blinded by science? -- or -- neurobollocks!
DESCRIPTION
Talk given by Chris Atherton at the Cambridge (UK) Usability Group, March 2013TRANSCRIPT
Blinded by science?
Chris Atherton
@finiteattention
Blinded by science?
Chris Atherton
@finiteattention
neurobollocks
As a researcher for many years into new methods of rehabilitating people with neurological damage … I have been thrilled by the promise of new technologies such as sophisticated brain scanning to help us to understand the processes of recovery and (more importantly) suggest treatments … In contrast, I am utterly dismayed by the claims made on behalf of neuroscience in areas outside those in which it has any kind of explanatory power; by the neuro-hype that is threatening to discredit its real achievements.
Raymond Tallis, Neurotrash
Psychology and neuroscience are
increasingly informing UX
“neuro–” is the Wikipedia of UX:
anyone can add anything and say it’s true
folk psychology:
“men can’t multi-task”
folk neuroscience*:
“the creative half of your brain”
* Vaughan Bell
my credentials
psychology
neuroscience
visual perception
.
All the research I cited in my PhD
(about 200 papers)
all you need
— all anyone needs —
is critical thinking skills.
“Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we only use between 10 and 20% of our brains.”
econsultancy.com
econsultancy.com
econsultancy.com
econsultancy.com
FRONT BACK
PHRENOLOGY LOL
in a recent seminar, one manager asked, “So, if we know this about the brain, what are the implications of this knowledge in terms of the entire way we do performance reviews?” A great question in light of this valuable information!1 Emotional Contagion is Real – Studies in the past decade have
shown that emotions can be “infectious.” The moods of others, especially those in positions of power, can have a real and lasting effect on individuals and groups. Toxic bosses, bully environments and aggressive cultures can “breed” more of the same. Leaders play an important role in their ability to influence the spread of certain types of emotions over others.
The evidence shows that while all emotions can be contagious, “negative” emotions have greater power to influence. That makes sense because when we are negatively “triggered” emotionally, the amygdala in the brain’s limbic system is activated and the “fight or flight” system kicks in, draining energy from the pre-frontal cortex (the “reasoning” part of the brain). All of this can happen unconsciously, unless we develop the tools to bring it into awareness and mitigate the responses.
intentionalworkplace.com
in a recent seminar, one manager asked, “So, if we know this about the brain, what are the implications of this knowledge in terms of the entire way we do performance reviews?” A great question in light of this valuable information!1 Emotional Contagion is Real – Studies in the past decade have
shown that emotions can be “infectious.” The moods of others, especially those in positions of power, can have a real and lasting effect on individuals and groups. Toxic bosses, bully environments and aggressive cultures can “breed” more of the same. Leaders play an important role in their ability to influence the spread of certain types of emotions over others.
The evidence shows that while all emotions can be contagious, “negative” emotions have greater power to influence. That makes sense because when we are negatively “triggered” emotionally, the amygdala in the brain’s limbic system is activated and the “fight or flight” system kicks in, draining energy from the pre-frontal cortex (the “reasoning” part of the brain). All of this can happen unconsciously, unless we develop the tools to bring it into awareness and mitigate the responses.
intentionalworkplace.com
emotions are contagious
negative emotions might be more contagious
negative emotions are associated with activity in [area of the brain]
in a recent seminar, one manager asked, “So, if we know this about the brain, what are the implications of this knowledge in terms of the entire way we do performance reviews?” A great question in light of this valuable information!1 Emotional Contagion is Real – Studies in the past decade have
shown that emotions can be “infectious.” The moods of others, especially those in positions of power, can have a real and lasting effect on individuals and groups. Toxic bosses, bully environments and aggressive cultures can “breed” more of the same. Leaders play an important role in their ability to influence the spread of certain types of emotions over others.
The evidence shows that while all emotions can be contagious, “negative” emotions have greater power to influence. That makes sense because when we are negatively “triggered” emotionally, the amygdala in the brain’s limbic system is activated and the “fight or flight” system kicks in, draining energy from the pre-frontal cortex (the “reasoning” part of the brain). All of this can happen unconsciously, unless we develop the tools to bring it into awareness and mitigate the responses.
intentionalworkplace.com
negative emotions are associated with activity in [area of the brain]
where is the evidence that emotional contagion is associated with
activity in [area of the brain]?
in a recent seminar, one manager asked, “So, if we know this about the brain, what are the implications of this knowledge in terms of the entire way we do performance reviews?” A great question in light of this valuable information!1 Emotional Contagion is Real – Studies in the past decade have
shown that emotions can be “infectious.” The moods of others, especially those in positions of power, can have a real and lasting effect on individuals and groups. Toxic bosses, bully environments and aggressive cultures can “breed” more of the same. Leaders play an important role in their ability to influence the spread of certain types of emotions over others.
The evidence shows that while all emotions can be contagious, “negative” emotions have greater power to influence. That makes sense because when we are negatively “triggered” emotionally, the amygdala in the brain’s limbic system is activated and the “fight or flight” system kicks in, draining energy from the pre-frontal cortex (the “reasoning” part of the brain). All of this can happen unconsciously, unless we develop the tools to bring it into awareness and mitigate the responses.
intentionalworkplace.com
negative emotions are associated with activity in [area of the brain]
is there any emotion for which we should expect no activity in any part of the brain?
cum hoc, ergo propter hoc
Our brains have two sides. The right side is emotional and moody. The left side is focused on dexterity, facts and hard data. When you show up to give a presentation, people want to use both parts of their brain.
— Seth Godin, Really Bad PowerPoint
1. Our brains have two sides.
2. The right side is emotional and moody.
3. The left side is focused on dexterity, facts and hard data.
4. When you show up to give a presentation, people want to use both parts of their brain.
1. People respond to emotional as well as factual arguments.
2. The emotional and factual centres of the brain are in opposite hemispheres.
3. There is evidence that arguments which increase activity in both hemispheres are more persuasive.
How I’d structure this:
why am I quite so pissed off about this?
“lets you look at the brain triggers”
uxmatters.com
Observing the customer journey, it is possible to analyze what is going on for users at a cognitive level and recognize opportunities for improvement. The brain comprises three major parts: the brain stem, or croc brain; the limbic system, or emotional brain; and the neocortex, or logical brain.
uxmatters.com
Observing the customer journey, it is possible to analyze what is going on for users at a cognitive level and recognize opportunities for improvement. The brain comprises three major parts: the brain stem, or croc brain; the limbic system, or emotional brain; and the neocortex, or logical brain.
CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR
uxmatters.com
Observing the customer journey, it is possible to analyze what is going on for users at a cognitive level and recognize opportunities for improvement. The brain comprises three major parts: the brain stem, or croc brain; the limbic system, or emotional brain; and the neocortex, or logical brain.
RANDOM NEUROANATOMY LESSON
uxmatters.com
blog.usabilla.com
blog.usabilla.com
this matters, because we look like idiots
why are we such fools for neurobollocks?
we screw up because we care
Title that wouldn’t be out of place in a tabloid newspaper
Story about usability or UX or some aspect of software-related human experience that turns out to have no supporting evidence in it from brain studies of any kind, though it may mention the brain several times.
Site that should know better
OBLIGATORY BUT WHOLLY UNRELATED BRAIN PIC
Title that wouldn’t be out of place in a tabloid newspaper
Story about usability or UX or some aspect of software-related human experience that turns out to have no supporting evidence in it from brain studies of any kind, though it may mention the brain several times.
Site that should know better
OBLIGATORY BUT WHOLLY UNRELATED BRAIN PIC
story more
likely to
be
rated as e
xhibiting
good
scientific
reasoning
McCabe & Castel, 2008
http
://fli
ckr.c
om/p
hoto
s/qu
inn/
4252
1551
72
“the curse of knowledge”
heathbrothers.com
Brain scans indicate that this “curse” happens because of the frontal lobe brain circuitry known to be involved in self-knowledge. Subjects have trouble switching their point of view to consider what someone else might know, mistakenly projecting their own knowledge onto others.
The researchers claim that this “curse” happens because subjects make more mistakes when they have to judge the knowledge of others. People are much better at judging what they themselves know.
irrelevant brain jargon brain-free explanation
scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily
Skolnick Weisberg et al, 2008
“the seductive allure of neuroscience explanations”
“the seductive allure of ‘seductive allure’”
Farah & Hooke, 2008
scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily
significant difference
digression:
the significance of significance
xkcd.com/882
xkcd.com/882
OMG
xkcd.com/882
xkcd.com/882
p-values:
probability that the result you’re so excited about is merely due to chance
significance at the p < .05 level:
1 in 20 chance of seeing a significant resulteven if there’s nothing really going on
significance at the p < .01 level:
1 in 100 chance of seeing a significant resulteven if there’s nothing really going on
how to get a significant result at the p < .05 level:
test for significance 20 times
p-values can help us interpret behavioural science data.
useit.comwhat’s going on here?
useit.com
- what is being measured?
- what is ‘most viewed’? duration? repeat views?
- what do the different colours connote?
- is there a meaningful difference between red,
yellow and blue areas?
- if so, how are we defining ‘meaningful’?
what’s going on here?
The human brain, it is said, is the most complex object in the known universe. That a part of it “lights up” on an fMRI scan does not mean the rest is inactive; nor is it obvious what any such lighting-up indicates; nor is it straightforward to infer general lessons about life from experiments conducted under highly artificial conditions. Nor do we have the faintest clue about the biggest mystery of all – how does a lump of wet grey matter produce the conscious experience you are having right now, reading this paragraph? How come the brain gives rise to the mind? No one knows.
Steven Poole — Your brain on pseudoscience
false coloured suprathreshold areas superimposed on an anatomical scan
map is thresholded at acceptable p-level
neurons in areas of brain that are working hardest spend all their oxygen
circulation overcompensates with more O2
scanner measures oxygenated haemoglobin
haemoglobin O2 level map reconstructed
red voxels
blue voxelsless ‘activity’ during some task than at rest or during a different task
more ‘activity’ during some task than at rest or during a different task)
red voxels
blue voxelsless ‘activity’ during some task than at rest or during a different task
more ‘activity’ during some task than at rest or during a different task)
in fMRI, we can measure ~100,000 voxels per brain
… lots of significance tests
blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic
So is it all just hooey and woo?
crispian.netPeriodic table of irrational nonsense
4.bp.blogspot.com
@thebrainlady
@vaughanbell
@neuro_skeptic
ReadingBaloney Detection Kithttp://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/03/16/baloney-detection-kit/
Bell, V (2012) The trouble with brain scans. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/may/27/brain-scans-flaws-vaughan-bell
Bell, V (2013): Our brains, and how they're not as simple as we think. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/mar/03/brain-not-simple-folk-neuroscience
Bennet et al (2010): Neural Correlates of Interspecies Perspective Taking in the Post-Mortem Atlantic Salmon: An Argument For Proper Multiple Comparisons Correction (in the awesomely-named Journal of Unexpected and Serendipitous Results) http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2009/09/16/fmri-gets-slap-in-the-face-with-a-dead-fish/#.UVJJzltN56N
Farah, MJ & Hooke, CJ (2012). The seductive allure of ‘seductive allure’. http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~mfarah/pdfs/The%20seductive%20allure%20of%20_seductive%20allure_%20revised.pdf (Shorter, more digestible take on this at http://neurocritic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-not-so-seductive-allure-of-colorful_7.html)
McCabe, DP, and Castel, AD (2008). Seeing is believing: the effect of brain images on judgements of scientific reasoning. http://www.imed.jussieu.fr/en/enseignement/Dossier%2520articles/article4.pdf
Poole, S. (2012). Your brain on pseudoscience: the rise of popular neurobollocks. http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2012/09/your-brain-pseudoscience
Tallis, R (2009). Neurotrash. http://rationalist.org.uk/articles/2172/neurotrash
Weisberg et al (2008): The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2778755/ (Shorter, more digestible version at http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/03/13/when-we-see-a-brain-light-up-o/)