What makes information feel good to the brain? My husband knows that information about the
brain feels good to my brain, so he gave me a subscription to Scientific
American Mind. In it, Matthew Hutson
describes the research conducted by Sascha Topolinski at the University of
Cologne in Germany. Topolinski is a
psychologist who decided to look into the same question that I started with here. He relates it to what he calls “processing
fluency.”
Maybe you tried to learn a second language back in your
school days. It probably did not feel
good to you when you struggled to speak, read or understand ideas in a new
way. You lacked fluency, that wonderful
place where the language flows easily to do whatever you need it to do. For Topolinski, fluency is not just about
language, but about how well the brain handles any information.
He found that the faster the brain works, the more fluently
it is processing data. Two ways to
increase fluency are repetition and hints of what’s ahead. Each of these tends to increase familiarity
with the subject, and therefore brain speed.
Fluency feels good, and he noticed that a sudden rise in fluency, that
“aha” moment, feels even better.
This of course makes sense in the senior care setting. Which music do our residents tend to prefer? Which topics do they most enjoy talking
about? Are your answers “oldies” and
reminiscing? Maybe dementia has obscured
more recent things, so these are all that are consciously accessible. But some of you have already noticed that
there is more to it than that. Maybe
when we provide activities which take advantage of previous exposure, we are
helping our residents get that “rush” of fluency.
There is a set of booklets that includes “Finishing Lines,” by
Beckie Karras. Each of these has page after page of famous
sayings, famous book titles, famous song lyrics, etc., that are missing the
last word or two. We get some residents
together and, as a group, they try to come up with the missing words. And they usually succeed. To say that this activity is popular is an
understatement. My Activity Director noticed
that being able to come up with the answers really gives the residents a boost
in confidence and feelings of self-worth.
It’s also a half-hour or so of multiple “aha” moments.
And so, late in the afternoon, I like to play some very
simple classics on the piano for my residents to listen to. They enjoy most of the music, but when I hit
a Strauss waltz, they will hum along, maybe sway a little in ¾ time ... and they
will glow.
© Donna Stuart, ADPC July
30, 2014 theactivityconnection.blogspot.com
Hutson, Matthew. "Orange You Glad I Didn't Say
Banana?" Scientific American Mind May/June 2014: 12.
Topolinski, Sascha. "A processing fluency-account
of funniness: Running gags and spoiling punchlines." Cognition and
Emotion 28 (5) 2014: 811-820. www.researchgate.net, online abstract.
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