Irene Guijt pointed me to this TED talk by Daniel Kahneman who has a substantial claim to be the inventor of behaviour economics. The point which really struck me was the disconnect between experience and memory and the low impact of time on our perception. Seeing the future as anticipated memories is an interesting side idea from the talk. Now there is nothing new here (although its well presented) but its an important reminder in relationship to issues of narrative research. A few specific points that occur to me (and these go beyond the TED talk).
- It makes the danger of reliance on content for meaning clearer. Both semantic and expert approaches assume than meaning exists in captured content, and can be discovered or interpreted. The memory of the interpreter (experience for the expert and training data for semantics) creates a filter through which the content ins interpreted. We had an interesting experience here on a recent project. We had captured a set of stories around bereavement manually that then had to be entered into SenseMaker® . Those looking at the material as it was entered were concerned that it seemed very negative. However the material had been self-interpreted and when we looked at the interpretation of the narrative creators they has seen the material as positive. Now I have seen that on other projects but it was particularly vivid here
- The use of workshops to gather narrative is (in the main) too strongly influenced by both the last speaker, but also memory and filtered rather than the experience itself. Its no surprise than many workshop methods are in part derived from therapy (and far too many facilitators use the language and style of therapists) which is a way of handling memory but does not reflect experience. In addition the discourse of the workshop shapes the memory with effects such as convergence and false conflict common. If we focus on self-interpreted micro-narrative and mark the points of capture between immediate experience and then both personal and collective reflection, then and only then will we get interesting research results.
Interestingly in two University sessions and a conference call this morning I was reminded of another example of pattern entrainment. Those most resistant to self-interpretation appear to be traditionally trained qualitative researchers and marketing professionals. Its almost as if the training to overcome the known deficiencies of qualitative techniques acts as an inhibitor to grasping a concept that quantitative people get a lot faster.
Comments (6)
A friend, Zenda Ofir, pointed out after listening to Kahneman's talk whether this would hold cross-culturally as well. Pursuit of happiness, interpretation (and acceptance of/judgement on) experience varies greatly across contexts. Gallup polls don't speak to the experiences of many non-Western contexts (also within the US itself). Would be intriguing to look into more.
Posted by Irene Guijt | April 19, 2010 10:18 AM
Posted on April 19, 2010 10:18
I recently listened to the same TED talk by Daniel Kahneman and was interested in that disconnect between experience and memory as well.
I will pick up your comments here in a blog we have set up for the Show Me The Change conference happening in a couple of weeks.
Our design team (in Melbourne) is working with Irene to feed our conference conversations and harvests into an Evaluation conference that she is staging later in May in the Netherlands. We even have 2 people attending both - Prof. Patricia Rogers and Dr Jess Dart.
Out conference website is here
Irene's conference site is here
Posted by Geoff Brown | April 19, 2010 12:26 PM
Posted on April 19, 2010 12:26
There is a wonderful new book by jim March, The Ambiguities of Experience, that deals with this very subject in an original and
characteristically thoughtful way.
Hope you are feeling better, Dave.
Best regards Larry Prusak
Posted by larry prusak | April 19, 2010 9:42 PM
Posted on April 19, 2010 21:42
Thanks Larry, I pre-ordered it, delivery estimate 3rd June! Will look out for it in the US next week assuming Doctor clears me to fly to Denver on Thursday (and if the Volcano lets me)
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April 19, 2010 9:56 PM
Posted on April 19, 2010 21:56
One of the most interesting books I have read recently is called "Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain"... which is written by a Western Neuro Scientist with dialogue and debate by the Dalai Lama.
The main focus is whether the non-'physical' mind can influence physical changes in the brain... and most importantly in adult brains rather than child brains.
They talk extensively about experience, and memory, and neuron clustering and activation and such...
One of Mary Douglas' quotes resonated well with while reading the book... the one about investing in certain labeling systems and such over time... which the book explores and concludes that by doing so, our brain 'disbands' areas not being activated, and 'enhances' those that are... furthering the tendency of pattern entrainment.
In business I am often confronted with model vs. non-model based approaches, which with companies starting with vision and mission statements... it is hard to get them to see the value in emergent possibilities.
Posted by Mark Spivey | April 20, 2010 5:00 AM
Posted on April 20, 2010 05:00
Hi Dave
From hearing you speak at different events, I recall your thoughts on boundaries. Memories and experience are fundamental in our constructions (as individuals and collectives) of boundaries - and so, at risk of stating the obvious in the light of your work, are important in the stories we tell about ourselves and the groups to which we belong (or to which we aspire to belong).
A useful way of illustrating this is to think about the poetical conversations between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo in Calvino's Le Citta Invisibli. At one point Calvino has Marco Polo saying that he could hardly go beyond the stories each city's residents have always repeated - even where he was aware of the dissonance between those stories and what he himself believed he was observing "You would like to say what is, but everything previously said ... imprisons your words and obliges you to repeat rather than say"
The collective memories and experiences which make up the stories of each city are a comforting script which offers illusory certainties against those outside the 'city walls' (boundaries) constructed by them - the stories (and memories and experieinecs immanent in them) are about vested interest, membership and community. At risk of being consigned to 'Pseud's Corner', this may offer a point for reflection on the nature of the stories (such as 'scientific method') that buttress the 'city walls' of Modernity?
Maybe there are resonances between Cynefin and Marco Polo (in Calvino's novel) travellers; naive strangers; uninvolved outside; or baffled newcomer - to surface oft repeated stories in which the inhabitants of the 'cities' we encounter each day imprison themselves through their repetition of their experiences, memories and stories and their lost awareness of the boundaries immanent in their stories.
Perhaps the qualitative researchers described in your post have imprisoned themselves in a city they call 'qualitative research'?
Best Wishes for your recovery and trip through the States,
Dave
Posted by Dave Hoyle | April 26, 2010 1:29 PM
Posted on April 26, 2010 13:29