Knowing through New and Repeated Experiences

As spatial-processing and object-oriented species, we learn by building internal representations (IR) of objects and storing them in cognitive maps. Overtime, new experiences expand our mental maps while repeated experiences strengthen them.

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1. Knowing through New: the more we know, the more we don’t know.

In acquiring new knowledge and experiences, the more we learn about something, the less we seem to know about it. Why this oxymoron?

Let me try to explain this from the perspective of mental maps.

Our ability to store information efficiently through cognitive maps and be innately creative and curious at the same time allows us to learn quickly and at great capacity. These two abilities co-influence each other in that curiosity drives the search for knowledge, the need for predictions, and hence the expansion of metal maps; and knowledge, in return, drives more curiosity.

To illustrate conceptually, let’s consider a network of three IRs of objects. If we assume that each IR allows us to generate 2 new predictions related to the objects, which we don’t know whether are true or not prior to evaluation, then the network can produce a total of 6 predictions. If for every prediction evaluated we discover something new, and hence add an IR to the network, then by the time we’ve evaluated all 6 of the predictions and expanded our network by 6 IRs, we would’ve triggered 12 new predictions. As this process perpetuates, we can see that the number of predictions we can make exponentiates.

As we expand our cognitive maps with new experiences, we are also expanding our capability to ask more and deeper questions about the world. With more knowledge stored in our brain, we can simulate more and richer predictions ahead of real time. In the process of finding answers to our questions and evaluating our predictions, we become exposed to new things and events, which fuels our curiosity to know more. Thus the more we know, the less we know at the same time.

2. Knowing through Repeated: In building expertise, be mindful of openness to new ideas.

Repeated experience allows us to build expertise. With repeated experiences, the IR of the things we learned condenses and simplifies, allowing for quick recognition. However, with increasing familiarity, we become more inclined to jump to a conclusion quickly whenever a salient feature is detected in a familiar setting and activates the map correspondingly. This is not always helpful and can sometimes lead to grave consequences. For example, doctors can sometimes misdiagnose their patients based on the salient symptoms commonly encountered in their practice. Chronic abdomen pain can mean inflammatory bowel diseases to a general physician; but to an oncologist, it often means cancer.

Repeated exposure enriches and reinforces the structure of our mental maps, enabling effortless access to the networks. However, as these maps strengthen, it also becomes harder for us to rewire and overwrite them with new information, particularly with information that is contradictory to the IRs already in our maps. That’s why we often hear the saying that it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. This is why it’s hard to change people’s deep-rooted preconceived notions, which are anticipations arisen naturally from mental maps that have been concretized through time. Thus, as we become expert in what we do through repeated experiences, we must also be mindful that we do not generate stereotypes from our IRs, jump to conclusions too quickly, or close ourselves off from experiences that do not conform to our mental maps.