The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain

by Annie Murphy Paul

Kerry Ann Dickson, an associate professor of anatomy and cell biology at Victoria University in Australia, makes use of all three of these hooks when she teaches. Instead of memorizing dry lists of body parts and systems, her students practice pretending to cry (the gesture that corresponds to the lacrimal gland/tear production), placing their hands behind their ears (cochlea/hearing), and swaying their bodies (vestibular system/balance). They feign the act of chewing (mandibular muscles/mastication), as well as spitting (salivary glands/saliva production). They act as if they were inserting a contact lens, as if they were picking their nose, and as if they were engaging in “tongue-kissing” (motions that represent the mucous membranes of the eye, nose, and mouth, respectively). Dickson reports that students’ test scores in anatomy are 42 percent higher when they are taught with gestures than when taught the terms on their own.