I hear Dead People
By Patrick Kinane
There is a conversation going on in your head all the time. It becomes a psychological problem when you start to hear those little voices. The conversation I am referring to is between the two halves of your brain, commonly referred to as the left hemisphere and right hemisphere. The two hemispheres, although connected, serve two different and distinct functions and generally work well together. However, there are occasions where they want to go their separate paths and you have conflict. This left brain-right brain conflict is easily demonstrated.
We can recognize colors and we can read. These are easy tasks for us to perform and we can do them quickly. Color recognition is a function of the right brain and reading resides in the left brain. In this little experiment below, I want you to look at the graphic on the bottom of the page and read the color, not the word.
Not so easy, is it? This is left brain-right brain conflict. We are predominantly left-brain oriented, so we want to read the words but the instructions were to read the color (which is a right-brain activity). Most of the time the two parts of the brain play nicely together, but there is a conflict in cases like this. The instructions are directed to the right brain but the left brain wants to take control. With this simple experiment you can see that your cognitive ability slows down when you have a right brain-left brain conflict. You don’t function as well as you should.
What do they do?
Aside from reading and recognition, there are many other things these two parts of the brain do.
The left brain is the logical side and is involved in speech, reading, writing, details, facts, math and science. The left hemisphere is the rational, literal and pragmatic side. The left side focuses on linear actions and orderly movement.
The right brain is the intuitive side and is involved in creativity, spatial perception, symbols, images, facial recognition and imagination. The right hemisphere holds our beliefs and flights of fantasy. The right side focuses on circular motion, fluid action and rhythmic movement.
Because the functions of the right and left brain are dissimilar, there will be occasions where there is going to be disagreement resulting in conflict. It sounds like the left brain wants to work and keep things in order whereas the right brain is the free spirit and wants to play and have fun. They complement each other but there is a little part in the right side of the brain that gums up the works.
The left side is analytical and slow reacting. It can take stored objective evidence and compare it to the present situation for similarities and differences. It is also the storekeeper of calmness, contentment and safety.
The right side is defensive and fast reacting. It does not have the ability to analyze situations. The left side houses intense and negative emotions.
WOW. Are these two different people living within the same body? Maybe, but that is another problem that we will not be getting into here.
The amygdala’s role
The right side of the brain also houses the amygdala, a safety circuit breaker. If upset enough, the amygdala will shut down our analytical thinking ability emanating from the left side of the brain. The amygdala is our protective safety valve designed to block interference that will slow reaction time.
The left brain is dominant most of the time, but it continually converses with the right brain so that both brains work in concert. As pressure or stress increases, the amygdala in the right brain gets alerted and reaction time increases, but our analytical abilities are still operating — kind of putting the brakes on things. If the pressure or stress gets to a threatening crisis situation, the amygdala detects it and will act as a circuit breaker, turning off the analytical side of our left brain which can slow reaction time. Now we are running on autopilot and pure reaction. Thought processes are gone or working at bare minimum. This is a protective measure that probably stems from our time spent as hunters on the savanna where we could easily wind up being the hunted, so we had to remain alert to react swiftly if trouble arose. This safety device is still with us and active.
Crisis situations
You can’t let your left brain make decisions that are as threatening as grabbing a hot pan out of the stove. If your left brain was analyzing the situation to determine whether the heat was enough to cause damage, then it would have to decide which course of action would be an appropriate reaction — you would wind up with severe burns. Insetad, the right side kicks in and you react instantly — no analysis required.
This also explains why in crisis situations (be they placed upon us or self-induced) that reach a certain stage, we react by failing to analyze the situation and making mistakes. This is a warning for managers who apply the pressure, the systems that produce the pressure and the individuals who feel the pressure. Pressure is also one of the human factors “Dirty Dozen.”
Practice, practice
We can reduce the effects of this conflict through practice. The reactivity of the right side of the brain is a learned activity. You didn’t know heat and the dangers of too much heat from birth — you learned it or were taught. You can practice using the fluidity of the right brain and let the left brain keep things in order.
You see it in sports where a person trains, slowly improving through careful analysis and adjusting continually. The best example of this is martial arts. You begin your martial arts training with preset reactions. These reactions have been learned during the course of your life experiences. Martial arts training, such as my training in Kenpo, shows you the technique that has been perfected over time for improved efficiency, effectiveness and conservancy of motion. You learn the technique slowly and you make minor adjustment to accommodate your physical abilities in carrying out the technique. You practice and analyze what you are doing wrong and strive to perfect the technique.
You learn certain techniques for certain situations. The object is to get to where your repertoire of techniques is wide enough to react to a wide variety of situations without the need for analysis. This repertoire also needs to be broad enough that when confronted with a new situation, the right brain can grab a technique stored in the left brain and still react swiftly. This is how training improves your right brain’s reaction while maintaining your left brain’s desire to maintain order. All this is tested in your black belt test as you are bombarded with situation on top of situation, some in succession and some all at once. Additionally, as with my instructor, a new situation previously not encountered or learned is presented to you to see how you react. The object isn’t to force you to fail — it is designed to see what technique you choose. The correct choice is immaterial but the point is that you chose a technique and did not just shut down and revert to some chaotic action. As my instructor said, this was intended to show you that you do not know everything and there is much more to learn. In reality, it is a display that your right brain is still maintaining control and the amygdala hasn’t shut it down. You will fail the test if your chaotic actions turn to anger because you have not learned the control.
You can’t control what goes on in your head, but it is trainable. Increasing reaction time without training inhibits our ability to think logically. Training helps us to increase the time to react logically. Being aware that these conflicts exist and that we are not always in control of our own actions should make us take pause when confronted with something new, taking into account the old carpenter’s axiom, “Measure twice, cut once.”
Patrick Kinane joined the Air Force after high school and has worked in aviation since 1964. Kinane is a certified A&P with Inspection Authorization and also holds an FAA license and commercial pilot certificate with instrument rating. He earned a B.S. in aviation maintenance management, MBA in quantitative methods, M.S. in education and Ph.D. in organizational psychology. The majority of his aviation career has been involved with 121 carriers where he has held positions from aircraft mechanic to director of maintenance. Kinane currently works as Senior Quality Systems Auditor for AAR Corp. and adjunct professor for DeVry University instructing in Organizational Behavior, Total Quality Management (TQM) and Critical Thinking. PlaneQA is his consulting company that specializes in quality and safety system audits and training. Speaking engagements are available with subjects in Critical Thinking, Quality Systems and Organizational Behavior. For more information, visit www.PlaneQA.com.