Peter Boyer: We make sense of the world through the patterns all around us, sifting through information to find order so that we can make better decisions, become more effective problem solvers and handle daily life more efficiently.
Imagine how confusing life would be without patterns. We rely on patterns every day, maybe without even knowing it, all those quick judgments and calculations. And there are patterns we use to plan our daily lives.
Developmental psychologist Sherry Willis has studied problem solving and how patterns help us become better problem solvers for over 20 years.
Sherry Willis: So there is recycling schedules. Most transportation has schedules like airplanes, buses. And rather than trying to have rote memory, if you look at the printed schedule, you can usually see patterns. I think it's Henry James said, we live in a really booming, buzzing, noisy, changing world, and if we can't impose some order, which is really patterns or categorization, then we'd have to tend to everything all at the same time, and that's totally impossible.
Peter Boyer: Our brain does this by constantly scanning for patterns and helping us frame all of the information coming at us, using our experiences and knowledge.
Sherry Willis: Pattern recognition really helps us simplify our world so that we can focus on what's most critical and what's important for our health or safety.
Peter Boyer: Using patterns as shortcuts can help us make faster decisions and be better problem solvers. I think we can all get behind simplifying our world and becoming better at managing day-to-day life tasks, right?
