Learning/Processing Speed

[WantonNoodle]

Are any of you are capable of understanding anything but seem to take longer to do so than you would like; Or longer than any peers who you consider intelligent?

Or if you can absorb anything and do it quickly, could you provide some insight into your thought processes and how you are be able to do this?

Have any of you experimented with or succeeded in increasing your learning or processing speed in general?

Do absorption and processing speed, ability to understand systems regardless of time, or the relationship between the two, correlate with MBTI type? Do these things have any other implications that you feel like sharing?



Some background on me relating to these questions...

I am currently taking some prereqs for a degree in astrophysics. I rarely fail at understanding a system I analyze (with the exception of people, though I am improving here somewhat). However, I take a long time to absorb some information. Calculus is a good example. I read/take in the information, turn it around in my head, fit it with other information, read it again, etc. Once I get it, I get it. I just need time to absorb it. I am also relatively slow at spitting the information back out. It is not uncommon for me to be one of the last in the room when taking tests.

My friend, who is in most of my classes, is the complete opposite of me. He finishes his homework in half the time I do. He is usually the first one done on exams. On calculus tests, his pencil flitters about the paper and he is done before he himself even knows what the hell happened. The information is just automatically ejected from his mind. He even describes it that way: "I dunno man, it just happens." Needless to say, he absorbs the information with similar speed.

Can anyone relate this to the way certain type functions operate?

 

[IssphitiKOzS]

Maybe you're over thinking it.

Like you said, you try to fit it with other information, instead of just looking only at what it is. I can't say any of this will help, sorry. I just know that usually when the penny drops and people finally understand what I am trying to explain, they give the explanation that they were reading too far into it and looking for something that wasn't there.

Keep it simple. That's what I do.

 

[WantonNoodle]

I'm not sure I can overthink calculus. I think about it until I get it.

Surely someone in a forum of INTPs has some experience with thinking...

 

[CLOfriendOSE]

There are a few major ways to absorb information more quickly.

1) Psychophysical reinforcement. Being aware of the body, of the breath, until you reach a higher level of consciousness. To be totally in the moment, strictly listening/reading/working on something. When you bring the "subconscious" closer, things go into it faster.
For those of us who have trouble using emotions to do our cognitive work, we must go to physical state of being (emotions often have kinesthetic reinforcement). If we have a "focused" state associated with a relaxed body (instead of tense as many people are) we can enhance our intuitive processes. If we are breathing well, we receive more oxygen. If we associate "focuses" with "tense" then we sabotage ourselves - the longer we work, the more oxygen we cut off, and the more confusing things become.

2) Intellectual reinforcement. How many different ways can you think about something? For calculus, are you thinking of the equations or are you thinking visually? Have you worked through the proof for what you are working on?
I used to take all the numbers out of my homework and replace them with constants. This allows you to see the answer to a given problem as you read it. (It also helps you think about the units involved).
This is where the phrase "knowing something inside and out" comes from.

3) How many associations do you have between your ideas? If you actively link everything together, eventually the web reinforces itself.
As a former mathematician, now artist, I propose this:
Color corresponds to Form. Pitch corresponds to Form. Harmony is the relationship between forms. Thus, the entirety of audio-visual information, given the right tools (pitch wheel overlaid to color wheel), can be translated into Harmony, which explains the interaction of Form. As such the "active information" of the environment is simplified, allowing for a tighter bond to the subconscious and states of a "waking, malleable reality".
For somebody involved in math: When you walk around, are you using your knowledge? For example, instead of seeing cars, why not simplify the masses and view interactions of vectors? See a person? Analyze the way that their body is interacting with Gravity. Try breaking down your surroundings into basic equations you can work with (trees as cylinders arranged via fractal geometry, waves interaction in puddles, surface tension of raindrops).




The more we trust our intuitive processes, the more we can get from them. If we fragment our intuitive information with poor concentration and body alignment we cannot absorb. If we do not believe we have absorbed something, we cannot absorb it.

 

[WantonNoodle]

Awesome reply. Only after reading the solutions do I realize the mistakes I've been making. Just about all of this applies to me. The breathing, the tension, the state of flow, the visualization to compliment the equations...

I expect that applying my knowledge to the realworld in realtime as I navigate and interact with it will be extremely effective in strengthining my understanding of the universe and the mental constructs I use to do so.

The concept of connecting ideas by representing them with color and sound and the relationships between them is fascinating. This makes sense. The brain's native format for thoughts, ideas, and memory is visual.

I often associate colors with things like numbers (obviously not in the savant sense) days of the week, months, places, etc. Doing basic arithmetic I rearrange rows and colums of blocks.

Sound I do not use as much and am not familiar with. I just learned my first few cords on the guitar, so I will be getting aquanted with this as well. Is this color/pitch wheel similar to what you had in mind?

http://www.newmediacaucus.org/html/journal/issues/2008_spring/media/prometheus_color_wheel.gif

Could you please provide an example of how you use this system? Perhaps using math as an example; or anything you feel appropriate.

Thanks CLOfriendOSE. You've given me a lot if interesting ideas to work with.

 

[Amagi82]

I relate very strongly to the OP. When I study something, I develop a very deep understanding of it, but I am a verrrrrry sloowwwww thinker. I was usually one of the last to finish a test, and I'm useless in quick verbal debate. Give me a few hours and I'll write you a brilliant argumentative paper, but ask me something verbally and I'm screwed. I often don't come off as equally intelligent to my friends, despite the fact that I'm probably smarter than any of them, at least as far as IQ and conceptual understanding goes.

 

[CLOfriendOSE]

I actually prefer to use a chromatic color wheel (RBY) lined up to pitch class (0-11).

The color wheel spaces by fifths gives the maximum distinction in color between pitches, but says basically nothing about the Form. Having the tritone (midpoint of octave) equal to the complimentary color is much more useful (for me). Also, the RBY color wheel is closer to how we perceive things in real life (the physical colors). The color wheel in your link is RGB I do believe.

This idea started mostly as a compositional device, then moved to a sight-singing system, and now is used primarily as a system of contemplation. Once the intervalic structure of color emerges, the outer world is simply easier to comprehend. Colors "pop", etc.

Harmonic color can aid us in clarifying, for example, objects in 3D/depth perception.
Unfortunately I bring Form to Art, and have little experience applying these color concepts to Math. (as they developed later in my intellectual life).
When I had been doing lots of Math, I used colored paper to organize my types of deconstructed problems. So, when I took a test, I would see "blue" question and know the start And endpoint in terms of constants.

If you find more fluency using color for arithmetic let me know. Clearly color ->wheel helps with angles and their relationships, but as I said, I left the higher math world a while ago.

 

[Czech Yes or No]

I relate very strongly to the OP. When I study something, I develop a very deep understanding of it, but I am a verrrrrry sloowwwww thinker. I was usually one of the last to finish a test, and I'm useless in quick verbal debate. Give me a few hours and I'll write you a brilliant argumentative paper, but ask me something verbally and I'm screwed. I often don't come off as equally intelligent to my friends, despite the fact that I'm probably smarter than any of them, at least as far as IQ and conceptual understanding goes.

I agree 100%.

 

[WantonNoodle]

Amagi82, Czech,

The verbal vs writing deal is the same for me as well. Always thinking of what to say when it's too late. I can write up a logically argumentative storm, given enough time. Every once in a while I will surprise myself by verbalizing large sets of clear, well structured sentences without tripping up on a single word. This is rare. I find it frustrating to not always be able to communicate my thoughts clearly and quickly.

CLOfriendOSE,

Ffs you have really opened up a can of worms here. I feel compelled to gather them up and create a worm city. The visual/auditory system you have proposed is fascinating, but it is going to take me some time to assimilate the basics of music and color theory and look for ways to apply them to my environmental processing.

Applying the color wheel to the unit circle is an obvious example.

I did some brief reading. This seems to apply here.
http://www.newmediacaucus.org/html/journal/issues.php?f=papers&time=2008_spring&page=hertz_ox
Gradient - a continuous range of values; can be distinguished as properties of specific media. ex. color, pitch
Color and musical pitch are examples of cyclical gradients; they wrap around on themselves

It makes sense that these continuous values could be mapped to and used to represent the continuous values of various types of mathematics and other systems of nature.

Perhaps there is a way to represent the relationship between equations and graphs using the mapped color/pitch wheel. One could assign colors to integer values and equations, sound to shape (of curves and vectors, higher pitch = higher value = steeper slope), and use the relationship between the two.

I do not know enough about math or color theory or music theory or the brain to know whether such a system will provide any benefit. The savants seem to use it well.

Upon typing this out, it seems that learning a system to use as a representation of another system which I am also currently learning may cause problems. Still, I will study it further.

 

[Vrecknidj]

I am currently taking some prereqs for a degree in astrophysics. I rarely fail at understanding a system I analyze (with the exception of people, though I am improving here somewhat). However, I take a long time to absorb some information. Calculus is a good example. I read/take in the information, turn it around in my head, fit it with other information, read it again, etc. Once I get it, I get it. I just need time to absorb it. I am also relatively slow at spitting the information back out. It is not uncommon for me to be one of the last in the room when taking tests.

My friend, who is in most of my classes, is the complete opposite of me. He finishes his homework in half the time I do. He is usually the first one done on exams. On calculus tests, his pencil flitters about the paper and he is done before he himself even knows what the hell happened. The information is just automatically ejected from his mind. He even describes it that way: "I dunno man, it just happens." Needless to say, he absorbs the information with similar speed.

Can anyone relate this to the way certain type functions operate?

When I was a sophomore in college, I was in linear algebra and physics. A friend of mine (an INTJ, incidentally, with a measured 184 IQ) would sleep through class, never do homework, and then get 100% on all his tests. The math was just transparent for him. Just like I don't have to do "work" to understand most of what I read (that is, the English words themselves are transparent and I jump right through them to the meaning, usually), he didn't get stymied by the numbers and symbols and saw right through them to the meanings they represented.

Drove me nuts.

For me, from about calc 3 through mathematical logic, I had to just work my way through everything. I was always good at math, but, at the higher levels, I had to go slowly, methodically, and I had to stay with concepts until I mastered them.

Dave

 

[TriflinThomas]

If I don't understand something if I don't get it, I memorize the entire sentence (in classes like econ, history, english, etc.) and match up the sentence with an answer on the eventual test. I don't try to understand it until after I've taken the test, if that makes sense..

 

[valance]

You probably need more practice on calculus and astrophysics.

Reading is not sufficient to establish an understanding. Writing down the examples in the book does not only help for getting the procedure, but also gradually making the concept intuitive.

There is no other way faster than this.

Speed of learning/processing would not go up until you got a deeper understanding.

 

[Darby]

I need to read all of this, but as for myself, my comprehension level has two components: U(useful), and NU (NOT useful).

U is for social interaction, people skills, understanding what people mean when they are sarcastic,etc. My U skills are fucking awful. All my social interaction lies primarily in attempting to compensate my U for NU.

NU is reading comprehension, seeing which direction things are leading based on the details given. Generally only useful for movies, books, etc. I have a retardedly good NU compared to most people I come into contact with. To the point where me and a friend have discussed opening 1/4's of books and I've told him how it ends simply based on that info (obviously I can provide more detailed endings based on how far I got into the book: difference between "it ends in suicide." and "she killed herself because of this emotionally distressing feature expressed earlier.").

To describe how my NU works would be to describe the function (Sinx)/x. My approximations start out very broad, and slowly hone in on 0 (or the actual ending).

With regards to what OP actually was talking about after I bothered to read it, I just kind of pay attention and it "clicks" there's very little study that goes on for me (not very high in those departments anyhow, but perhaps I should actually show up to class).

 

[Anamnesis]

You probably need more practice on calculus and astrophysics.

Reading is not sufficient to establish an understanding. Writing down the examples in the book does not only help for getting the procedure, but also gradually making the concept intuitive.

There is no other way faster than this.

Speed of learning/processing would not go up until you got a deeper understanding.

I have to agree with this 100%.

I had written a whole huge essay on how to increase understanding until I realized the OP was talking about speed. My mind wanders in between posts, from tangent to tangent.