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Mini: Repeatedly Incorrect · Why We Do What We Do

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we Do what we Do. Welcome
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to Why We Do what we Do Mini. I'm your
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  Speaker 1: host Abraham and I'm your host Shane. We are a
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  Speaker 1: psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans and
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  Speaker 1: non human animals do. And this is a mini which
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  Speaker 1: this in fifteen minutes or less, so a quick way
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  Speaker 1: overly ambitious, but I think we got it locked in today.
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  Speaker 2: This one feels nice.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And if you're a returning person, then welcome back.
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  Speaker 1: about this at the end of our discussion, but it's
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  Speaker 1: time for us to dive in, because, as I said,
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  Speaker 1: where a mini. Are you ready to go?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, let's do it.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's set the scene. This is a hypothetical scene.
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  Speaker 1: It's not real, but this probably happens to some of
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  Speaker 1: you at some point, or someone you know. So we
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  Speaker 1: have our character here. His name is Sebastian. Sebastian has
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  Speaker 1: a strict deadline to complete his project. This is something
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  Speaker 1: he has to do on his computer, so he gets
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  Speaker 1: his computer, finds a place to work, and then mentally
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  Speaker 1: prepares for the task. As he turns on his computer
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  Speaker 1: or opens it up. However he navigates this, he is
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  Speaker 1: faced with a login screen. He types in his password
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  Speaker 1: corn nutz corn nuts, except the has been replaced with
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  Speaker 1: the zero, the C in the end or capitol, and
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  Speaker 1: of course it ends with a Z. Except when he
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  Speaker 1: types nuts, he accidentally types an oh instead of a
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  Speaker 1: U the first time. He's going really fast, but he's
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  Speaker 1: entered his password a million times, so no problem. Just
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  Speaker 1: made a mistake. He'll try again. He attempts to log
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  Speaker 1: in again just as quickly, corn knots again. Incorrect. He
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  Speaker 1: slows down a little, corn knots again. Crap. He curses
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  Speaker 1: and slows down even more this time as he deliberately
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  Speaker 1: types each letter, he gets to the offending attempt at
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  Speaker 1: the U, thinking I've got this, I've got a good pace,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going just fine, and then watches in horror as
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  Speaker 1: his finger types an O when he meant to tap
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  Speaker 1: a U and again types corn knots again, and then, frustratedly,
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  Speaker 1: he goes to tap the delete key to correct the TYPEO,
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  Speaker 1: but instead taps the enter key because it's part of
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  Speaker 1: his routine. Now he always ends with the enter key
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  Speaker 1: and enters the incorrect password yet again. And so now
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  Speaker 1: he submits his incorrect answer for fourth time, and his
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  Speaker 1: temporarily or his computer temporarily locks down for five minutes.
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  Speaker 1: Poor Sebastian, Poor Sebastian.
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  Speaker 2: So, while this is a completely made up story, entirely
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  Speaker 2: made up, it's one that many of us are familiar with.
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  Speaker 2: We observe ourselves or others in situations which we reliably
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  Speaker 2: make the same mistakes while executing a series of actions
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  Speaker 2: that comprise a unified task. So we make these small
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  Speaker 2: errors along the way, and it's just.
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  Speaker 1: Like ah, exactly, yats, yeah, yeah, why do I keep
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  Speaker 1: doing that? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, boo yeah yeah, you start screaming at yourself. It's frustrating, right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So we're going to talk about this, how it happens,
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  Speaker 1: and what you can do about it. This idea of
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  Speaker 1: the when you you're sort of consistently, almost habitually, performing
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  Speaker 1: these little mistakes here and there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So this scenario of mistakes that are sometimes so
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  Speaker 2: ingrained that they seem impossible to escape can be described
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  Speaker 2: as chained in errors. This is when a series of
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  Speaker 2: actions or steps becomes so routine that they are like
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  Speaker 2: a habit, but they contain an error full step that
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  Speaker 2: we seem to make regularly and unintentionally. Something I noticed
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  Speaker 2: when we write notes is I often will hold the
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  Speaker 2: shift key too long, and I'll write day. When we
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  Speaker 2: write our holidays, I'll capitalize the D and the A
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  Speaker 2: in day.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I have several typing chained in errors that
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  Speaker 1: I make that are things like weird capitals, or if
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  Speaker 1: a word ends with the T for some reason, I'm
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  Speaker 1: likely to hit space and then put the T in
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  Speaker 1: front of the next word. It's like the word that
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  Speaker 1: becomes that, and whatever the next word was has a
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  Speaker 1: tea at the beginning of it. Now, So like, those
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  Speaker 1: are some things that I know I've noticed in myself.
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  Speaker 1: And another way that this can exist is not only
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  Speaker 1: is it that you might make the error, but it
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  Speaker 1: might become part of the routine that you make the
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  Speaker 1: error and then correct it and then keep going. But
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  Speaker 1: it's always part of the routine. It's always error correct
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  Speaker 1: then move on, as opposed to just doing the correct
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  Speaker 1: thing as we're going. So other examples of this this
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  Speaker 1: is when your older relative cycles through like three or
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  Speaker 1: four different names when they're addressing you by like John, Steve, Bryant, Shane,
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  Speaker 1: you know whatever it is. Or when you flip the
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  Speaker 1: wrong light switch on before flipping the correct switch on.
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  Speaker 1: When you even in a room in the house in
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  Speaker 1: which you live and you enter every day you go
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  Speaker 1: in and you're like hit the switch like a wrong one,
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  Speaker 1: you hit the other switch, and you just do that
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  Speaker 1: like nine times out of ten when you enter the
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  Speaker 1: room or something hitting the wrong switch. Those are examples
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  Speaker 1: of this whole thing.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's very useful to establish a routine of behaviors
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  Speaker 2: that become fluent in the ease of implementing the sequence
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  Speaker 2: of actions. Building a behavior chain compresses seemingly complex tasks
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  Speaker 2: into essentially single units, making them easier to remember and
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  Speaker 2: requiring less mental energy and the ability to shift our
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  Speaker 2: focus more easily while completing tasks. So basically, every behavior
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  Speaker 2: that will be engage in, or at least the majority
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  Speaker 2: of them, are usually made up of smaller tasks that
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  Speaker 2: we can engage in, and we just engage in them
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  Speaker 2: rapidly because we're usually fluent in it. Like washing our hands,
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  Speaker 2: typing words out, putting the other a string of words
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  Speaker 2: for a question like those tend to be pretty fluent.
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  Speaker 2: We don't even think of them as like singular behaviors
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  Speaker 2: along the way. We think of them as like one
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  Speaker 2: larger behavior.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's like when when you look at the
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  Speaker 1: task and execution, it's just you just do the thing,
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  Speaker 1: but if you remember, learning it for the first time
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  Speaker 1: is one step after another, where you might even be
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  Speaker 1: like reading a set of instructions or someone's coaching you
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  Speaker 1: what to do or whatever, but it's you do one
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  Speaker 1: thing one at a time and eventually becomes a single unit,
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  Speaker 1: and it's helpful to have those big, long chains that
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  Speaker 1: exist in that sort of singular unit because it's just
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  Speaker 1: so much more efficient unlike ads. All right, we're back.
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  Speaker 1: We've been describing this why it is useful that we
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  Speaker 1: have chains, these behavioral chains, which are routines that we
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  Speaker 1: that we do. But that the issue here is that,
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  Speaker 1: like small mutations in DNA that can happen over time,
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  Speaker 1: there might be some drift or accidental disturbances in the
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  Speaker 1: execution of the actions inside of that behavior chain or
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  Speaker 1: that routine, and that they start to become a part
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  Speaker 1: of the routine itself, like they're just now built into
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  Speaker 1: the whole series of steps. Sometimes the mistake was there
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  Speaker 1: all along, but sometimes it becomes worse over time if
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  Speaker 1: not identified as a mistake in the first place. And
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  Speaker 1: sometimes it was correct to begin with, but at some
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  Speaker 1: point it just started to drift a little bit and
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  Speaker 1: then it sort of spiraled into an error that became
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  Speaker 1: persistent in the whole sequence of things. But those are
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  Speaker 1: the ways that it can sort of happen. Is just
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  Speaker 1: drift as natural, although sometimes in some cases it was
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  Speaker 1: there all along.
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  Speaker 2: Right, And so the solution is to interrupt the chain,
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  Speaker 2: and rebuild the chain without the mistake. There is a
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  Speaker 2: specific procedure developed for this purpose, the Behavior Chain Interruption
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  Speaker 2: Strategy or BCIs, and this has been proposed to consist
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  Speaker 2: of five steps. The first step is data collection. You're
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  Speaker 2: going to track when it happens in any setting, variables
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  Speaker 2: worth considering, what were you thinking about the timing it happened,
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  Speaker 2: what happened and immediately before and immediately after the error occurred.
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  Speaker 2: So you start with data collection to kind of figure
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  Speaker 2: out the context.
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  Speaker 1: So once you've got your data collection, you know how
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  Speaker 1: often it's happening and the variables that seem relevant. You
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  Speaker 1: want to identify interruption points. And those are going to
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  Speaker 1: be things that happen immediately after the trigger, during the action,
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  Speaker 1: early in the emotional response, and then immediately before the trigger.
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  Speaker 1: So those are some important points around which you want
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  Speaker 1: to know what's happening there because that'll be a place
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  Speaker 1: of what you can specifically interrupt.
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  Speaker 2: Right. And then you're going to have interruption strategies, which
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  Speaker 2: means you're going to avoid the trigger, change the trigger,
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  Speaker 2: change the consequence about the behavior, modify the environment to
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  Speaker 2: prevent the mistake. Practice mindfulness execute a talk through script
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  Speaker 2: or engage in breeding strategies. But there's lots of different
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  Speaker 2: interruption strategies that you can implement at this stage, and
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't have.
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  Speaker 1: To be all of them, and it might just be
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  Speaker 1: just a single one of those things.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: The next step is to develop a plan. You want
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  Speaker 1: some kind of actionable plan for each interruption strategy you
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  Speaker 1: attempt to use, and you want to be specific. You
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  Speaker 1: want to choose measurable actions, things you can actually observe
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  Speaker 1: and sort of account and notice that they're there, set
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  Speaker 1: realistic goals, and then select relevant behaviors around those things.
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  Speaker 1: So that's part of the sequence there is just make
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  Speaker 1: sure you've identified and set out a plan for whatever
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  Speaker 1: your strategy is going to look like, using things that
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  Speaker 1: are measurable and realistic.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, and then you're going to monitor, so you're gonna
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  Speaker 2: tract progress or lack of progress and make adjustments to
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  Speaker 2: ensure success. So you just want to kind of see
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  Speaker 2: like is it working or is it not working? And
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  Speaker 2: if it's not working, you change something.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly right, So the most successful attempts to eliminate the
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  Speaker 1: error in the chain seem to be according to at
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  Speaker 1: least some sources to change what happens immediately after the
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  Speaker 1: mistake occurs. So as soon as there's a mistake, there
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  Speaker 1: is some kind of reaction that is a consequence for
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  Speaker 1: that mistake. The report has been that that's the most
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  Speaker 1: likely scenario to change that and avoid that mistake from
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  Speaker 1: happening in the past. However, I'll also say it is
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  Speaker 1: pretty easy and pretty efficient to slow down the chain
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  Speaker 1: and practice each step deliberately, and if you need to
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  Speaker 1: individually in the correct order and through the step that
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  Speaker 1: typically includes the mistake, you want the whole momentum leading
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  Speaker 1: up to where the mistake is happening, perform that step
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  Speaker 1: without the mistake, and the steps following, ensuring that the
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  Speaker 1: mistake does not occur again during that step as you're practicing.
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  Speaker 1: So you then just do each step of that chain,
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  Speaker 1: whatever it is, up to the point where the mistake happens.
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  Speaker 1: Perform that step correctly and keep going, and then just
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  Speaker 1: do this repeatedly and allow an opportunity to increase in
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  Speaker 1: speed as you are successful in doing it. It actually
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  Speaker 1: sounds more complicated than it is, like if you're consistently
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  Speaker 1: typing in the wrong password. If you practice this like
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  Speaker 1: five ish times, you'll probably have it about correct right,
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  Speaker 1: doing it the right way. I mean that should more
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  Speaker 1: or less persist, and you know, if it does come
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  Speaker 1: back or it is very persistent, then just keep practicing.
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  Speaker 1: But that's pretty much all that's involved, and that is
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  Speaker 1: a very efficient way to do it as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, once you notice the error, it's pretty
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  Speaker 2: easy to catch it and correct it if you intentionally
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  Speaker 2: catch it and correct it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Like we're in a current cycle in the United States.
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  Speaker 1: Culturally speaking, it's not a single behavior. But like we
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  Speaker 1: elected Donald Trump, huge mistake. We learned that the first
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  Speaker 1: time we elected a different president better on the right track.
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  Speaker 1: Then we made another huge mistake. So we're clearly by
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  Speaker 1: electing Donald Trump again. So we're clearly in the we're
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  Speaker 1: in a routine of making these mistakes. We just need
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  Speaker 1: to interrupt that habit and never ever make that mistake again.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, it's just you know, the purpose of this wasn't
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  Speaker 1: to get political, but the opportunity presented itself and you
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  Speaker 1: got to strike while the iron is hot.
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  Speaker 2: It's all political, baby.
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  Speaker 1: Fair enough, there's also that all right, Well, I think
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  Speaker 1: that is what we have to say about chain and errors.
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  Speaker 1: Is there anything you would like to add or anything
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  Speaker 1: that I missed before we do our closing stuff.
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  Speaker 2: No, I think we're ready to wrap it up perfect.
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  Speaker 1: That is chained in errors and what you can do
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  Speaker 1: about them, or routine or habitual errors. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: wherever you want to call it. That's the thing. This
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  Speaker 1: is a little bit of a how to, I guess
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  Speaker 1: in many forms. So if you'd like to tell us
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  Speaker 1: your thoughts or experiences with chained in errors or breaking
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  Speaker 1: up or interrupting those chains, you can email us directly
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: at info awwdwwdpodcast dot com or reach us on the
• 12:24
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• 12:28
  Speaker 1: look forward to hearing from you there. Thank you so
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: much to my team of people for making this podcast
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: with me writing in fact checking from Shane and myself.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you for recording with me today.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Shane anytime.
• 12:37
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  Speaker 1: But anyway, we look forward to hearing from people and everything,
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  Speaker 1: episodes when they come out. But I think that is
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: what we have to say about that. So this is
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Abraham and this is Shane. Why we do what we
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: do Mini is out.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Bye.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: You've been listening to Why We Do what We Do.
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  Speaker 2: going to wwdwwdpodcast dot com. Thanks for listening and we
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