[Coursera][Learning how to learn]1-1 Introduction to the focused and diffuse modes

2 fundunmental thinking mode:

1. Foucsed mode: something you already knew
2. Diffuse mode: when you need to develop some thought pattern you didn't have before. Connection goes widely, and gets bigger picture.

learing_to_learn_1-1_2_modes.png

You cannot be in 2 modes at the same time.

Check the statements that fit best to the diffuse (as opposed to the focused) mode of thinking:

As the video specifically mentioned, the diffuse mode is a type of thinking that the aardvark (a medium-sized, burrowing,nocturnal mammal) is best at.

Well done! You were just messing with us when you clicked this box--we can tell. :)
Actually, aardvark thought is probably pretty different from human focused or diffuse modes.

The type of thinking you need to do when you are trying to understand something new.

Sorry, that's incorrect. The neural resting states that underlie the diffuse mode seem to allow you to be able to cast your thinking much more broadly so you can more easily begin to understand something new.

The type of intense concentration you need to work through a problem, step-by-step.

Well done! This type of thinking is affiliated with the focused mode.

A pinball machine that has bumpers which are very tightly grouped together, so the pinball (the thought) can't go very far without bumping into a bumper.

Well done! This analogy is affiliated with the focused, not the diffuse, mode.

Using a different analogy than the video, the diffuse mode could be thought of as a flashlight set so that it casts its light very broadly, but not very strongly in any one area. (As opposed to the focused mode, which would have its light cast very strongly in a single area, but very weakly everywhere else.)

Well done! The diffuse mode can indeed be thought of as a flashlight set to cast its light very broadly. Notice too that you can use very different kinds of analogies to describe the processes you are trying to understand.