The Memorable 1980 World Puppetry Festival

                          

Why I attended the impressionable conference held at Georgetown, Univ.,and the Kennedy Center for Perfoming Arts, Washington DC

An Inspirational Experience

The conference was a joint venture of the Union Internationale (UNIMA) and the Puppeteers of America, of which I was a member. Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, helped organize the event.

To promote the festival, Statler and Waldof (his cranky, human, muppets) appeared in a series of Muppet TV advertising spots.  This resulted in 2000 eager attendees and performers from around the world.

Continuous, assorted, puppet show performances were featured at Georgetown University theaters and the Kennedy Center's seven theaters for the performing arts. The eclectic conference gained attention to puppetry, as an art form, to the National Endowment for the Arts, a govt agency.

Thereby, puppeteers could be funded through grants, to perform and teach puppetry classroom skills at colleges throughout the United States. I eagerly attended professional’s touring classes, and soon learned puppetry skills to instruct Kansas City workshops for teachers, to engage students in the creative arts.

Earlier, as a vital member and article submitter in the 1970s for “The Puppeteers of America” organization, I had created my own family Voco Poco Puppets show that toured Kansas City and Topeka. 

Our unique stage show featured ventriloquist puppets that interacted with a hand puppet theatre. Electric piano music embellished the comedic acts, providing sound coherence for multiple puppet vocals.

             

Subsequently, I was desirous to see the creative performances of world-renown entertainers on various stages of Georgetown University and Kennedy Center.

Multiple Georgetown and Kennedy Center theaters ran shows simultaneously for the entrants. Various types of puppets engaged.  (Ventriloquist figures, marionette, shadow, rod, and hand puppets).

The esteemed Kennedy Center featured celebrity film and TV puppeteers

The celebrity, Edgar Bergen, with his witty Charlie McCarthy sidekick, did not perform as Edgar had recently passed in 1978.

 Yet, Buffalo Bob Smith performed with his marionette Howdy Doody, of the 1960s TV show, “It’s Howdy Doody Time”, as did the Jim Henson’s Muppets.

Bill Baird’s marionette presentations were engaging at Kennedy Center, as he is best known for his work in the film “Sound of Music” where Julie Andrews and the children sang for the dancing marionettes. Baird was a protégée of the early 20^th century celebrated puppeteer, Tony Sarg. They designed the Macy’s balloons for the annual Macy’s Christmas parade.

The Smithsonian's Natural Museum of History and Technology's long-term exhibit displayed three celebrity, puppet characters together; Charlie McCarthy (Bergen’s ventriloquist figure), Howdy Doody (Buffalo Bob’s marionette), with Kermit the Frog (Henson’s hand and rod puppet).

Preferably, hand puppets (like the themed Muppets and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood) and ventriloquists’ acts are best suited for film (television shows and movies mediums), rather than performing on large stages with large audiences. These performers obviously had production challenges adapting to a live stage performance with a vast audience.

Sitting in stage left box at the Kennedy Center's concert hall

Viewing actual live Muppets, Baird’s marionettes, Mr. Rogers work, and Buffalo Bob with Howdy Doody, in close proximity overlooking the stage, was joyful, astounding.

As a Kansas City performing artist, I found my self sitting next to, and chatting with the noted Hazel Rollins (Hazel’s marionettes) of Kansas City.

Key take away of our chat was: “be careful how you plan the puppet’s posterity. The worst thing you can do is bequeath them to a museum that will store them on a numbered shelf, stored in a box.” She now has her varied marionettes distributed online for mass market purchase.

But, the greatest experience was meeting several of them personally, and obtaining their autographs.

My greatest surprise was bumping into Jim Henson while I ran up the back stairwell of the Georgetown University’s “Old Main” building. Recognizing him immediately, he offered his autograph on my notepad.

Inspired and motivated, two months later, in August, 1980, I created the nonprofit, Educational Media Therapy Consultants, Inc, aimed to research puppets’ effects on listening sequencing memory, and learning.

Active Listening and AI Part 2

 This article is a continuance of Active listening Part 1, and how it will interface with AI. As the reader, you are interested in how AI will benefit, change, and/or disrupt your own personal world.

In many ways, there will be huge improvements to simply your life, as artificial intelligence WILL streamline many fields of endeavor to eliminate both small and consummate errors.

AI will rule data management, much to the relief of business and industry. Heath Care management will greatly benefit. Case in point: In the following incidence, I would have been grateful for an AI intervention like data management.

Recently, I endured a series of catapulting errors trying to get and prescription order filled. I finally did, but it took nearly a week of vacillating communication issues between the nurse, pharmacist, and me. 

Once an initial set of data was submitted, the pharmacist found another detail gap. 

The order remained in abstract limbo. It took my time and energy to finalize the order.  Humans have to organize information and notice discrepencies.

It had become chaotic mis-management. AI will streamline these routine data entries, and can offer additional competence, but, AI will NOT be able to THINK for the prescribing nurse. or the pharmacist, who is processing a specific order, having detailed instructions. It requires cognitive integration, of which listening is an integral component.

This type of personal hassle, you the reader, can relate to this. Similar incidences become daily nightmares to cope with. Life soon becomes too complicated.

Subsequently and conversely, AI will not manage human thought processes involving logical problem solving or unique innovations. Many life decisions will require your own, awareness and ability to resolve the problem. You wind up regretting having made unwise decisions and bad choices.  

Your life soon becomes chaos.

However, you can seek your own solutions. However, this requires enough memory strength to compare multiple options.

Answer lies in increasing our Critical Thinking Processes

How do we accomplish this achievement?

In review, active listening is the ability to integrate enough info correctly through cognitive integration, to make decisive judgments that benefit us. (see Hierarchy of Thinking model). The first step is to improve your own listening ability and memory levels to increase your self- awareness and monitoring.

Critical Thinking can only be achieved through deep learning rehearsal practice, and not though medications and pills, which might clear brain fog, but do not generate cohesive thought.

Bottom line: Training is a gradual, incremental process, like learning to play the a musical instrument or playing an athletic game.  Expertise does not happen overnight.  But, your gradual road toward excellence may be your feeling of accomplishment and resilient well-being.

Erland, J. K.  (1989c, 1980). The Hierarchy of Thinking Model.  Lawrence, KS. online; Academia.edu (2024). Jan Kuyper Erland.

Your Active Listening Capability vs. AI

Will Artificial Intelligence replace active listening and inter-communication?

This article series, as an early pioneer in cognitive neuroscience, as a lay practioner, can give you, the reader, hopeful communicative insight. We can find much discourse on this topic on social media. 

There are many viewpoints to consider.

My earlier article on “Listening Success” (February 18, 2024), outlined three types of listening; passive, active, and critical. 

That being said, can Artificial Intelligence replace active and critical listening, crucial components of inter-personal communicative skills and interaction?

The answer is a resounding “no.”  Why, so?

Business, educational, medical, and technical positions will always depend upon personal interaction with feelings and intent.

 AI cannot copy this.

There will also be conferencing and working in teams that will require inter-active communication. Subsequently, inter-personal thought patterns will be outside of AI.

Active listening requires cognition. Without it, you are relegated to only visual memory and careers that utilize the visual process.

Example: Lawn businesses and factory line work require only minimal critical- active, listening. It is primarily visual work.

     i.e. I live on a street where every house employs a difference lawn landscaping company, as there are multitudes to choose from.  

The owner often entails the workload personally, as his lawn assistants cannot follow the necessary, mandatory, oral directions. (auditory memory).

To compound the situation, the lawn proprietor also has limited sequential, listening memory.

Out hiking, I noticed a homeowner giving a lawn proprietor detailed instruction. The latter looked overly confused, as he could not follow, or remember, the procedural instructions entailed.

Subsequently, the specifics were accidentally skipped. Later, the disgruntled home owner then hired another company with the same problem.

Unfortunately, the town is saturated with lawn companies. It is an easy business to acquire the necessary equipment, as failed lawn services soon go broke, (after two or three years in the red), and sell their equipment at a loss to another aspiring lawn company.

Perhaps, it would be better to acquire active listening memory ability; even if it requires some effort. For enhanced performance, The Bridge to Achievement program requires deep learning practice like athletic and musical performance.

                

t may be time to lessen time spent on visual video games, and consider listening development.

 

 

Film-work Part 2: Complex Details Unfold

 

                                                            

Research and Development years: 1979-1999

 Initial 1979 research was conducted at the University of Kansas Watson Library, applying my class textbooks noted prominent researchers. It began with B.F. Skinner’s stimulus-response research followed with D. O. Hebb, Canadian Neuroscientist, who wrote on the organization of behavior.

 Those meant hours searching “the dark stacks” using Dewey decimal; cards, and printing textbook findings.

 Popular college instructional topics in the 1980s, expanded into Cognitive Behavioral Modification (CBM) with Donald Meichenbaum, who combined Skinner’s and Albert Bandura’s behavioral analysis work.

 It was an exciting, informative, time for me. I couldn’t read enough about it. The early 1980s created a fresh flavor for neuroscience, at a time when few lay people understood the meaning of the word “cognitive”, or cared about it.

 Scientific writing tutorials were recommended by a Journalism faculty member, who directed me to the well-known Topeka Menninger psychiatric clinic’s prominent editor.

 I soon found myself writing scientific papers, and publishing them in an accelerated learning journal, eager for fresh perspectives. Their editor soon became my mentor, and the research effort sprang from that point.

 Seeking Scientific Advancement

 

I kept going, setting up 12 research sites in the process, training and conducting trial classes with puppetry voices.

Today we have large, well-attended neuroscience conferences; many students major in cognition.

The topic now also floods the internet’s Social Media feeds, nearly half a century later.

The first memory and cognition lessons 1-30, were created on audio tape formats, recorded in detail several times.

Hefty personal-directive, workbook additions, complete with researched and cited, lessons, were added to interface with the listening tapes; 45 minutes of additional written/spoken homework was required.

Unfortunately, the cassette tapes consisted of the warm-up drills only; with few game lessons (which are the centerpiece of the instruction). The complete game lessons were administered by an instructor applying transparencies on an overhead projector in group settings, according to age ranges and abilities.

School implementations were activated on this crude model.

Data streams were compiled as such by 5 different university professors and grad students. Then, the data was submitted to the University of Iowa’s statistical analysis department with the Woodcock Johnson’s (Cognitive Skills Battery) Vice President, who evaluated the entire ongoing process.

The final data process then progressed to the New Jersey automated testing service for the schools’ achievement tests correlations.

This rehearsal model was rapidly becoming non-feasible, outdated, with technological advancement.

Subsequently, initial filming of the Warm-up lessons and a few simple “Games” followed. But the bulk of the program was in limbo, requiring high-definition video and sound.

The recent, arduous, film update was strapped with earlier detailed compilations to formulate, yet in the mirrored procedure as the earlier audio tape formats.

A long incubation followed, until recently, when the seemingly unattainable process was realized this spring in solid teamwork with talented sound engineer, Scott Adam Walker.

 

Film-work Realized

 A long, seven-year film production process, teamed with Scott Adam Walker, photogapher and sound engineer, was finally completed recently on April 30th. The Bridge to Achievement entity was realized in an upgraded format.

Early 2021 editing, Jan & Scott

The complex project entailed an updated high defination compilation of my earlier filmed video and audio tapes, with matched instructional manuals, used in field testing.

The Bridge to Achievement program consists of 43 years of inclusive, incubated practice.

Re-filming the ventriloquist puppets was no easy task, as it required dubbing of the multiple sounds at different pitches and pacing that looped. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) could not have replicated the task, due to the great variety of overlapping, timing elements.

Esarlier cognitive training entailed lengthy learner participation, ranging from one hour to 90 minutes. The newly streanlined prctice sessions  are left up to the learner until they realize their own strengthened memory spans. 

Improved listening is paramount.

The filmed lessons range a short 13-24 minutes, not including the participants' practice (like athletics and music rehearsals).

The Bridge to Achievement is an important realization for those wanting personal sharpness with high performance without medical, drug dependence.

Discovering an Arts and Science Film Model

Creating, implementing, monitoring continual data analyses, then evaluating, and publishing with the medical model is a lofty goal. Then converting this successful executive function application to mainstream understanding is even loftier.

My learning disability training came from renowned The University of Kansas’ instructional center, located at the main Kansas City, Kansas hospital. The rigorous medical model training was based upon the neuro-psychological construct.

As a learning disability specialist and classroom teacher, in the ‘70s & ‘80s, I applied science and art to the accepted accelerated learning construct.

At that time, creative instruction, was not a friendly construct with some public-school districts, administrators, and educators that depended on government funding.

Traditional teaching methods were inherent and cemented.

To my dismay, I soon discovered:

1)   Referred students required psycho-educational testing and evaluations to qualify, and many did not.

2)   Many students were not being identified, and fell through the testing requirement cracks.

3)   Furthermore, public schools could lose funding when the student was remediated. To maintain the funding stability, a newly referred student was needed to replace the vacancy.

4)   This meant additional after school staffing meetings with teachers, and administrators who were reluctant to lengthen their work-day.

5)   Auditory/sound/listening training was minimal, if any. (for creating auditory/visual integration for proficient logic and conceptualization).  Lightweight "listening" training lessons existed, but there were few heavy practice routines, like athletic or musical training. 

These attributes created a large learning gap for most everyone. Many concerned parents became desperate and sought private remediation resources.

Many instructional programs soon emerged. Some were cumbersome tutorials, whereas the individual traveled to a new setting/location.

This awkward construct opened the pathway for online leaning as broadband emerged, decades later.

Regrettably, many online auditory/visual training methods had their shortcomings with limited achievement results.

Then, there was me with my “arts in science” cognitive skills enhancement program with a phonological practice system that was working.

 

 Problem: My vocalized puppets, sitting on stools, demanded a filming interface. Moving them to distant states to film studios would be difficult, time consuming, and costly.

Subsequently, I created my own home laboratory complete with sound - recording, lighting, and video equipment to formulate procedural learning segments.

 Locating a talented sound technician who could work on small piece sound segments, plus learn a new looping system, was no easy task.

 Yet, one walked in from nowhere, as I interviewed many local candidates.

 My earlier blog discussions revealed the reluctance of current day individuals, faced with memory and cognitive deficiencies to rely on pills and concoctions as an easy quick-fix.

 And, with lots of Social Media time involvements over-riding educational learning.

However, hasty mental solutions will not produce efficient procedural upskill training.

Fortunately, looping, vocalized, puppet characters can realize and maintain their phonological sequencing results through continued science research, upskill implementation practice, and technology.

 

Listening Success

This article continues my perspective on the importance of listening comprehension as it plays a role in procedural training and the cognitive skills required for deep learning acquisition.

 Technology now creates fast, easy, auditory enhancement deliverables not possible until recently.

 With consumers looking for quick solutions (my previous blog article, “Solutions Rejected”) of pills and relaxants, my application is most applicable for future cognitive brain/language/phonological research and/or upskilling by companies needing a workable, research-evidenced, practice verified. application.

This commentary follows my “Listening Your Best Asset” November 2021 blog.

It accentuates my “Hierarchy of Thinking” paradigm. [i]

 Understanding aural information is critically important in our every day life. Many take listening for granted, but there are three types: [ii]

 1.         Passive Listening as listening to music

2.         Active Listening: with full attention to learn and retain information

3.         Critical, or analytical to make judgments what was heard.

           

My innovative work is to strengthen short term memory spans for active listening. a requirement for critical listening found through parallel processing.[iii]  This process creatively applies images and sound/voices[iv] described in juried, publications [v]

 Many platforms, like YouTube, Patreon, and various podcasts, offer listening suggestions, but none have evidence-based, technological application.

 

---

[i]  Erland J. K. (c 1989), Hierarchy of Thinking. Lawrence, KS.

[ii] Cherednichenko G., (2011, Vedeco trendy technology conference paper) “The Role of Technology and Teaching Listening” monograph pp.78-83 available on online, Academia.edu.

[iii] Rumelhart, D. E., McClelland, J. and the PDP Research Group. (1986).  Parallel distributed processing:  Explorations in the micro structure of cognition.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press    

[iv] Erland, Janis L. (February 4, 1986; copyright TXu 225 862). Contrapuntal Thinking and Definition of Sweeping Thoughts.

[v] Erland, J. K. (Fall 2000). Brain-Based Longitudinal Study Reveals Subsequent High Academic Achievement Gain for Low-Achieving, Low Cognitive Skills, Fourth Grade Students. Journal of Accelerated Learning and Teaching. 25, (3&4) pp.5-48. ERIC ED # 453-553. & # CS 510 558. https://Books.Google.com/jankuypererland page 44.

Solutions Rejected

 

A former December blog. “Memory Development for Me, revealed my pleasure in upskilling my own cognitive skills, and the mental overload relief I obtained with mental practice exercises.

 “Effective Wellness Reconsidered” talk followed  in my January post.

 Yet, today’s world generally does not embrace or recognize the concept of self-improvement through practice exercise, unless it is athletic teams whose objective design is performance. 

An individual may consider it “cool” to have a mental or physical weakness, to align with majority thought.

The new order code is “sensationalism”. All seek it. All want it. 

Many unsubstantial memory and learning companies have entered a crowded landscape promising the ill-informed individual an answer.

 Solutions, unfortunately,  can become a faulty choice. Rather than a weakness becoming “resolved” it is something to brag about.

If our weakness becomes uncomfortable, we swallow a pill, or smoke a joint. Ultimately, our health becomes at stake.

Yet, procedural learning remains critically important, beyond the pill or joint.

 Many individuals cannot embrace it or qualify for a demanding job position. Or, successfully engage in competitive athletics.

Because a good outcome takes practice, and more practice, then, some more.

Analytics become looped with the practiced outcome. Questions follow. What additionally is needed? 

Tried and True researched, clinical trials, or taking actions that work under pressure.

 Whatever the choice, it is for you to decide if  you are geared to grip technical job skills.

Effective Wellness Reconsidered

Many are unaware that they operate below par with their mental wellness functions. Some are concerned, while many do not care.

Several cognitive, medical, and psychological predispositions comprise mental state relationships.

Trapped, disappointed, and living in a non-focus state, their fingers rapidly scroll their screens. When not scrolling rapidly, they rush between tasks and demands at hand.

Unfortunately, productivity is lost. Only one in five can execute, and then complete a challenging, technical procedure. Personal skills remain at a low ebb. 

Subsequently, work skills remain at a premium, and are in short supply.

Finding their work life in a static position, promotions or new jobs remain elusive, inflation stings. 

We may rush to find partners online to help pay the freight, whereas, it might be better to upskill for proficient, mental wellness enhancement.

It is time to contemplate your own situation, select effective researched, self-recovery methods, as marketing is having a hey-day at your personal well-being expense.

Follow my work with viewing pogram and lesson samples 

on YouTube under jankuypererland1111

https://youtu.be/0yBvAnGjJeI

Additionally, YouTube features one minute “shorts” to expedite the scrolling process, to complement their social media platforms that may promote ego boosting photos hinged with brief comments.

Utilize my research and developed applications, as it becomes cemented into ongoing and future medical, cognitive, and psychological research applications. 

Memory Development for Me

 

 Many would call my personal rewards luck. I call it my personal blessings, as evidenced by this recent November photo of myself enveloped in a rainbow by my kitchen window.

Never dreaming that my training initiative would benefit myself, as well as others, this realization came as a Christmas surprise.

The sudden rainbow of colors on me created a sense of wonderment.

Although Taylor Swift has recently discussed her early teen ambitions, my aim in assisting others developed early as a child. Not only did I want to help others, but I wanted to be a writer as the conduit element.

 There was an oxymoron problem: I did not have the cognitive ability to write with high acumen; let alone design and develop a memory program.

 Yes, like Taylor, I had ambition; but with limited talent to write effectively.

Now, with my own thrust with my own prescribed memory and cognitive auditory transfer training, the efforts have proved out in spades within three dynamic levels:

     1.                  the ability to manage my own
                complex health procedures for
                56 years to remain healthy.

2.                  the ability to team-work for complex film sound and video procedures to complete an arduous, demanding project.

3.                  to quickly understand, follow, and manage complex household    procedures, avoiding timely over-charge details.

Like many, I have much to be thankful for this holiday season, and offer this wish to the rest of you reading this commentary.

 

Podcast 2 of 3 Creating a Program - Mem-ExSpan, memspan's

This article relates how I created a unique data-based, auditory memory program as a teacher and parent in a small home studio. 

Since the cognitive training results were transferring to advanced mental processing with academics, work, and well-being, I kept going with additional training classes, for ages 9 to 65 for over 42 years. 

The program assessed and applied standardized cognitive and academic achievement outcomes and became heavily data based.

Podcast 2: (paste link in browser, if necessary)

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/bhin2nu727pinjnlwd8ry/Podcast-2.REV.mp4?rlkey=f6x80iezmpfjvyzw90dar9req&dl=0

The Erratic Tik - Tok Brain Embraces Entertainment

To continue my ongoing discussion of “Solid learning factors”, including focus, many articles today discuss concerns about the current 1-minute Tik Tok brain instilling erratic focus for our young people. 

Poor focus interferes with listening integration sorely needed for sequencing, learning, retaining and applying new material.

 Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot compensate for learner cognitive deficiencies. Actually, AI can make matters even worse.

 Scrambling for Focus through Entertainment:

Historical Impact:

 No matter how poor an individual’s focus capability has become, one thing is certain: Entertainment will be embraced.

 What entertainment?

 Answer: Anything that excites the nervous system and brain, i.e. – video games or circus acts, and sporting events of all types. (Regarding the latter, erratic focus on the football game plays fails, when looking for Taylor Swift in the press box).

 Additionally, entertainment focus includes amusement parks, stage comedy, mime, ventriloquism, and magic tricks.

Subsequently, it stands to reason, that speaking, looping, puppet faces might provoke staring, leading to focus.

 The learning concept of looping, filmed faces emerged from a long puppetry/ventriloquism history.

 To begin – “The Entertainers”:

 1893 – Professor “Doc” Brown, living with a family of three, growing children, in rural Tonganoxie, Kansas, decided to carve some amusing vent figures. He liked to entertain rural area folks, who stared at the strange, wooden, talking faces. 

Professor Brown becomes a local “hit" for a few people, so decided to hike to the New York Stage with a backpack of puppets. 

Although it took him awhile to travel such a distance, he was well received on local city small vaudeville stages, making some income to feed his family. They have been surviving on buttermilk and popcorn in rural Kansas.

 

1923 - 1955 “Doc” Brown’s two sons, Fay and Foy E, are soon carving wooden faces like their father had done earlier. They perform for local Kansas folks and are well received at holiday organizational holiday events, needing entertainment.

1935 – 1955    Roughly in the same time frame, Ventriloquism was becoming a hit comedy act for night club entertainment on the East and West coast areas. Many tried to perform in Hollywood films but failed to succeed in that medium.

 1960 - 1972 – 1979    Jan, with a teaching background in Des Moines, Iowa, training children to emulate science, math, and reading units learning into writing poetry and comedy scripts for parental shows. Parents were thrilled with their children’s’ learning prowess obtained through the arts, science, and music.

 The Erland family now moves to Kansas City, and later to Lawrence whose school district finds arts and science creativity learning incompatible with their educational philosophy. The local district employs The University of Kansas’ “strategies,” paper and pencil methods. 

 Jan is applying the puppetry into her University of Kansas master's degree’s learning disabilities project “Following Oral Directions” with peers and puppets. 

The final outcome of the “Peers and Puppets” experiment was that team students’ TIED with the puppetry methods. Both groups focused on a peer role model and the teaching cloth puppet. All win-wins.

 Jan Erland is soon introduced to Foy Brown, the wood carver and former entertainer, who is a fire fighter, by trade. He carves, as a hobby, during –fire call lapses, at the fire station.

Jan meets with Foy, in 1972, purchases two ventriloquist dummies, and soon is applying puppetry comedy routines for advertising with her three children as musical and speaking performers. It becomes a summer activity for the three children, who are musical.

 Soon, Foy introduced Jan to Lucille Elmore, the noted 1940’s to 50’s stage performer. retired in Topeka, Kansas. Jan purchased her “Lily” (then called Snoopy) vent figure, and Lucille later bequeaths her 1935 carved “Butch O’Malley” puppet to Jan. Butch becomes filmed, as Lucille desired, for his final destiny.

 1980 – 1981 – 1996 Jan forms Mem-ExSpan, Inc. and Innovative Learning Stratagems, a 401 c3, nonprofit, as teaching/training entities for creative methodologies. Data collections become paramount in establishing creative puppetry for learning change.

 Milestone filming years: 1986 – 1988 – 1997 –2007 – 2012 – 2017 ­­­­– 2023 – converting wooden figures to a film format laced with data collections. (Five filming/audio recording generations applying puppet vocals).

 Foy E. Brown witnessed the film transfer just before he passed in 1988 and was astounded. What would our “Professor –Doc Brown” (Foy’s father) think if he saw his wooden figures able to transfer easily, streamed online, rather than walking to New York City?

 Do we have a valid conduit for focus and mental coding transfer applying the puppets’ looping faces and voices? Continuous data confirms that we do. But, will anyone apply it in a world of advancing technology forces with an erratic one-minute Tik Tok brain focus?

Banging Your Head Against the Wall

 Sometimes it feels like we are “banging our heads against a wall” when people are not listening to us. They often ask questions just explained.

 We may experience this not only in skills training sessions or even in casual conversations.

 The confused may not “be day-dreaming”, nut unable to process incoming listening information, as the visual details at hand now take over their brain.

Unfortunately, many can only focus and follow one step holistically at a time, and cannot detect issues within the entire sequential procedure. Slow in procedural thought, “one unit at a time-piecemeal”, they become over-whelmed with step-wise instructions.

This unpredictable mind set creates a flow of errors that is both time-consuming and costly to reformulate properly.

Today’s work projects often employ three to five individuals, at high cost inefficiency, to accomplish a simple procedure. 

The following alarming story was recently related to me by a hospital book-keeper, as an incorrect coding entry had been taking a year of our involvement to resolve the accounting/mis-coded issue.

Without productive efficiency, projects fail with faulty detail. All work operations are a series of ordered details to be completed correctly, systematically, with full accountability. 

Any work chain with too many links can break down to error laden inefficiency.

Actual Medical Scenarios:

 It took a chain of five individuals in the hospitals’ book-keeping department to submit a Medicare claim adjustment in the year-long process. 

Inversely, there were several people at the Medicare side to conduct the same, expensive, time laden, data entry chain link process to finally correct the claim.

 That amounts to 8 monkeys working on one hospital charges data set.

 My Ophthalmologist routinely hires assistants to train from scratch, with few technical, if any, credentials. She falsely assumes that if they can run the ocular equipment that entering the machine data readings and input to the patients' records will be correct.

 Wrong.

 The assistant not only had entered incorrect data but mixed up the chart with another patient with a severe condition.

Then the doctor confronted with the dire results, requiring immediate surgery, lucky for me with my high listening-auditory-coding capability, I recognized the problem immediately, and confronted her with “these photos are not my newly filmed records”.

Of course, the doctor double checked my file, was embarrassed, and apologized, as I have nearly perfect eyesight.

Obviously, I could have gone through unnecessary eye surgery, not to mention, the time involvement, and the anxiety-stress incurred.

Subsequently, this circumstance could have been avoided by pre-testing the listening capability of future technician applicants.

 

 Erland, J. K. (1989, 1980). The Hierarchy of Thinking Model. Lawrence, Kansas.

Erland, J. K. (February 1986, 1989).Contrapuntal thinking and the definition of sweeping thinking).

 

 

 

Understanding Cognitive Skills Testing: What Is It? Why Have It Admin? & Where To Find It?"

 I am reprinting an earlier version, 2010 article of mine, regarding the value of cognitive skills, standardized, longitudinal testing, still applicable today. 

Later, interestingly, in 2014, the University of Pennsylvania's Brain Behavior Lab created a simple, normed test, computerized, self-administered in one hour, called Mindprint Learning. It gives a direction for personalized learning plans in 10 skill levels.

While helpful for parent/teacher/student planning, the Mindprint Learning self-awareness test, therefore, differs greatly from the rigorous pre-post-post standardized test batteries I discuss, and administered at 13 learning sites.

 I work from the Guilford Intellgence model for backbone theory,  with a reformulated, brief, puppetry playbook model on downloadable film.

Lesson 1 preview is now available on Utube under "Jan Kuyper Erland".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yBvAnGjJeI    (paste link in your browser)

All of my lessons and content are original. The article goes well with my following July article on "Digital Transformation."

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2010

We can now all move forward to new learning and achievement heights, providing we understand how our own information processing works. Our reluctance to be the very best we can be, can now be left behind us. 

My work is based upon the premise that “intelligence” is trainable, and that skills, like reading, writing, mathematics and problem solving are dependent on cognitive information processing basic blocks called “primitives.”

Why understand what these blocks are? Because all work proficiency, including academic achievement, depends upon how our “mind works” operate. 

The renowned psychologist, J. P. Guilford, identified 150 cognitive skills cubes, called the Structure of Intellect theory (SOI), which has been used as a foundation and measurement of general intelligence for decades. (See footnote).

Why should we care? Because our future endeavors, how we cope with everyday life and our achievements/life styles will depend upon our information processing capabilities. 

It will become our lifetime path we lead, and how contented we will be with what we end up doing as a livelihood.

How do we find out what capabilities we have? It is through standardized cognitive skills testing and evaluations can show information processing strengths and weaknesses of the individual.

Why is testing and evaluation not routinely prescribed? Why do we not know about it? It is because testing can only be administered by highly trained, state certified, professionals at the masters/doctoral degreed levels. 

These people include psychologists, school psychologists, and learning disability specialists. 

Testing companies will not sell testing materials to anyone other than these highly qualified and trained professionals, who are trained to do measurement and evaluations.

Subsequently, the testing requires trained expertise, money, and takes time. One set of cognitive skills tests usually runs from $2,500. - $3,000. 

Therefore, parents often go to physicians or psychiatrists who can prescribe medication to calm the learner, which may appear to be a quick, inexpensive solution. 

Yet, this intervention is not low-cost, and can run $100. a month or more depending upon insurance coverage. And, prescribed medication can become habit-forming.

There is little, scientific knowledge, summarizing the life-long effects of any kind of stimulant medication on the brain and body that is used to increase focus and concentration needed for learning new material.

Cognitive skills training and cognitive skills assessment has been available for some time. In 1975, Guilford's student, Dr. Mary Meeker, formed the "Structure of Intellect" (SOI) Institute and trained educators how to measure cognitive skills according to task. 

She and her husband, Robert, designed tests and materials. The SOI Institute exists today (as of July 2023) with clinicians in every state that have been trained at their "Advanced Level" out of four levels of experienced practice and training. 

The program has focused on reading, math, and learning problems, early childhood weaknesses, Gifted instruction with remediating missing blocks, and career counseling.

Yet, cognitive skills measurement and standardized testing has not been mainstreamed for the average, yet ambitious person, due to training, time, professional qualifications, and cost constraints. 

Generally speaking, individuals needing remediation were tested either privately, in schools, clinics, or within learning institutions.

Subsequently, many who who were fortunate enough to obtain low-cost assessments and training, or at no cost through their school, later felt embarrassed that they might be considered as "inadequate or a slow learner." 

Yet, they could subsequently experience giant steps forward in perceiving and learning new information faster and reaching greater career heights. 

Now, this sense of "being singled out as imperfect or having a problem " is no longer the case, as we move forward with a new dimension of identifying learning skills strengths and weaknesses to create the high performing, confident individual. 

We must all excel. Tomorrow's world is demanding it of us.

How can I get started with solid, eye-opening measurement of my own or my children’s cognitive skills if it is expensive and time consuming? Is this beneficial, and worth the time and trouble?

Soon there will be available online options that will offer access to finding the right professional in your area, who will now charge less for solid evaluations. 

And, the online options will give you the information you need and want, and point you in the right direction for not only testing, measurement and evaluations, but for instructional, learning solutions.

My dream is that most of us will want optimum mental fitness in the future for our children and ourselves the same way we want physical fitness and personal well-being. 

It will be our choice to move forward to higher levels. We can be competitive in the new, global world.

Footnote: Guilford, J.P. (1967). The Nature of Human Intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill. In Guilford's Structure of Intellect (SOI) theory, intelligence is viewed as comprising operations, contents, and products. 

There are 5 kinds of operations (cognition, memory, divergent production, convergent production, evaluation), 6 kinds of products (units, classes, relations, systems, transformations, and implications), and 5 kinds of contents (visual, auditory, symbolic, semantic, behavioral). 

Since each of these dimensions is independent, there are theoretically 150 different components of intelligence.