How to break away from habit and follow through on your goals | Sabine Doebel | TEDxMileHigh

Research shows that executive function has a profound impact on your life – it correlates with academic achievement, mental and physical health, making and saving money. People use brain-training apps and computer games to help executive function, but psychologist Sabine Doebel explains why that doesn’t work and instead, what you can do to accomplish your goals. Sabine Doebel is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. She has a Ph.D. from the Institute of Child Development in Minnesota. Her research focuses on the development of executive function.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

So, I have a confession to make.

I only recently learned how to drive.

And it was really hard.

Now, this wasn't an older brain thing.

Do you remember what it was like
when you first learned how to drive,

when every decision you made
was so conscious and deliberate?

I'd come home from my lessons
completely wiped out mentally.

Now, as a cognitive scientist,

I know that this is
because I was using a lot

of something called "executive function."

Executive function is our amazing ability

to consciously control
our thoughts, emotions and actions

in order to achieve goals,

like learning how to drive.

It’s what we use

when we need to break away from habit,
inhibit our impulses and plan ahead.

But we can see it most clearly
when things go wrong.

Like, have you ever accidentally
poured orange juice on your cereal?

(Laughter)

Or ever start scrolling on Facebook

and suddenly realise
you’ve missed a meeting?

Or maybe this one is more familiar:

Ever planned to stop at the store
on the way home from work

and then drive all the way
home instead, on autopilot?

(Laughter)

These things happen to everyone.

And we usually call it "absentmindedness."

But what's really happening

is we're experiencing
a lapse in executive function.

So we use executive function every day
in all aspects of our lives.

And over the past 30 years,

researchers have found that it predicts
all kinds of good things,

in childhood and beyond,

like social skills, academic achievement,
mental and physical health,

making money, saving money
and even staying out of jail.

Sounds great, doesn't it?

So it's no surprise
that researchers like me

are so interested in understanding it
and figuring out ways to improve it.

But lately, executive function has become
a huge self-improvement buzz word.

People think you can improve it

through brain-training iPhone apps
and computer games

or by practicing it in a specific way,
like playing chess.

And researchers are trying
to train it in the lab

in hopes of improving it

and other things related to it,
like intelligence.

Well, I'm here to tell you

that this way of thinking
about executive function is all wrong.

Brain training won't improve
executive function in a broad sense

because it involves
exercising it in a narrow way,

outside of the real-world context
in which we actually use it.

So you can master that
executive-function app on your phone,

but that's not going to help you
stop pouring OJ on your Cheerios

twice a week.

(Laughter)

If you really want to improve
your executive function

in a way that matters for your life,

you have to understand
how it's influenced by context.

Let me show you what I mean.

There is a great task
that we use in the lab

to measure executive function
in young children,

called the dimensional change card sort.

In this task, kids have to sort cards
in one way, like by shape,

over and over,

until they build up a habit.

And then they're asked to switch
and sort the same cards in another way,

like by color.

Now, really young kids struggle with this.

Three- and four-year-olds will usually
keep sorting the cards in the old way

no matter how many times you remind them
of what they should be doing.

(Video) Instructor: If it's blue,
put it here. If it's red, put it here.

Here's a blue one.

Okay, so now we're going to play
a different game.

We're not going to play
the color game anymore.

Now we're going to play the shape game.

In the shape game,

all the stars go here,
and all the trucks go here.

Okay?

Stars go here. Trucks go here.

Where do the stars go?

And where do the trucks go?

Excellent. Okay.

Stars go here. Trucks go here.

Here's a truck.

Stars go here. Trucks go here.

Here's a star.

(Laughter)

So it's really compelling,

and it's really obvious when she fails
to use her executive function.

But here's the thing:

we could train her on this task
and others like it,

and eventually she'd improve.

But does that mean she'd have improved
her executive function outside of the lab?

No, because in the real world,
she'll need to use executive function

to do a lot more than switching
between shape and color.

She'll need to switch
from adding to multiplying,

or from playing to tidying up,

or from thinking about her own feelings
to thinking about her friend.

And success in real-world situations

depends on things
like how motivated you are

and what your peers are doing.

And it also depends
on the strategies that you execute

when you're using executive function
in a particular situation.

So what I'm saying
is that context really matters.

Now let me give you an example
from my research.

I recently brought in a bunch of kids
to do the classic marshmallow test,

which is a measure
of delay of gratification

that also likely requires
a lot of executive function.

So you may have heard about this test,

but basically, kids are given a choice:

they can have one marshmallow right away,

or if they can wait for me

to go to the other room
and get more marshmallows,

they can have two instead.

Now, most kids really want
that second marshmallow.

But the key question is,

How long can they wait?

(Laughter)

Now, I added a twist
to look at the effects of context.

I told each kid that they
were in a group, like the green group,

and I even gave them
a green t-shirt to wear.

And I said,

"Your group waited for two marshmallows.

and this other group,
the orange group, did not."

Or I said the opposite:

"Your group didn't wait
for two marshmallows,

and this other group did."

And then I left the kid alone in the room,

and I watched on a webcam
to see how long they waited.

(Laughter)

So what I found was

that kids who believed that their group
waited for two marshmallows

were themselves more likely to wait.

So they were influenced by a peer group
that they'd never even met.

Pretty cool, isn't it?

Well, so with this result,

I still didn't know if they
were just copying their group

or if it was something deeper than that.

So I brought in some more kids.

And after the marshmallow test,

I showed them pictures of pairs of kids,

and I told them one of these kids
likes to have things right away,

like cookies and stickers,

and the other kid likes to wait

so that they can have
more of these things.

And then I asked them,

"Which one of these two kids
do you like more?

Who would you want to play with?"

And what I found was that kids
who believed that their group waited

tended to prefer other kids
who liked to wait for things.

So learning what their group did
made them value waiting more.

And not only that,

these kids likely use executive function

to generate strategies
to help themselves wait,

like sitting on their hands
or turning away from the marshmallow

or singing a song to distract themselves.

(Laughter)

So what this all shows
is just how much context matters.

It's not that these kids
had good executive function or bad;

it's that the context
helped them use it better.

So what does this mean
for you and for your kids?

Well, let's say that you want
to learn Spanish.

You could try changing your context

and surrounding yourself
with other people who also want to learn.

And even better, if these are people
that you really like,

that way you will be more motivated
to use executive function.

Or let's say that you want to help
your child do better on her math homework.

You could teach her strategies

to use executive function
in that particular context,

like putting her phone away
before she starts studying

or planning to reward herself
after studying for an hour.

Now, I don't want to make it sound
like context is everything.

Executive function is really complex,
and it's shaped by numerous factors.

But what I want you to remember

is if you want to improve
your executive function

in some aspect of your life,

don't look for quick fixes.

Think about the context in how you can
make your goals matter more to you,

and how you can use strategies to help
yourself in that particular situation.

I think the ancient Greeks
said it best when they said,

"Know thyself."

And a key part of this is knowing
how context shapes your behaviour

and how you can use that knowledge
to change for the better.

Thank you.

(Applause)