On his book On Task: How Our Brain Gets Things Done
Cover Interview of December 16, 2020
A close-up
Curious readers who start with the first chapter are introduced
to a puzzle that seems trivial yet is such a mystery that science still doesn’t
have a full answer to it. Namely, why is it that we can have a goal in mind,
can know what needs to be done, can urgently want that it be done, and yet,
fail to do it? In other words, what connects our knowledge and goals with our
actions? The brain requires a way of linking even our simplest fantasies about
what we want to do with the reality of doing it. This is the basic function served
by cognitive control, and its implications might surprise you.
Consider, for example, the case of patient EVR, who was
reported in the literature by Paul Eslinger and Antonio Damasio. A brain tumor
had necessitated the removal of a large portion of EVR’s frontal lobe, a part
of the brain that is essential for cognitive control function. After his surgery,
EVR’s clinical assessment came out quite positive. He aced the cognitive tests
he was given, and based only on these, it appeared his cognitive function had
not been impacted by his brain damage at all.
But EVR’s life outside the clinic had taken a very different
turn. Prior to EVR’s disease and surgery, he had been a successful accountant, who
was well respected and active in his community. Within a few short years, however,
he lost his job, his marriage, a second marriage, and his overall enterprise in
life. He was unable to get much of anything done. He could articulate the goals
for his actions, the things he wanted to do, but was unable to carry them out
in an organized or meaningful way.
In EVR’s case, we see the paradox of cognitive control. It’s
not enough that we can know what we want to do or even that we can carry out
simple tasks, like those tested in the clinic. We need a way to link our
knowledge to our action. In our complex and busy worlds, our brain needs a
system to organize our behavior in time and with open-ended goals. And it needs
a way to stay on track. The chapter draws on this and other striking
observations of patients who have lost cognitive control function along with
other examples that have long made scientists curious. I hope it will intrigue
readers, as well.
Other readers might just jump to chapters on the topics that
interest them from the outset. For example, the chapter on multitasking might be
of interest to anyone living in our hectic digital world. That chapter explains
why we are so bad at multitasking (and why we sometimes aren’t). Armed with
this knowledge, it considers what this might mean for our everyday lives.
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
A close-up
Curious readers who start with the first chapter are introduced to a puzzle that seems trivial yet is such a mystery that science still doesn’t have a full answer to it. Namely, why is it that we can have a goal in mind, can know what needs to be done, can urgently want that it be done, and yet, fail to do it? In other words, what connects our knowledge and goals with our actions? The brain requires a way of linking even our simplest fantasies about what we want to do with the reality of doing it. This is the basic function served by cognitive control, and its implications might surprise you.
Consider, for example, the case of patient EVR, who was reported in the literature by Paul Eslinger and Antonio Damasio. A brain tumor had necessitated the removal of a large portion of EVR’s frontal lobe, a part of the brain that is essential for cognitive control function. After his surgery, EVR’s clinical assessment came out quite positive. He aced the cognitive tests he was given, and based only on these, it appeared his cognitive function had not been impacted by his brain damage at all.
But EVR’s life outside the clinic had taken a very different turn. Prior to EVR’s disease and surgery, he had been a successful accountant, who was well respected and active in his community. Within a few short years, however, he lost his job, his marriage, a second marriage, and his overall enterprise in life. He was unable to get much of anything done. He could articulate the goals for his actions, the things he wanted to do, but was unable to carry them out in an organized or meaningful way.
In EVR’s case, we see the paradox of cognitive control. It’s not enough that we can know what we want to do or even that we can carry out simple tasks, like those tested in the clinic. We need a way to link our knowledge to our action. In our complex and busy worlds, our brain needs a system to organize our behavior in time and with open-ended goals. And it needs a way to stay on track. The chapter draws on this and other striking observations of patients who have lost cognitive control function along with other examples that have long made scientists curious. I hope it will intrigue readers, as well.
Other readers might just jump to chapters on the topics that interest them from the outset. For example, the chapter on multitasking might be of interest to anyone living in our hectic digital world. That chapter explains why we are so bad at multitasking (and why we sometimes aren’t). Armed with this knowledge, it considers what this might mean for our everyday lives.