Music, Prediction, and Identity

I've been reading Daniel Levitin's "This is Your Brain on Music." His discussion of how interesting surprises (i.e., breaks in predicted/emerging patterns) in music are part of making it aesthetically pleasing reminded me of the centrality of predictive activities in cognition.

I know a real cognitive scientist, and I'm definitely not one of them. However, the one really interesting fact I took away from Jeff Hawkin's "On Intelligence" was that it appears that there's as much as 10 times as much information flowing from higher levels of the neo-cortex down as there is flowing up....implying that there's lots of predictive modeling going on.

This was all triggered by something Dave Snowden has discussed occasionally, most recently in a posting on the use of ritual. When a decision maker enters a familiar context, he engages in rituals that trigger the identity associated with that context. And, as that identity is activated, the frames/fragments that are associated with that identity are activated. As the decision maker acts within the context, there's an ongoing cycle of action > identity activation/reinforcement > frame/fragment activation > action > identity > frame/fragment > etc. where action, identity, and frames/fragments are reinforcing each other.

This is one reason why it's hard to remember who someone is if (a) you see them rarely, and (b) only in a specific context (e.g., a dentist). As you enter the dentist's office, a specific identity (patient) begins to emerge (along with associated roles/responsibility expectations) and associated frames/fragments are activitated (specific past experiences, patterns of interactions, processes, etc.). These trigger new actions, and the cycle continues as you "boot" yourself into "dental patient" mode.

Application: when you're trying to ensure sensible interactions, don't just think about process. Think also about identity and ritual.....and design in a way that leverages them.

I've had Gary Klein's "Sources of Power" (discusses Recognition-Primed Decision Making) on my reading list for quite a while, but have not managed to start it. Based on what I've read of his papers, I suspect he has lots of interesting insights on this topic.

There are lots of interesting issues in this area, especially as hyperconnectivity increases our ability to establish and juggle multiple identities. Technology is ceasing to be a gating factor in this area....it's our brains that are maxing out.....and they're not on a Moore's Law curve.