i spend almost of my time in thought. i've been this way ever since i was a kid, and i think this is why i was so bad at social skills.
most people learn social skills through implicit-pattern matching. 'when i do this, that happens' - with no real structural understanding of _why_. they implicitly learn patterns like posture, eye contact, facial microexpressions.
that implicit learning is not possible if you are always engaged in conceptual thought.
that implicit learning is not possible if you are always engaged in conceptual thought.
While I agree with you, the paper is saying that mindfulness (being "in the moment" or aware of your surroundings) results in reduced implicit learning. That seems to be the opposite of your observation.
Although I have no idea whether "dispositional mindfulness" is different from "mindfulness," so maybe my comment isn't quite accurate. But if it's any way related to the colloquial definition of "mindfulness," then the paper is saying it's negatively correlated with implicit learning.
Is the paper's "implicit learning" the same as the type of learning you're talking about? I don't know.
thanks for the clarification. you're right on that.
i've found that my social skills have dramatically improved from trying to learn them _conceptually_, rather than implicitly. I watched a lot of tv shows - walking dead, house of cards, game of thrones, breaking bad - and kept pausing the tv to discuss with my wife _why_ people were acting the ways they did.
doing this really helped me come to understand a lot of things, like the importance of staying calm if you want to be respected. apparently 'dispositional mindfulness' is mindfulness as a default state, as opposed to something practiced intentionally.
going about my day thinking about abstract things constantly seems like the opposite of dispositional mindfulness. i'll haveh to look further.
Based on your description, it sounds like you may be on the autistic spectrum. Perhaps reading up on that can give you more insights.
You may also find this book interesting, by a man who was diagnosed with Asperger's (which is now just said to be on the autistic spectrum) as an adult, after his wife started picking up on it: http://www.amazon.com/The-Journal-Best-Practices-Marriage/dp...
Almost everyone spends most of their time in thought. This mode of the brain is called the "default mode network".
Mindfulness disengages the "default mode network" and instead engages the "experiential focus network" which is more attuned to the 5 senses, and less absorbed in thought.
my 'default mode' is the task positive network.
the task positive network and default mode network are counter-driven - so having a task positive network active means the default mode network is off. evaluating other people's emotional states and daydreaming are the primary functioning of the default mode network - things which it takes me a lot of effort to do. drifting off to thought about 'the nature of consciousness' comes naturally; it takes effort to look at the people around me and evaluate their emotional content.
this is the point i was trying to make above, but failed to understand the article.
I think that statement is most accurate with the word "vaguely". This sort of mental state/behavioral disposition and A.D.D. are mutually exclusive. In fact, usually people who are this way are introverted and rather calm natured.
Nope. Hyperactivity is not a necessary symptom for A.D.D. But this is a very common misconception. Without hyperactivity, patients have a tendency to never get a diagnosis until sometimes even in their fifties, they start wondering why they are still chaotic, unorganized, can't seem to get their social skills in order or other seemingly unrelated stuff.
Turns out, when somebody has diagnoseable ADHD, then the corresponding treatment options apply. And there's not a thing they can do to solve their problems which is more effective than treating ADHD according to well-proven guidelines.
I can recommend "Pay Attention! ADHD through the lifetime" from Coursera. That MOOC goes into quite some detail about how ADHD affects people.
most people learn social skills through implicit-pattern matching. 'when i do this, that happens' - with no real structural understanding of _why_. they implicitly learn patterns like posture, eye contact, facial microexpressions.
that implicit learning is not possible if you are always engaged in conceptual thought.