The Mental Pallet is an analogy I use to reference two things, the working memory and the closure effect. The working memory is a system in our minds that is used to temporarily hold information which is important for reasoning, decision-making and our behaviour. In the 1960s, Miller, Galanter, and Pribram first began to test and understand the phenomena of the working memory as they were comparing the human mind to the processing power of computers.
Later, in 1974, Baddeley and Hitch further developed the theory when they forumlated the multicomponent model of the working memory. This model was composed of several elements that function together that explains how we process information. See memory post.
The mental pallet is very much based off the phenomena of the working memory and focused on what is filling the contents of our minds. The Mental Pallet, as an analogy, is used to designate the amount of information that we are stressed or thinking about at a current time. The goal is to reduce the amount of things that are 'on our minds' or taking up mental space in our working memory such that we can have free space to focus more clearly on specific tasks, ideas or be creative.
Closure
The need for closure if highly tied to the concept of the Mental Pallet. Closure is one's need to reduce ambiguity and have definitive answers to questions which increases the infividuals's ability to make predictions in their environment. In 1993, Kruglanski deveoped a scare to which individuals strive for closure more than others and determiend two primary tendencies; urgency, where people want closure as fast as possible, and permanence, where people seek to maintain their closre for as long as possible.
Having a clear mind and not accumulating uncompleted goals and tasks is essential to keep our mental pallet open for new information or the integration of existing information.
When we feel that we are under high stress, much of the time there is a lot of things 'on our mind.' If we complete tasks and achieve closure with each thing that our working memory is holding, we will be freeing up space for other information.
Our mind is like our mental work space where we think, remember information and create new ideas. If we think of a work space like our desk or a painter's pallet, the more items or paint that are on the work space, the less space we have for other, new items. The purpose of the analogy is to give a sense to think about not cluttering contents of our minds, working memory, so that we can be more effective in our lives and achieve the kind of well being and fulfill the kind of becoming that resonates with our idenities.
Mental Health
There is evidence that one's mental health and working memory are directly linked. Liston determined in 2009 that stress impaired individual's working memory and their ability to perform cognitive tasks. In that same year, Alloway found that children having difficulties in school was directly related to their ability to use their working memory. Lastly, Fukuda found that individual's ability to use their working memory has a direct effect on thier ability to have control over their attention and use it for important goals and also be able to ignore irrelevant distractions.
Having a sense of our Mental Pallet is very important for our ability to navigate our lives and live well. If we are able to use our minds in ways that promote effective living and not waste precious cognitive space, then we can be better equipped to deal with the important elements of our lives.
Techniques to Clear our Mind:
1. Reflective Mind Mapping
When we take the time to write down the kinds of ideas we are having and the situations that are influencing us, that information is not holding up space in our minds anymore. We are able to use other parts of our brains to process the information and it changes how it affects us. See Reflective Mind Map Tool.
2. Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation can offer us much clarity on what is happening in our worlds and allow us to calm our minds with this practice. When meditating to produce a state of mindfulness, we become aware of and attend to what is happening in our present moment. We allow the contents of our present moment to enter our attention then pass out of it. See Mindfulness Tool for further details.
3. Completion of Tasks
When a task is incomplete is has a sense of unknowing or ambiguity to it. This take up more mental space than if the task was complete because now the completed task is known. See habit 3, Put First Things First, in the Habit's of Effectiveness Tool.
AJ 18.2.18, 26.2.18, 14.3.18, 27.3.20
Links to Journal Articles:
Liston's 2009 'Psychosocial Stress Reversibly Disrupts Prefrontal Processing and Attentional Control':
Alloway's 2009 'Working Memory, but Not IQ, Predicts Subsequent Learning in Children with Learning Difficulties':
Fukuda's 2009 'Human Variation in Overriding Attentional Capture':
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