participants are now generally able to repeat the numbers, which you can comment on as follows: "If the same ten numbers as before are combined into five two-digit numbers, this results in five units of information. You can repeat this because you are now within the capacity of our short-term memory. We often use memo techniques like this because we intuitively know the limits of our consciousness."
