Our Irrational Mind
Michael Gerber’sE Myth - When a customer first hears about a
product until the time he is triggered to buy it several thing happen. First the brain takes in all the information
needed to make a decision. It works like this. A + B = C. A is the
stimuli. B is what your brain does with
it. C is the action that occurs. The
most important part is B. The stimuli
may go to the conscious mind but it is the unconscious mind that makes the
decision. The cat brain (see below) decides. The
unconscious mind contains the customer’s expectations. These make up his personality. If the
food meets expectations the mind says yes.
The unconscious mind sends its decision to the conscious mind, which
then goes out to the world to assemble the rational armament to support its
already determined emotional commitment. Therefore, buying decisions are made irrationally.
The demographics (who
your customer is ) establish the psychographics ( why he buys). Reality exists only
in someone’s perceptions. Thus to create demand you need to find a perceived need and
fill it.
You have 3 brains.
The most primitive is
the reptile brain. This does most of the
housekeeping such as breathing, heart rate, sleeping, waking. It also takes in visual signals and keeps
track of your position in a room. That,
this is done in a separate part of the brain from the rest of visualization is how you can drive home, have no memory of driving,
and yet arrive alive. The reptile brain got you home.
On top of that is a cat brain. This manages animal survival. Most of its functions involve the 4 Fs –
fighting, feeding, fleeing and ...
reproduction. Its amygdala signals the emotions of the Fs rage, pleasure, fear and their memories. The amygdala attaches to the hippocampus which converts
short term memories to long term. This is why you remember things that are emotionally charged. These
structures surround an egg shaped thalamus which is a control tower for the senses.
When you first walk into a room your reptile brain notes
your position. Then your cat brain scans the room. You notice if there is anything you can eat. ? Is there anything that will eat you? Is there anything you can mate
with. Is there anything that will mate
with you . Is there anything you have seen
before.
Finally covering this like a baby blanket is the
neocortex. Although it appears uniform ,
each region of this is specialized with regions for speech, vision, memory etc.
The part behind the forhead, prefrontal cortex, handles the uniquely
human “executive functions” problem solving, maintaining attention, and
inhibiting emotions (leashing the cat). Since
the birth canal can only be so big, babies are born with an undeveloped
brain. Thus babies are learning machines
making adults teachers.
Which leads to Brain Plasticity
The brain is a plastic machine. The brain establishes control of its
development.
The first stage consist of anything
goes plasticity. For example if exposed
to specific sounds the brain develops an auditory cortex or a language specific
processor. If exposed to random noise
this does not happen. Through natural
competitive plasticity processes the brain organizes itself to learn language. A the baby gets exposed to 4 million words before it puts
meaning to any words at about 9 months. This
is important to developing working memory and selective attention. In the next stage plasticity only occurs when the brain
interprets an outcome as good for it.
As we age learning gets more gates and the brain selects what it wants to learn. It evolves to where it can control its self -development.
Merzenich then covers the example of a child learning to use a
spoon. The brain specializes by
evaluating the success of an attempt. If
the attempt is good the brain says save it and it strengthens the connections
that made that attempt. Over thousands
of attempts, it evaluates, judging by success in getting the food. It creates a model of a good attempt in
memory and evolves a model by practicing its use. It then evaluates its success against that model. The
area of the cortex devoted to controlling the hand gets larger and millions of
neurons interconnect differently. That’s how you master abilities and finally develop what is YOU. All
input is associated with all previous plasticity, which is your model of the world;
your prediction of what comes next - You. You
compare every input with your prediction.
This happens billions times a year and becomes you.
In a second stage it acquires it primary skills. This is done at school and life
Lastly in the third stage it becomes a user of skills it has
mastered which gets us through most of our life.
You can screw up a brain with bad genetics, a bad
childhood. However, since the brain is plastic it can be
fixed.
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