Deep breathing is good for you all the time (and can also help you get to sleep at night) Consciously engaging your diaphragm and slowing your breathing can also resettle and revive you when you're feeling listless after lunch.  Purposeful breathing can trigger your parasympathetic system, or the part of your autonomic nervous system that opposes the fight-flight-freeze response. As a result, it may help you feel rested and relaxed.

Take Two Deep Breaths

There are specific reasons you might want to enjoy a chapter of that new page-turner before getting back to your desk after lunch.  Disconnecting, focusing on something else, and then re-engaging can pry you out of that state of being stuck or demoralised in dealing with what you're dealing with,

Read a chapter of fiction

A lot of folks snack to get through the afternoon slump. How well that works depends not just on what you eat. Taking the time to prepare yourself a visually appealing, healthy plate can help refocus your mind and body for the rest of the day.

Up your snack game

Your space has an outsize impact on your mood which you can use that to your advantage. Tidying or organizing the physical space around you might feel like a little thing, but it's a way to physically and proactively attend to yourself and care for your space.

Take an organisation break

Rituals might seem like hocus-pocus, but modern psychology shows they can radically impact our state of mind nonetheless. Use that knowledge to beat stress, set yourself up for a more productive workday, or mentally wind down at night. The content of your ritual is up to you. But whether you decide on a quick meditation break, moment of gratitude, or something else, the key is to be intentional about creating a script that mentally moves you into the right frame of mind.

Create an afternoon transition ritual

Can't nap, slam some coffee, or hit the gym? Try these less well-known alternatives.

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

5 Ways (That Aren't Coffee or a Nap) to Boost Your Afternoon Energy

<ol><li>Put on headphones and turn on the binaural EMDR music (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/artist/7L6OpwIhZukbabyh66knpa">here's a playlist </a>). "It immediately starts to soothe your system, because it's just so relaxing," Bernstein says.</li><li>Then for 20 minutes, just write. Spill all of your emotions onto the page, whatever you're feeling in that moment. </li><li>After those 20 minutes are up, put down your pen and meditate for 20 minutes after that. Lie on your back, and press your right hand on your heart and your left hand on your belly. </li></ol>

Rage on the Page

<ol><li>"If you're feeling anxious, stressed out, or afraid, tap between your ring finger and your middle finger," she says. "Tap right there on that meaty part of your skin." </li><li>While you're tapping, say to yourself: I am safe. I am safe. I am safe. "That's extremely settling to the system, to repeat that affirmation while tapping that point," she says. She even calls it the "holy shit" point for whenever you're feeling uneasy.  </li><li>Remember to breathe deeply and completely, and keep reminding yourself: I am safe. I am safe.  </li> </ol>

EFT Technique

<ol><li>Spend five minutes a day checking in with the fearful thoughts that are running the show. Notice them. Acknowledge when those fears crop up and call them out. </li><li>Take a moment to reflect on what you know about those fears: When do they tend to make their appearance, what's their origin, how do they physically feel in your body? </li><li>Ask them what they need. How can you react in a way that honors your true self? "We spend so much time pushing past these thoughts and fears and trudging forward. But what if we just spent five minutes a day getting to know them and listening?" Bernstein poses. </li></ol>

Get to Know Your Fears

Here, spiritual teacher Gabby Bernstein compiles the three simple therapeutic techniques that helped her work through her own past trauma.

mindfulness

Mindfulness

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

mentalhealth

Mental Health

meditation

Meditation

3 Exercises To Heal Unresolved Trauma, From Gabby Bernstein

When looking to start a healthy diet, it can be a bit overwhelming. There are so many diet foods to choose from, and the media gives us mixed messages about which foods are healthy constantly. Luckily, a registered dietitian is here to quickly break down the best diet foods for dieters looking to lead a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, I’ll also provide some ideas on how to simply and easily incorporate these foods into your diet.

Healthy Diet 

Nuts have plenty of healthy fats called polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats and fiber. These nutrients help to provide satiety after a meal and keep dieters full longer.In addition to keeping you full, nuts have also been shown to help improve your health. One study found that nuts helped improve blood glucose control, weight control, and heart health.It’s important that when you are eating nuts, you do so in moderation. The American Heart Association recommends that you consume about four servings of unsalted nuts per week.

Nuts 

When you’re looking to increase your protein consumption, you want to focus on lean sources of protein. This includes things such as chicken breast and lean beef. Lean protein sources exclude items such as beef or pork, which have more saturated fat.In addition to helping you build muscle, protein is actually harder for our body to digest, meaning that we burn more calories in trying to do so. This is referred to as the “thermic effect of food.” Since our body has to work harder to digest lean protein, we end up storing fewer usable calories than if we eat carbohydrates or fat.

Lean Protein

Fish, like chicken breast or lean beef, is a high-protein food that is overall low in fat. While certain fishes, such as salmon, are fattier, these contain healthful fats similar to those found in nuts. The fat in fish also provides other nutrients to the body, such as Omega-3 fatty acids. These fatty acids may help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, glaucoma, and various mental health disorders, such as depression and dementia.Fish can also be a great protein source for individuals who follow a plant-forward, Mediterranean, or pescatarian diet.

Fish

Whole grain products are less refined than their counterparts, meaning that they have more nutrients in them. Whole grains provide the body with fiber, which helps keep you feeling full longer and promotes satiety. Fiber can also help lower cholesterol and prevent blood clot formation.These foods also help the body to maintain a steady blood glucose level, which is important for all dieters but especially crucial for those with pre-diabetes or diabetes. These foods also supply the body with various vitamins and minerals, such as iron, Vitamin B, magnesium, zinc, copper, and antioxidants.

Whole Grains

Legumes are a category of vegetable and include items such as green peas, beans, chickpeas, and lentils.According to the American Diabetes Association, regular intake of legumes can lower your risk of type 2 diabetes and improve blood glucose control for those who have already developed this disease. They have also been shown to improve heart health, and research shows that they may improve weight control, which is key for dieters.Some legumes, such as chickpeas and beans, can also serve as a great source of lean protein who are looking to follow a more plant-based, vegetarian, or vegan diet.

Legumes

As we have noted, fiber is an extremely important nutrient for dieters. It can help improve blood glucose stability and improve heart health, all while keeping you full and satisfied after meals. Berries, like nuts and whole grains, are high in fiber. In addition, berries provide our bodies with antioxidants, which are substances that can help prevent cell damage.It is best to consume antioxidants in whole foods rather than supplements, so go ahead and add some berries into your day!If you are still not convinced, check out these other benefits that fresh or frozen berries can provide.

Berries

Kale and spinach are high in Vitamins A, E, C, and K. Other dark leafy greens such as broccoli and mustard greens are high in many of the B-vitamins.Dark leafy greens also provide a high level of antioxidants, which, help prevent cell damage. Antioxidants have been known to help prevent osteoporosis and inflammatory diseases. These greens are also low in calories and carbohydrates, which is helpful for those looking to slim down.

Dark Leafy Greens

Greek yogurt has twice as much protein as regular yogurt, which we’ve already seen is very helpful for those individuals who are dieting. Additionally, greek yogurt has fewer carbohydrates than its regular counterpart.Greek yogurt also provides your body with probiotics, which can help to improve gut health and reduce bloating.When looking for greek yogurt, be sure to choose one that is lower in sugar to prevent the intake of unnecessary calories. Go for an unsweetened yogurt if possible, and add your own toppings such as berries or nuts to give it more flavor.

Greek Yogurt

There are so many healthful foods that many of us are already eating in our daily lives. If you are not eating some of these foods, it is so easy to start!If you’re looking for something a bit simpler, don’t be afraid to grab a handful of nuts as a snack or make some oatmeal for breakfast in the morning. These foods will help keep you full and provide your body with many of the nutrients it needs to help your diet on track.

Conclusion 

If you are looking to start a diet while maintaining a healthy lifestyle, it’s not difficult. 

Which diet foods are the best for you? In this article, a registered dietitian will break down the 8 best diet foods for a healthier body.

food

Food

exerciseandfitness

Exercise & Fitness

8 Best Foods for Dieters to Eat Healthily - Lifehack

An inner voice that provides a running monologue internal chatter combining conscious thoughts and unconscious beliefs and biases, provides a way for the brain to interpret and process daily experiences.This critical inner voice can raise awareness of internal and external obstacles to achievement. It can also take a toll on one’s confidence, fostering shame and limiting personal growth.

Self-Talk

Destructive self-talk causes you to question yourself so constantly that you can soon become paralyzed with doubt and uncertainty.In constructive self-talk, you cheer yourself on, focus on the positive aspects of a situation, and allow yourself to feel good about what you’ve done. They insightful, thoughtfully constructed, self-reflective, and motivational in nature.Dysfunctional self-talk is focused on the negative aspects of challenging situations rather than on their positive aspects, and had a pessimistic attitude toward change of any kind. Also termed as catastrophic self talk.

Types Of Self Talk

<ol><li>All-or-nothing or black-and-white thinking</li><li>Overgeneralization—applying the results of one situation to all similar situations</li><li>Mental filter—dwelling on one negative detail in an otherwise good experience</li><li>Jumping to conclusions or catatrophizing—concluding the worst not necessarily substantiated by facts</li><li>Emotional reasoning—using our emotional state as evidence of objective truth</li><li>Magnification—exaggerating the significance of a negative event</li><li>Personalization—assuming responsibility for a negative event not under your control</li><li>Blame—blaming others as a way to feel more in control of a negative situation</li></ol>

Most Common Thought Distortions

<ol><li>Notice automatic thoughts. Notice the words and ideas being expressed.</li><li>Identify distortions. See if you recognize any thought distortions or irrational beliefs like should, must, have to, ought, always, and never.</li><li>Challenge your thoughts. This step is often the most difficult and may even require some courage to push through. Ask yourself: What is the evidence? Is there another way to view this situation? Is it in my best interest to hold this belief?</li><li>Rewrite your thoughts. Replace the thought distortions and irrational beliefs with more accurate, constructive statements.</li></ol>

Rewriting your internal script

<ol><li class="ql-align-justify">Personify your inner critic. Give it a silly identity that’s outside of you so you can gain distance from it. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Play with your thoughts like sing the self-critical thoughts or use humor and lightness by imagining a funny font.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Remind yourself with a rubber band snap and silently say “STOP.” to come back to the present moment.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">End with an “and.” to focus on what other facts might also be true.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Draft power statements.A power statement is a reminder that helps bring you back to your center.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Keep a brag file of accomplishments on a daily or weekly basis.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Create a playlist</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Give someone else a compliment</li></ol>

8 Tips to Gain Control Over Negative Self-Talk

Ideas to recognise and reframe your internal critic and negative self talk

Recognizing our natural negative biases can help flip our internal script.

communication

Communication

Rewriting your Self Talk

<ul><li>Evidence in both psychology and behavioral economics demonstrates that we are not the Mr. Spock-like thinkers and actors that we think we are. </li><li>We are unaware of our unconscious mind, yet it exerts considerable influence over how we think, feel, and behave. </li><li>Primitive instincts, emotional baggage, and ingrained habits are three unconscious forces that can guide our lives. </li><li>Our executive functioning gives us the opportunity to not succumb to the blunt force of our unconscious mind or be driven by our past. </li> </ul>

Not As Smart As You Think

We like to think of ourselves as highly evolved and rational beings who think, feel, and act in ways that are intentional and reasonable. We hold this perception because it enables us to believe that we are “captains” of our lives and help us believe that we are in control of the choices we make and the direction our lives go. In reality, considerable evidence in both <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-cognitive-bias-2794963#:~:text=A%20cognitive%20bias%20is%20a,and%20judgments%20that%20they%20make.&text=Cognitive%20biases%20are%20often%20a,attempt%20to%20simplify%20information%20processing.">psychology </a>and <a href="https://www.thechicagoschool.edu/insight/business/everyday-examples-of-behavioral-economics/">behavioral economics </a>demonstrates that we are far from the Mr. Spock-like thinkers and actors that we hold ourselves up to be.The reason why we don’t always think or behave in ways that are logical.

Who Has Control Of This Ship? 

Our Unconscious Mind The unconscious part of our minds is outside of our conscious awareness and is not easily accessible, meaning we can’t just conjure its content up like we can a seemingly forgotten telephone number (that resides in our <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/unconscious">subconscious </a>). This lack of ready availability makes our unconscious minds both mystifying (“<a href="http://chan%2C%20david%2C%20%22why%20people%20self-sabotage%2C%20and%20how%20to%20stop%20it%22%20%282019%29.%20research%20collection%20school%20of%20social%20sciences.%20paper%203079.%20https//ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3079">Why do I keep doing things that hurt me </a>?”) and seemingly beyond our control, often leading to a sense of frustration and helplessness.The unconscious mind consists of three forces that often lead us down unhealthy roads.

First, despite our being supposedly so evolved compared to the rest of the animal kingdom with our cerebral cortex and, more importantly, our pre-frontal cortex, we frequently still <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4451179/">respond to the world as animals </a>driven by our primitive instincts, emotions, and reactions (e.g., survival instinct, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/fear">fear </a>, and fight or flight, respectively). Not surprising given that these unconscious forces have been driving all living beings since we climbed out of the primordial muck around 3.5 billion years ago. In contrast, our cerebral cortex has only been around for about 250,000 years. L

Second, carrying around emotional baggage from our <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/child-development">childhood </a>is, for most of us, a part of the human condition. Early in our lives, we develop certain ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving that help protect us from some perceived threat and survive in hostile environs of varying degrees. For example, to feel safe around an angry parent, we learned to be passive and accommodating. To be rewarded by a demanding parent, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313684716_Child_Perfectionism_and_its_Relationship_with_Personality_Excessive_Parental_Demands_Depressive_Symptoms_and_Experience_of_Positive_Emotions">we became a perfectionist </a>. These protective mechanisms were highly functional when we were young. Unfortunately, in adulthood, what had been functional can become dysfunctional

Lastly, the more that primitive forces and emotional baggage direct our lives, the more those characteristic ways of acting on and reacting to our world become habitual and the first response we make, even when it may not be appropriate or healthy. For example, when we perceive someone judging us, we react with defensiveness and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/anger">anger </a>because that’s the way we’ve always reacted, even though such a reaction usually does more harm than good.

The PFC allows us to engage in what is commonly referred to as “<a href="https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/executive-function/">executive functioning </a>,” which involves the ability to guide our behavior in more intentional ways by weighing pros and cons, calculating risk and rewards, deciding what is best for us in the present, and, at an important level, empowering our conscious mind to override our unconscious mind.

At the same time, I don’t want to completely discredit any value that our unconscious minds may have; Mr. Spock made poor decisions despite his strong sense of what is logical. The unconscious mind isn’t driven solely by unhealthy forces. On the contrary, whether you want to call it your gut, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/intuition">intuition </a>, spirit, or what have you, we all have the capacity to allow our non-linear and emotional sense to guide us in making healthy choices and steering the direction we take in our lives. This intuitive part of us can draw on information that may not be readily available to our conscious mind,

Am I in control? Or just under the illusion of being in control?

Which force of the mind guides your life?

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Our Unconscious and Conscious Minds Do Battle Daily

Presenteeism Happens When We Show Up To Work On Auto Pilot 

In everyday life, it’s easy to get sucked into the prevailing culture. We know what’s expected of us and what’s acceptable in our working life. Even when we are remote working, many of us still feel we can’t take time off for lunch, that we can’t go for a walk around the block when we need a break. <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90522017/there-but-not-there-is-your-team-suffering-from-pressenteeism">Presenteeism </a>rules. Even when there’s no one around to notice.

Fear Of Being Unprod

These office rules, real or self-imposed, are holding us back. They’re stopping us from doing our best work. When we don’t go and free-think by a lake—real or metaphorical—we are limiting our own achievements, and limiting our own success.

Ideas Come When We Are Mentally Free In Our Own Ways

Do the opposite. Sometimes, doing the opposite of what makes sense makes even more sense. When Nick got a new job in the east of London, his commute was going to take him on the packed tube. He knew that journey wasn’t going to provide the right frame of mind to set him up for the day. Instead, he worked out he could take the riverboat to work. On the face of it, it was a more inefficient journey, but taking the slow route ensured he always arrived more energized than if he’d taken the tube.

Pivo

Experiment with a “FriPlay” afternoon. Working from home can mean extended days, with often little segue from our desks to the family dinner table. Tasks creep into the weekend. Give yourself a break with a FriPlay afternoon. Every Friday (where I can), I’m clearing the decks around 3 p.m. to do something restorative: go for a walk with a podcast, jump on my bike, read a book. I’m giving myself a recharge, and providing vital mental space to cultivate new insights.

Build Time In Your Sch

Subtract, not add. A paper in the academic journal Nature outlined a human tendency that often, when we’re asked to improve something, we add something. But many times, subtracting can be a better solution. It’s why people struggle to improve things ranging from organizational red tape to their overburdened schedules at work. So if you’re looking to give your work life a boost, what can you remove to improve it?

Learn To Say No

A few years ago, Professor Francesca Gino taught two classes at Harvard Business School in which she experimented with her footwear. For one class, she wore a conservative suit with dress shoes. For the next group, she paired her suit with her favorite pair of red Converse sneakers. She discovered the “red-sneakers” students were more attentive and thoughtful, and they laughed more. Part of the difference was that the sneakers made her feel more confident and more poised when leading discussions. So, what can you wear from your wardrobe—perhaps a piece you never considered wearing

Wear your red sneakers

In his book In Praise of Wasting Time , Alan Lightman relates a story from during his time at the the California Institute of Technology about a fellow student called Paul. Paul used to sit on a bench for hours, receiving disapproving looks from passing professors who wondered why he wasn’t studying. Well, the Paul of the story is Paul L. Schechter, now a famous astronomer and observational cosmologist, and recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Natural Sciences. How did he get his ideas? Yes, you guessed it: sitting on that benchs

 Sit on a bench

Thought organization. When we take time to recharge we come back mentally ready. 

Presenteeism happens when we show up to work, even if we’re mentally checked out. Here’s how to get back on track and away from mindless performance.


timemanagement

Time Management

teamwork

Teamwork

6 strategies to try when you feel checked out of work

The social component is often missing from life-changing literature. Looking at what others have achieved can be motivating.Take tiny steps, one at a time, to increase motivation.See Links on the next ideas

Courage in a gaming environment

Learning and improving skills is exhausting, whether it's due to a lack of structure, time, or ideas. Let's just relax and enjoy what Game of Life alias "Level up Life" has to offer.Advice for relationships (deepen your connection)<a href="https://getcoral.app/">https://getcoral.app/</a>See more Links on the next ideas

Improve old skills / learn new ones

Gain personal development by earning trophies for completing actionable Movements.<a href="https://lvluplife.com/">https://lvluplife.com/</a>Or simple send an email of your goals to your future self , checking how you made it<a href="https://www.futureme.org/">https://www.futureme.org/</a>

Develop Habits / Reach your goals

career

Career

habits

Habits

five-step guide: enhancing life in simple and intuitive way

<ul><li>There are only five basic fears, out of which almost all of our other so-called fears are manufactured. </li><li>These fears include extinction, mutilation, loss of autonomy, separation, and ego death. </li><li>When we let go of the notion of fear as the welling up of evil forces within us and see fear as information, we can think about them consciously. </li> </ul>

The Science of Fear

President Franklin Roosevelt famously asserted, "The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."

Fear, like all other emotions, is basically information . It offers us knowledge and understanding—if we choose to accept it.And there are only five basic fears , out of which almost all of our other so-called fears are manufactured. These are:

Define fear

<ol><li>Extinction —This is a more fundamental way to express it than just "<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/terror-management-theory">fear of death </a>." Consider that panicky feeling you get when you look over the edge of a high building.</li><li>Mutilation —the fear of losing any part of our precious bodily structure; Anxiety about animals, such as bugs, spiders, snakes, and other creepy things</li><li>Loss of Autonomy —the fear of being immobilized, paralyzed, restricted, enveloped</li><li>Separation —the fear of abandonment, rejection, and loss of connectedness</li><li>Ego-death —the fear of the shattering of one's constructed sense of lovability, capability, and worthiness.</li></ol>

fear-archy

<ol><li>Extinction —the fear of annihilation, of ceasing to exist. This is a more fundamental way to express it than just "<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/terror-management-theory">fear of death </a>." The idea of no longer being arouses a primary existential anxiety in all normal humans. Consider that panicky feeling you get when you look over the edge of a high building.</li><li>Mutilation —the fear of losing any part of our precious bodily structure; the thought of having our body's boundaries invaded, or of losing the integrity of any organ, body part, or natural function. Anxiety about animals, such as bugs, spiders, snakes, and other creepy things arises from fear<warningtag> of mutilation.</warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Loss of Autonomy </warningtag><warningtag>—the fear of being immobilized, paralyzed, restricted, enveloped, overwhelmed, entrapped, imprisoned, smothered, or otherwise controlled by circumstances beyond our control. In physical form, it's commonly known as claustrophobia, but it also extends to our social interactions and relationships.</warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Separation </warningtag><warningtag>—the fear of abandonment, rejection, and loss of connectedness; of </warningtag><warningtag>becoming a non-person— </warningtag><warningtag>not wanted, respected, or valued by anyone else. The "silent treatment," when imposed by a group, can have a devastating effect on its target.</warningtag></li><li><warningtag>Ego-death </warningtag><warningtag>—the fear of humiliation, shame, or any other mechanism of profound self-disapproval that threatens the </warningtag><warningtag>loss of integrity of the self </warningtag><warningtag>; the fear of the shattering or disintegration of one's constructed sense of lovability, capability, and worthiness.</warningtag></li></ol>

Some other emotions we know by various popular names are just aliases for these primary fears. If you track them down to their most basic levels, the basic fears show through. <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/jealousy">Jealousy </a>, for example, is an expression of the fear of separation, or devaluation: "She'll value him more than she values me." At its extreme, it can express the fear of ego-death: "I'll be a worthless person." Envy works the same way.Some of our fears, of course, have basic survival value. Others, however, are learned reflexes that can be weakened or re-learned.

Jealousy

When we let go of our notion of fear as the welling up of evil forces within us—the <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/freudian-psychology">Freudian </a>motif—and begin to see fear and its companion emotions as information , we can think about them consciously. And the more clearly and calmly we can articulate the origins of the fear, the less our fears will frighten us and control us.

Deconstruct

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

When we know where they really come from, we can start to control them.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

The (Only) 5 Fears We All Share

How do we learn to perform complex skills like programming, physics, or piloting a plane? What changes in our brain allow us to perform these skills? These are hard questions. Most experiments only attempt to address narrow slices of the problem.This is what makes John Anderson’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT-R">ACT-R theory </a>so ambitious.<a href="https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2022/02/15/act-r/?ck_subscriber_id=1425544151#easy-footnote-bottom-1-13883"> </a>It’s an attempt to synthesize a huge amount of work in psychology to form a broad picture of how we learn complicated skills.

This Is Where ACT-R Theory Comes In:

All scientific theories are built on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm">paradigms</a> .A paradigm is an example that you take as central for describing a phenomenon. Newton had falling apples and orbiting planets. Obviously, Newton didn’t restrict his theory to tumbling fruit. Yet, these were the examples they used to lay the foundations for their broader theories.<ul><li><a href="https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2022/02/15/act-r/?ck_subscriber_id=1425544151#easy-footnote-bottom-2-13883"> </a> We can ignore their origins and simply focus on applying the theory.</li></ul>Theories of the mind aren’t like this. Nobody believes we’ve found some unified theory that fully explains how the mind works. Yet we know a lot more than nothing.

A Note on Scientific Paradigms

ACT-R argues that we have two different memory systems: declarative and procedural.<ul><li>The declarative system includes all your memories of events, facts, ideas and experiences. Everything you consciously experience is part of this system. </li></ul>The procedural system consists of everything you can do.

ACT-R Basics: Declarative and Procedural Memory Systems

ACT-R explains complex skills as an ongoing interaction between these two systems.<ul><li> The declarative system represents the outside world, your inner thoughts and intentions. </li><li>The procedural system acts on those representations to make overt actions or internal adjustments that move you closer to your goals.</li></ul>

Complex Skills

Why two separate systems? A single system would be simpler. But there’s an impressive range of evidence arguing that these systems are distinct in the brain:<ul><li>Amnesiacs can learn through the procedural system, but not the declarative system .</li><li>Procedural memory is unidirectional . This is why saying the alphabet forward is so much easier than saying it backward. </li><li>Declarative memory shows <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_effect">fan effects </a> . </li><li>Neuroscientific studies suggest different locations for the two systems . </li></ul>

Why Two Systems? 

The basic unit of declarative memory is the chunk. This is a structure that binds approximately three pieces of information. The idea is that, through experience, we connect these chunks into elaborate networks. We can then traverse these networks to get information as we need it.

The Declarative System

The declarative memory structure is vast, but only a few chunks are active at any one time. This reflects the distinction between conscious awareness and memory. When we need to remember something, we search through the network. <ul><li>For practiced memories, this is relatively easy as most related ideas will only be a step or two away.</li><li> For new ideas, this is much harder since they’re less well integrated into our other knowledge and therefore require more effortful search processes</li></ul>

Awareness And Memory

How do nodes get activated? <ol><li>First, you perceive things from the outside world that automatically activate nodes in memory . </li><li>Second, you can rehearse things internally to maintain them in memory </li><li>Third, nodes can activate connected nodes. This is what happens when one thought leads to another. </li></ol>The declarative system, with its vast hidden network of long-term memory and briefly active nodes corresponding to our conscious awareness is impressive. But, according to ACT-R, it’s also inert. Something else must transform it into action. That’s where the procedural system comes in.

Activating The Nodes

The basic unit of the procedural system is the production. This is an IF -> THEN pattern. Think of productions like the atomic thinking steps involved in solving a problem. Unlike the sprawling, interlinked declarative memory, productions are modular. Each one acts as an isolated unit that is learned and strengthened independently. Solving complex problems involves more productions than simple puzzles, but the basic ingredients are the same.

The Procedural System

<ol><li>You form a representation of the problem in your declarative system . .</li><li>Productions compete with each other based on this current representation . </li><li>As each production is executed, it changes your present state . </li><li>The process repeats itself until the problem is solved .</li></ol>

How ACT-R Claims You Solve Problems

In the ACT-R theory, learning skills is thought to be a process of acquiring and strengthening productions.Initially, productions are learned via analogy. We search our long-term declarative memories for a similar problem. Then we try to match this to our current representation of the problem. When we have a match, we create a production.

How Do We Acquire Skills?

ACT-R argues that we don’t learn by explicit instruction, only by example. When we appear to learn via instruction, we first generate an example based on the instruction and then use this example to create a new production.Once created, productions are strengthened through use. Every time a production is used to solve a problem, it becomes more likely to be chosen again in similar circumstances. The strengthening process is incredibly slow.This is why it can take so much practice to be good at complicated skills.

Why Learning Complex Skills Take Time

There are a few general implications we can tease out:<ol><li>Most skills will be highly specific . A microscopic analysis of any two skills should, in principle, tell us how much transfer is possible.</li><li>Transfer should look smaller on tests of problem solving than on tests of future learning . To solve a problem you need all of the productions. </li><li>Practice makes perfect, but many types of practice can be wasteful . Anderson favors intelligent tutoring systems that immediately correct students when they make a mistake. </li><li>Complicated skills have simple learning mechanisms . </li></ol>

Implications of ACT-R

This article gives a holistic view on ACT - R theory and how do we learn complex skills. ✓

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