How do you process information? And what do I mean by that statement.
We all take in information . . . always, at all times, through our five senses. Many times this information is subliminal. And sometimes our senses even lie to us. Magicians who perform as illusionists count on this fact. I like to think of it as a matrix or screen through which we accept and process information. Some people we know have a screen with big, huge gaping holes in it. They are stimulated by everything around them. These we refer to as attention deficit. Perhaps a better description would be that they are attention sensitive. Then at the other end of the spectrum are those folks who seems to have itty-bitty, teeny, tiny openings in their screens. We call them insensitive or obtuse or oblivious. But, fortunately, most of us live with a happy medium (whether she contacts the dead or not) somewhere between the two extremes.
We all process this information. One way or another, we assimilate and react to whatever information our senses have taken in. But we all have our own, unique method of processing that information. Think of this as a grid with the vertical axis going from random to sequential and the horizontal axis ranging from concrete to abstract. We all fit in to that grid . . . somewhere. Here, I want to explore the random/sequential axis.
I wish I could claim that this bit of insight was something I divined;. Alas, I admit it come from some workshop that I, as a teacher, attended somewhere along my teaching career. However, it was also a bit of information that informed my teaching style from that day on to say nothing of my view of myself and those around me. Here’s a little test: When you buy a new appliance, do you read the directions of how to operate it? and if you do read the directions, do you read them in sequence and then follow them? Yup . . . that is sequential processing.
I, on the other hand, tend to look at those directions then, if I read them at all, I might read steps 1, 9, 4 and 12 and if I can’t figure it out from that then I want to find someone to show me. I’m about as random a processor as you’re going to find. The detriment of that is that it tends to result is disorganization and what might appear to be thoughtlessness and forget the schedules. The plus side is that we random processors tend to be the artistic side of the population. We are more apt to put things together that others might not see as possible. We are the dreamers, the explorers, the visionaries. . . . we just better have someone close to us that is sequential processing to actualize what we envision.
Which, of course, brings us to the sequential processor. These are the folk who read, and follow every step of the instructions. Gotta love ‘em. They’re the ones that actually get things done, the ones not only follow the steps, but often, create the steps to follow. They tend to be the engineers and mathematicians. They are the ones who can see what steps need to be followed and in what order to reach a given result.
Then you add in the concrete/abstract continuum. By needs of space, we’ll talk about that later.
As I said above, we all fit into that continuum somewhere. I doubt there are few that exist at one end of the scale or the other. Those we call dysfunctional. The hoarders at one end and the OCDs at the other. But most of us live somewhere in the middle. And that doesn’t mean that you ever stop striving to include the opposite side of the spectrum into your behavior. I will endeavor, until the day I die, to be more organized; to “forget” things less; to get things done in good time. to realize that if I only have a half hour to get ready, I’d better not stop to read “just one more page” of that action novel on my bed-stand.
So, the next time you are exasperated by your teen or mate or co-worker because they can’t seem to get organized or get somewhere on time, or they simply forgot, cut ‘em some slack then help them move toward the center of the matrix.. . or not! Who knows, sometimes it might even work.
Adrienne Jacoby is a 40-plus-year resident of Shasta County and native-born Californian. She was a teacher of vocal music in the Enterprise Schools for 27 years and has been retired for 11 years.
A musician all her life, she was married to the late Bill Jacoby with whom she formed a locally well -known musical group who prided themselves in playing for weddings, wakes, riots, bar mitzvas and super market openings. And, oh yes … she has two children, J’Anna and Jayson.
