Re: Can someone learn to be detail-oriented?

[DLCrossman -at- AOL -dot- COM]

This has gone on to a point where I can't help but attempt to answer the
question.  I'm going to give an example that I think might parallel the
issue
from an oppositional point of view.

I am not good at remembering faces or names, or especially, at putting the
two together.  I tend to notice a person's teeth in great detail, or one's
eyes in great detail, but I don't seem to see the whole face in "big
picture"
format quite the way most others apparently do.  I am overly
detail-oriented.
 This problem with faces and names has caused great embarrassment in the
past
and is an obstacle in the workplace and socially.  Thus, I have made some
attempt at correcting the problem by trying to learn how to see and remember
faces and associate the correct names with them.  Interestingly, if I manage
to recognize the face, I will often get the right number of letters in the
name, and many of the letters correct (especially vowels), just out of order
in the format of some other name.

Anyway, when I try to see a "whole" face, so that I will remember it, I tend
to become cognitively overwhelmed by the face such that it essentially
registers nothing memorable in my brain.  In order to remember the face, I
have to take the details and link them, like a puzzle, so that if I see that
group of details together again, I might recognize them as pieces of a
puzzle
-- a puzzle that represents a person and has an associated name.  However,
even if I do manage to recall the face, most often I can't recall the name,
unless I've used mnemonics with it.

This is sort of an example of not being able to see the "big picture."
However, I am able to see the big picture in many other areas, especially
when analytical or quantitative processing is involved.  From what I
understand about neuroscience, facial recognition is processed in a
different
part of the brain than that used for analytical/quantitative processing,
which might explain that discrepancy (-an aside-).  The point is that it
does
not appear that I have the cognitive capacity to readily assimilate a face.
It also appears that as hard as I may try to "learn" to do this, I will
always be at a disadvantage over the average person.  I can improve, but I
can't excel here.

In summary, I would conclude that if a person has not tried to be
detail-oriented in the past, it's possible that the ability may be lying
dormant and could be stirred by an attempt at "learning" it.  However, if
the
person tries to learn to be detail-oriented, and really has to struggle with
it, (s)he is probably not neurologically wired to excel in that department.
Thus, the individual should be given a fair chance to learn
detail-orientation, but if one does not seem to be catching on, that person
probably has other skills that would be better utilized.  That does not
necessarily mean that the person can't learn to be detail-oriented enough
for
her/his particular work, just that it likely won't be one of their greatest
assets.  And, it should not be overlooked that it is possible that this
person could be detail-oriented in a different area: (s)he may not be good
with this skill in the verbal/written domain, however, (s)he may excel at
catching the details related to consistency and placement of graphics, for
example.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I believe good ability at
detail-orientation related to verbal/written material is a complex skill,
determined by a number of factors, some possibly genetic, and some possibly
determined during our early years of development.  It relies on a number of
mental processes working together at one time (attention, concentration,
verbal/written memory, organizational ability, etc.), just as facial
recognition does.  Because of this, facility with detail orientation is not
like learning a rote skill, based on memory or practice alone, although it
may seem that way to those of us who possess it, seemingly innately.

OK, I'll stop now...

Debbie Crossman
Technical Writer
Boston, MA
DLCrossman -at- aol -dot- com

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=