All Thinking May Originate With the Body

The oft-heard advice, “think before you act,” –something that for Geezer remains a distant goal– may be rendered moot if a new way of thinking about thought (nice if you have time for it) turns out to be correct. Drake Bennett writes in the Boston Globe about the newfound conviction of many scientists that all thought, from solving math problems to memorization, starts with and/or is facilitated by moving our bodies. Bennett cites recent studies, one showing
that children can solve math problems better if they are told to use their
hands while thinking, another suggesting that stage actors
remember their lines better when they are moving, and another revealing that subjects asked to move their eyes in a specific
pattern while puzzling through a brainteaser were twice as likely to
solve it as those did not move their eyes.
The concept makes perfect sense to Angeline Lillard, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia who is quoted in the piece. “Our brains evolved to help us function in a dynamic environment, to
move through it and find food and escape predators,” she says. “It
didn’t evolve to help us sit in a chair in a classroom and listen to
someone and regurgitate information.”
Read more of this long and interesting piece in the Boston Globe.