"Habits are powerful, but delicate. They can emerge outside our consciousness, or can be deliberately designed. They often occur without our permission, but can be reshaped by fiddling with their parts. They shape our lives far more than we realize— they are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense.
Duhigg, Charles (2012-04-05). The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change
Now I know I am a creature of habit (like we all are) but after some reading about them was surprised by how strong they can become and how easily our actions can become habits.
Scientists say that habit occur due to our brain constantly trying to save effort. If you think about this you will see that it is a good thing. Can you imagine if 'simple' things such as crossing the road were not a habit? It would require a lot of Brain power and mental effort every time we crossed the road. By the time you walked to work you could be mentally drained and really not ready for a days work.When you cross the road you probably do something like this:
1) Stop on the pavement/Sidewalk
2) Look left and right to check for oncoming vehicles
3) When it is safe to do so cross the road.
Now we can break habits into what is called the Habit Loop. The loop consists of 3 things; Cue, Routine and Reward. In the above example these would breakdown as follows:
Cue: I need to cross the road
Routine: Stop before the road, look left and right to check for traffic then cross the road
Reward: I have crossed the road safely and am alive.
Now with habits there is a basic truth: When habits emerge the brain stops participating in decision making. This amazes me - so when I think I am actually making a decision I'm not?! My brain is trying to save its resources for more important things that it may need to do. I may of made what I thought was decision but it was in fact a habit - my brain was saving processing power. Now if the habit was good then great but not all habits are. Good habits would be things like:
- Cleaning your teeth
- Having a shower
- Exercise
The following could be seen as bad habits:
- Smoking
- Taking drugs
- Eating junk food everyday
Now you may think that you have to wait for the reward of the habit loop, so for example someone who loves exercise will have to do a workout before they have the reward of ' feeling good'. However an experiment was undertaken by Wolfram Schultz in which a monkey would pull a lever when particular shapes appeared on a computer screen. If the monkey touched the lever when the shape appeared it would be rewarded with some blackberry Juice. At first the monkey squirmed in the chair that he was sat in. However once he started to pull the lever and got the taste of the Blackberry juice he was transfixed, waiting for the shape to appear on the screen so he could get some more juice. As the monkey did this more and more Schultz found that the monkey started to anticipate the Blackberry juice before he has pulled the lever. The graphs of the monkeys brain activity showed that it was at its highest when the shape appeared when previously it was after he had received the Blackberry Juice. This helps to explain habits like smoking. The smoker has anticipate the nicotine hit before they have even lit the cigarette. Other researchers found that once a monkey had formed a habit they found it hard to break. Monkeys that had not built up a habit were distracted by researchers opening the door of the lab or putting food in the corner, these monkeys found it easy to break the habit of pulling the lever. However the monkeys that had built up a habit could not do this and this helps to explain why habits are so powerful; they create neurological cravings. Most of the time, these cravings emerge so gradually that we’re not really aware they exist, so we’re often blind to their influence.
Now think about habits from a testing perspective; When we test and think we are making a decision about how to test something maybe it is just a habit that has formed. Could we try and break this habit and therefore discover a different way to approach an aspect of our testing. Can we change our habit routines to get the same reward? Are there any bad habits we pick up as testers? What are our good habits?
I hope that you have found this interesting and in my next post I will look at the problems with habits and start to answer some of these questions.
Duhigg, Charles (2012-04-05). The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change
Now I know I am a creature of habit (like we all are) but after some reading about them was surprised by how strong they can become and how easily our actions can become habits.
Scientists say that habit occur due to our brain constantly trying to save effort. If you think about this you will see that it is a good thing. Can you imagine if 'simple' things such as crossing the road were not a habit? It would require a lot of Brain power and mental effort every time we crossed the road. By the time you walked to work you could be mentally drained and really not ready for a days work.When you cross the road you probably do something like this:
1) Stop on the pavement/Sidewalk
2) Look left and right to check for oncoming vehicles
3) When it is safe to do so cross the road.
Now we can break habits into what is called the Habit Loop. The loop consists of 3 things; Cue, Routine and Reward. In the above example these would breakdown as follows:
Cue: I need to cross the road
Routine: Stop before the road, look left and right to check for traffic then cross the road
Reward: I have crossed the road safely and am alive.
Now with habits there is a basic truth: When habits emerge the brain stops participating in decision making. This amazes me - so when I think I am actually making a decision I'm not?! My brain is trying to save its resources for more important things that it may need to do. I may of made what I thought was decision but it was in fact a habit - my brain was saving processing power. Now if the habit was good then great but not all habits are. Good habits would be things like:
- Cleaning your teeth
- Having a shower
- Exercise
The following could be seen as bad habits:
- Smoking
- Taking drugs
- Eating junk food everyday
Now you may think that you have to wait for the reward of the habit loop, so for example someone who loves exercise will have to do a workout before they have the reward of ' feeling good'. However an experiment was undertaken by Wolfram Schultz in which a monkey would pull a lever when particular shapes appeared on a computer screen. If the monkey touched the lever when the shape appeared it would be rewarded with some blackberry Juice. At first the monkey squirmed in the chair that he was sat in. However once he started to pull the lever and got the taste of the Blackberry juice he was transfixed, waiting for the shape to appear on the screen so he could get some more juice. As the monkey did this more and more Schultz found that the monkey started to anticipate the Blackberry juice before he has pulled the lever. The graphs of the monkeys brain activity showed that it was at its highest when the shape appeared when previously it was after he had received the Blackberry Juice. This helps to explain habits like smoking. The smoker has anticipate the nicotine hit before they have even lit the cigarette. Other researchers found that once a monkey had formed a habit they found it hard to break. Monkeys that had not built up a habit were distracted by researchers opening the door of the lab or putting food in the corner, these monkeys found it easy to break the habit of pulling the lever. However the monkeys that had built up a habit could not do this and this helps to explain why habits are so powerful; they create neurological cravings. Most of the time, these cravings emerge so gradually that we’re not really aware they exist, so we’re often blind to their influence.
Now think about habits from a testing perspective; When we test and think we are making a decision about how to test something maybe it is just a habit that has formed. Could we try and break this habit and therefore discover a different way to approach an aspect of our testing. Can we change our habit routines to get the same reward? Are there any bad habits we pick up as testers? What are our good habits?
I hope that you have found this interesting and in my next post I will look at the problems with habits and start to answer some of these questions.
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