Given the recent James Watson “race and IQ” controversy, I took on to read Stephan Jay Gould’s classic book The Mismeasure of Man, in which he debunks IQ (and the underlying “g”) as measure of defined, innate, “intelligence”. Fascinating reading overall, very technical in some areas.

The key take-away? In the last chapter, A Positive Conclusion, he writes that

- “Flexibility is the hallmark of human evolution…In other mammals, exploration, play and flexibility of behavior are qualities of juveniles, only rarely of adults. We retain not only the anatomical stamp stamp of childhood, but its mental flexibility as well…Humans are learning animals”

He then relates this story from T.H. White’s novel The Once and Future King

- God, he recounts, created all animals as embryos and called each before his throne, offering them whatever additions to their anatomy they desired. All opted for specialized adult features-the lion for claws and sharp teeth, the deer for antlers and hoofs. The human embryo stepped forth last and said: Please God, I think that you made me in the shape which I now have for reasons best known to Yourselves and that it would be rude to change. If I am to have my choice, I will stay as I am. I will not alter any of the parts which you gave me…I will stay a defenceless embryo all my life, doing my best to make myself a few feeble implements out of the wood, iron, and the other materials which You have seen fit to put before me..” “Well done”, exclaimed the Creator in delighted tone. “Here all you embryos, come here with Read the rest of this entry »

Last Monday, NPR (very good US-based radio station) had a program on “do brain training programs work?” that reflected very old-fashioned thinking. In short, the guest speakers talked and talked about the importance of nutrition and physical exercise (both very important, as we have covered in this blog multiple times), and expressed skepticism about the concept of exercising our brains to improve attention, memory and other skills…I guess it takes a while to change old mental paradigms (And yes, some programs work better than others).

Neuroscientists have finally debunked that old thinking that our brains decline inexorably after a certain age with little each of us can do to “exercise” or “train our brains”. But don’t trust me. During the last year I have had the fortune to interview 11 cutting-edge neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists on their research and thoughts. Here are some of my favorite quotes (you can read the full interview notes by clicking the links):

 ”Today, thanks to fMRI and other neuroimaging techniques, we are starting to understand the impact our actions can have on specific parts of the brain.”- Dr. Judith S. Beck, Director of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, and author of The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person. Full Interview Notes.

 

“Learning is physical. Learning means the modification, growth, and pruning of our neurons, connections–called synapses– and neuronal networks, through experience…When we do so, we are cultivating our own neuronal networks. We become our own gardeners”- Dr. James Zull, Professor of Biology and Biochemistry at Case Western University. Full Interview Notes.

 

“Exercising our brains systematically is as important as exercising our bodies. In my experience, “Use it or lose it” should really be “Use it and get more of it”.- Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg, neuropsychologist, clinical professor of neurology at New York University School of Medicine, and disciple of the great neuropsychologist Alexander Luria. Full Interview Notes.

 

“What research has shown is that cognition, or what we call thinking and performance, is really a set of skills that we can train systematically. And that computer-based cognitive trainers or “cognitive simulations” are the most effective and efficient way to do so.” – Dr. Daniel Gopher, Director of the Research Center for Work Safety and Human Engineering at Technion Institute of Science. Full Interview Notes.

 

“Individuals who lead mentally stimulating lives, through education, occupation and leisure activities, have reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s symptoms. Studies suggest that they have 35-40% less risk of manifesting the disease”- Dr. Yaakov Stern, Division Leader of the Cognitive Neuroscience Division of the Sergievsky Center at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York. Full Interview Notes.

 

“It is hardly deniable that brains enchant Japanese people. We love brain training. Dentsu, the biggest advertising agency, announced the No.1 Consumer-chosen 2006 Product was game software and books for brain training.“- Go Hirano, Japanese executive, founder of NeuWell. Full Interview Notes.

 

 

“Elite performers are distinguished by the structuring of their learning process… It is important to understand the role of emotions: they are not “bad”. They are very useful signals. It is important to become aware of them to avoid being engulfed by them, and learn how to manage them.” – Dr. Brett Steenbarger, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, SUNY Medical University, and author of Enhancing Trader Performance. Full Interview Notes.

 

“We have shown that working memory can be improved by training…I think that we are seeing the beginning of a new era of computerized training for a wide range of applications” – Dr. Torkel Klingberg, Director of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at Karolinska Institute. Full Interview Notes.

 

 

“Training is very important: attentional control is one of the last cognitive abilities to develop in normal brain development…I can easily see the relevance in 2 fields. One, professional sports. Two, military training.”  Professor Bradley Gibson is the Director of the Perception and Attention Lab at University of Notre Dame. Full Interview Notes.

 

 

“I don’t see that schools are applying the best knowledge of how minds work. Schools should be the best place for applied neuroscience, taking the latest advances in cognitive research and applying it to the job of educating minds.” – Dr. Arthur Lavin, Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western School of Medicine, pediatrician in private practice. Full Interview Notes.

 

“Cognitive training rests on solid premises, and some programs already have very promising research results. Some of the most are promising areas are: neurofeedback, which as a whole is starting to present good research results, and working memory training.” – Professor David Rabiner, Senior Research Scientist and the Director of Psychology and Neuroscience Undergraduate Studies at Duke University: Full Interview Notes.

 

There is much we can do everyday to literally exercise our brains. No matter our age. So much to Learn…so Good to Learn! Let’s see when this story makes it into NPR.

I have just read the best blog post I have read in a loooong while, so let me share it here now. Brett Steenbarger is a Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and a Trading Psychology expert who I had the pleasure to interview a while back. He is a master at trading, learning, teaching and coaching. 

And has written this superb post: When Traders Lose Confidence – Part Three: Structuring Your Experience. We talk in this blog a lot about neuroplasticity and cognitive and emotional training, but what Brett outlines is, in summary, a very healthy attitude to life, lifelong brain plasticity, brain health, and success. Not bad!

See below a few of his quotes-but please read the full article here:

• What we call the “self”–how we experience ourselves–is the result of all that we internalize from people and events.
• Because we are always having new experiences–and can internalize these–we are always, to some degree, remaking who we are.
• Every activity we engage in provides us with feedback about ourselves: our abilities, how we’re perceived by others, our character. In selecting what we do, who we do it with, and how we do it, we can structure our experience to create mirrors of success and mastery.
• Experience is our psychological food; it’s vital that we feed ourselves well. But what does it mean to structure our experience and feed ourselves well psychologically?
• The reason I’m effective as a psychologist, I believe, is not because I’m all that more educated than others or utilize such better techniques. Rather, I have an uncanny ability to see the best in people; to push aside the problems of the moment and see through to qualities of greatness that are present within most of us, however fleetingly. It’s because I see the best in people that I can be a good mirror–and help others see in themselves what they otherwise cannot appreciate on their own Confidence comes from the right kind of mirroring–and we can choose our mirrors.

Please enjoy When Traders Lose Confidence – Part Three: Structuring Your Experience.

Given the stock market performance these days, Brett Steenbarger offers timely tips and resources for traders on managing stress and self-confidence: Updated Psychology of Trading Resources, including a list of relevant blogs such as Afraid to Trade blog, Trader Psychology blog, the Head Coach blog, his Stock Market Psychology blog and Smart Trader blog.

He also offers very good advice to build self-confidence, which can be useful to us all, no matter our profession: When Traders Lose Confidence – Part Two: Changing Your Self-Talk .

• “The key to changing the self-talk is to become aware of when you’re doing it. Most often, the negative talk is automatic. Journals are effective because they force us to reflect on our thinking and interrupt those automatic patterns. Similarly, I’ve had great results working with traders who talk their thoughts out loud into a tape recorder and then play them back. It’s an excellent way to become aware of your thinking, stand apart from it, and break the flow.”
• “Yet another strategy is to go through guided visualizations of challenging market scenarios while you’re calm and focused (before trading starts) and then mentally rehearse the self-talk you’d like to engage in during those situations. This helps to build new, positive patterns of self-talk.
• “The key to all these strategies is repetition: you’re training yourself to process information in new ways, and such training requires practice.”

You may enjoy our interview with Brett N. Steenbarger on Enhancing Trader Performance. And learn more on other techniques at Best practice for top trading performance: biofeedback and solutions for Traders.

Today I have an announcement to make. You probably are seeing all the articles about Brain Fitness in the press and wondering, “What is this all about?”, “Can someone help me navigate through all the programs out there?”, “How is Brain Fitness relevant to me in my personal life or at work?”. Well…we are delivering a series of workshops to companies and organizations combining modules -including scientific overview, the industry trends and key players, fun team-building exercises- that can be tailored to each organization’s specific needs. Sessions last from 1 to 6 hours, depending on the group’s composition and agenda and are delivered either in person or via web conference.

We want to be able to reach more organizations, so please let us know of any ideas!

Some recent examples

1. Managing Stress for Peak Performance (we mentioned some notes on an Accenture session)

New and challenging situations – such as taking on new responsibilities– can trigger reactions in our brain and body that limit or even block our decision-making abilities. These reactions may also harm our long-term brain power and health. Although we cannot avoid change and stressful situations, we can learn how to manage our stress levels to ensure peak performance-even in tough moments. The latest neuroscience research proves that stress management is a trainable “mental muscle.” This is true for any high pressure profession, be it trading, sports, or simply modern life.

2. The Science of Brain Health and Brain Fitness (similar to what I will teach at UC Berkeley OLLI)

Neuroscientists have shown how the human brain retains neuroplasticity (the ability to rewire itself) and neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons) during its full lifetime, leading to a new understanding of Read the rest of this entry »

Professor, trader and author Brett Steenbarger, one of the main experts on Trading psychology and Trader Performance (see our interview with him here), just announced he will speak at a Free Interactive Webinar on Trader Performance

• “During the Webinar, I will summarize and elaborate basic ideas from my book and also introduce new ideas developed and applied since the book’s publication. A unique feature of the session will be a participant Q&A moderated by Steve.” (Steven Buss, a member of the NeoTicker forum)

He recently wrote a great post on My Favorite Techniques for Overcoming Performance Anxiety in Trading, including a wonderful technique (see article to read the full description)

• “Of late, I’ve been making use of heart rate variability feedback through the Freeze-Framer program, which offers a nice graphical interface to help users track their progress and visually determine whether or not they’re in “the zone”.
• “Once the trader becomes adept at this, I then add Read the rest of this entry »

We often talk about how stress management is as important as cognitive training for brain fitness. We have also seen how traders can improve their performance by learning how to manage emotions of anxiety and fustration.

Golf Digest has just published an article on how golfers can see their game improved thanks to stress management programs. Golf Digest’s Edition includes the article Playing with heart: Pebble Beach’s top teacher wants to chokeproof your game, explaining how Laird Small, director of the Pebble Beach Golf Academy and the 2003 PGA of America Teacher of the Year, has been using these programs for a number of years.

Even more interestingly, it also relates how Read the rest of this entry »

Brett N. Steenbarger , Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at SUNY Upstate Medical University, active trader for over 30 years, former Director of Trader Development for Kingstree Trading, LLC, author of The Psychology of Trading and the new Enhancing Trader Performance, and of the blog TraderFeed: Exploiting the edge from historical market patterns, is writing a great collection of best practices for traders (many of which are very relevant for all high-pressure occupations).

He wrote a great article a few weeks ago on the value of biofeedback in achieving self control, and now deepens the discussion with this best practice for traders.

Both articles are a fun read-here go some quotes from the most recent one

• “This best practice describes biofeedback as a tool for performance enhancement among traders. It emphasizes that the role of biofeedback is to keep us in touch with our (implicit) knowledge, not to eliminate emotion from the decision-making process.”

• “we want to control the level of cognitive and physical arousal so that we retain access to expertise that is already present. Biofeedback is a powerful tool for achieving such cognitive and physical control.”
• “Through structured practice, people can learn to systematically improve their ability to enter and remain in states of calm focus. Such ability is important to trading (and many other performance activities), not because it eliminates emotion, but because it preserves our access to the somatic markers that represent our market feel. The heart rate variability feedback is particularly user friendly, because it is computer based and can track progress both in practice sessions and in real time performance.”
• “Using the Freeze-Framer program, audible signals tell the user when he or she is experiencing high, medium, or low “coherence”, which is a measure of emotional regulation. On-screen games require the user to keep a floating balloon in the air, for instance, based upon sustained medium and high readings. I recently had an interesting experience during one feedback session: I sustained a high level of the balloon, but then clicked a wrong button on the screen and erased my data accidentally! After that frustration, it was *much* harder for me to keep the balloon in the air. It was a nice illustration of the impact of frustration even several minutes after an event.”

You can learn more about this best practice for Traders and other high-pressure occupations where learning how to identify and manage our emotions and levels of stress is critical for performance.

Big party today. Carnivals everywhere. 

Caroline and I admit we are quite biased. We see the world through our own lenses. Which, these days, means a lot of passion for the science-based Brain Fitness Revolution. We have been trying hard to combine fun brain teasers with serious posts on how brain research is starting to influence Education, Health and Training, and are thankful that these efforts are starting to pay off-Mission Accomplishing!

The weekend started very well. Kevin from IQ Corner and TickTockBrainTalk had brought great early auspices by introducing a SharpBrains feed box into his blog. A number of trading blogs, including Brett Steenbarger’s and Trader Mike’s, enjoyed our posts on trader performance and biofeedback.

Today has been the full Carnival day. Read the rest of this entry »

Brett Steenbarger, the renowned expert in Trader Performance and author of the blog TraderFeed: Exploiting the edge from historical market patterns, among many things, just posted a kind note on our Peak Performance/ emotional management solution for traders.

He says: “This is the first biofeedback application that I’m aware of that is uniquely marketed to traders. I’ve used biofeedback to monitor my body’s level of arousal during trading and have found it to be quite useful.”

How does this work?

Traders, or anyone involved in very complex and rapidly evolving environments, need to make split second decisions based on sound logic, instead of emotional impulses. It is not easy to deal with frustration, for example, when a trade doesn’t go the way we anticipate. Stress can also cause us to miss new patterns in the market, thereby preventing us from adapting to, and succeeding in, new circumstances.

A biofeedback-based Peak Performance/Stress Management program may be useful, because a tool such as The Freeze-Framer biofeedback system provides real-time visual feedback on our “internal performance” and helps us identify and learn how to manage the emotional arousal that can disrupt executive functions: judgment, planning, analyzing, and reasoning. The graphs above show the difference in our body rhythms between frustration and the smooth target pattern of “The Zone” in an optimal learning process and peak performance.

For more information on Trader Performance, an interview with Brett Steenbarger, or to buy this this program, click on Brain Fitness Program for Traders. You may also want to learn more about finding your trading niche.

Enjoy,

Alvaro