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Body movements can affect the brain's ability to solve a problem

By Super Admin
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Google Oneindia News

Washington, May 13 (ANI): Our brains can take cues from our body movements to understand and solve complex problems, say scientists.

University of Illinois psychology professor Alejandro Lleras, who conducted the study with Vanderbilt University postdoctoral researcher Laura Thomas, his former graduate student, has revealed that people participating in a study were able to solve a problem whose solution involved swinging strings by swinging their arms.

This is the first time that any study has shown that a person's ability to solve a problem can be influenced by how he or she moves.

"Our manipulation is changing the way people think. In other words, by directing the way people move their bodies, we are - unbeknownst to them - directing the way they think about the problem," said Lleras.

The researchers revealed that even after solving the problem, almost none of the participants was consciously aware of any connection between the physical activity they engaged in and the solution they found.

"The results are interesting both because body motion can affect higher order thought, the complex thinking needed to solve complicated problems, and because this effect occurs even when someone else is directing the movements of the person trying to solve the problem," Lleras said.

He said that the new findings offer new insight into what researchers call "embodied cognition", which describes the link between body and mind.

"People tend to think that their mind lives in their brain, dealing in conceptual abstractions, very much disconnected from the body.

This emerging research is fascinating because it is demonstrating how your body is a part of your mind in a powerful way. The way you think is affected by your body and, in fact, we can use our bodies to help us think," he said.

During the study, the subjects were asked to tie the ends of two strings together. The strings dangled from ceiling rafters, and were so far apart that a person grasping one could not reach the other.

The participants could take the help of some tools: a paperback book, a wrench, two small dumbbells and a plate. They were given a total of eight, two-minute sessions to solve the problem, with 100 seconds devoted to finding a solution, interrupted by 20 seconds of exercise.

"Our cover story was that we were interested in the effects of exercise on problem-solving," Lleras said.

Some subjects were told to swing their arms forward and backward during the exercise sessions, while others were directed to alternately stretch one arm, and then the other, to the side.

The researchers wanted to prevent the subjects from consciously connecting these activities to the problem of the strings, and so they had them count backwards by threes while exercising.

They found that people in the arm-swinging group were more likely than those in the stretch group to solve the problem, which required attaching an object to one of the strings and swinging it so that it could be grasped while also holding the other string.

According to them, by the end of the 16-minute deadline, participants in the arm-swinging group were 40 percent more likely than those in the stretch group to solve the problem.

"By making you swing your arms in a particular way, we're activating a part of your brain that deals with swinging motions. That sort of activity in your brain then unconsciously leads you to think about that type of motion when you're trying to solve the problem," Lleras said.

"We view this as a really important new window into understanding the complexity of human thought. I guess another take-home message is this: If you are stuck trying to solve a problem, take a break. Go do something else.

This will ensure that the next time you think about that problem you will literally approach it with a different mind. And that may help!" he said.

The study appears in an upcoming issue of the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. (ANI)

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