Monkey see and monkey do: efficient multi-tasking in pronunciation work

Clip art: Clker

Here is one of those research reports that inevitably evokes the same somewhat exasperated reaction from me (and I expect from most of you, as well). Ready?  It has been discovered that we--well some of our purported "cousins," at least-- are wired to multitask! Think of it . . . you can, for example, now watch TV and read a book at the same time or run on a treadmill without worry that you are going against your very nature or doing irreparable harm to your equipment.

It is an important study, reportedly one of the first to establish that empirically. The trick apparently is just how closely related the two tasks are. If they are sufficiently distinct, either in terms of intra-modality contrast (like two pictures) or inter-modality (like singing and knitting), go to it! Any number of previous posts have looked at the interplay among visual and auditory and haptic modalities, coming to much the same conclusion: that we can, under the right circumstances attend quite well to both haptic and auditory (and in controlled contexts, visual) simultaneously.

HICP/EHIEP is based on the idea of continuous, simultaneous engagement of multiple modalities (what we often refer to with the acronym "CHI"--for continuous haptic integration, haptic having the primary function of anchoring and integrating.) In other words, doing pedagogical movement patterning and seeing (tracking those movements of the hands across the visual field) and speaking at the same time should be a piece of cake. If not, we may just  have too much time on our hands--or not enough. Certainly nothing to HICP at!

IN-"gendering" confidence before HICP work?

So, how's this for a conclusion to a study by Estes of the University of Warwick and Felker of the University of Georgia, summarized by Science Daily:

Clip art: Clker

 "Our research suggests that by making a woman feel better about herself, she'll become better at spatial tasks -- which in the real world means tasks such as parking the car or reading a map.So a little bit of confidence-boosting may go a long way when it comes to reversing the car into a tight parking spot."

In our work more women than men do have difficulty with the visual field framework  . . . of course in the field there seem to be about 5X as many women, at least in North America! Who'd a thought that all we'd need is some self-image work and a little extravagant praise to bridge the "spatial gap?" Try that first chance you get! If you are a non-male, I know you can do it! If you doubt me, try this app (one of my favorites, by the way) for a couple of days!