SKILL: 4. Working both collaboratively and autonomously
EQF LEVEL (INTERNAL REFERENCE): 4
Keywords:
1 Perspective
2 Change
3 Mindset
4 Cognitive flexibility
5 Obstacles
Introduction:
By the end of this LU you will be able to comprehend how to adopt cognitive flexibility.
Content:
Cognitive flexibility is the ability to adapt our behaviour and thinking in response to the environment. It is considered a core aspect of executive functioning which includes the mental processes that allow us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions and juggle different tasks at the same time.
Cognitive flexibility leads to better “cold cognition”, which is rational thinking, throughout our lifespan. In children, it leads to better reading abilities and better school performance.
It is also associated with higher resilience to negative life events and to a better quality of life in older people . It can also be beneficial in emotional and social cognition, as research has shown that cognitive flexibility has a strong link with the ability to understand emotions in others, thoughts and intentions.
Mental (cognitive) flexibility allows us to assess and adjust with less stress to the different tasks, roles and responsibilities that we are presented with everyday. It moves us away from limiting thought patterns to more openness and possibility.
It is key to creativity since it is the ability to think of new ideas, make innovative connections between ideas and create new inventions. It also supports problem solving.
How can we improve cognitive flexibility?
- Pay attention to your thoughts and be aware of where your mind goes when you are giving a speech or sharing information. This can help you to stay focused and avoid distractions.
- Ask yourself some questions: what do you want to know? What would you like to discuss? It is important to be aware of your surroundings, and not to be too trusting of people.
- Create mental categories of information and situations in advance to make it easier to organise your experience.While reading the news, place the article headlines in mental categories such as environment, politics, and art. In order to easily access the information you need later on, make a note of it now.
- Record your experience. Do a brain dump. Research says that if we unload our worries it frees up more space in our brain to think of other things throughout the day, therefore promoting greater flexibility.
- “If you understand it, you’ll remember it.”: Oftentimes we have trouble recalling concepts because we don’t understand them as well as we thought we did.
- Physical exercise. After only twenty minutes of intensive exercise, your brain releases dopamine, serotonin, opioids, endorphins, neurotrophics, and endocannabinoids — feel-good chemicals that allow the body and brain to learn and grow. For evolutionary reasons, the body is primed to learn while exercising. Exercise also enhances focus and lowers anxiety. Over time, it stabilises mood, increases the size of the hippocampus, and promotes neurogenesis. All of these things enhance cognitive flexibility.
- Learn new skills. Learning new skills promotes mental flexibility. Try picking up a musical instrument, a new foreign language, or learning a new game.
- Shake up your routine. To keep the mind sharp and flexible, introduce new things into your routine. New stimuli promote mental flexibility because they force your brain to adapt quickly. Travel is great for this, but you can also simply take a new route home from work or go for a walk in a neighbourhood you haven’t explored before. Occasionally surrounding yourself with people who are unlike you is also a good way to push your brain into making new connections.
- Cultivate humour. Quick-wittedness is a sign of cognitive flexibility. When we make a joke, it means we’re able to step back and see the bigger picture rather than getting caught up in the literal meaning of the situation. Finding humour in a variety of situations is an exercise in flexible thinking.
-
Resources:
Language point
Read the following sentence.
It is considered a core aspect of executive functioning which includes the mental processes that allow us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions and juggle different tasks at the same time.
The phrase in bold is a Passive Voice sentence starter. ‘It’ is followed by the passive (be+past participle) to indicate that the information is general knowledge. ‘It’ in this case does not have the function of a pronoun that refers to something in particular.
