Mentor-Mentee: Self Discovery, Emotional Connections, Learning and Memory.

Mentor-Mentee: Self Discovery, Emotional Connections, Learning and Memory.

Shiela Kern ’09 and Jim Stellar

Shiela and I have known each other for a few years.  We started talking seriously this last year or so about how she could have experiences (working in hospitals or in labs) that would help clarify her career choices.  Out of that plan also grew a mentoring relationship and I asked her to write about that below. Even though we did discuss this topic before, it bears continued discussion not only because it is so important to student career development, but also because it is also an excellent microscope under which to view how the “other-lobe” emotional circuits we write about here may be engaged to help decide careers. 

After I got her first draft, I decided that it would be useful to just let her story unfold without the back-and-forth format we sometimes employ.  She agreed and in fact had so many other ideas about mentoring that we may return to follow up with additional posts.  Note how in her story she moves from the experience itself to the emotions about it and back.  I do not think this is simply a monitoring of what makes her (or anyone) happy, although that is something in itself.  I think it is more of a computation like we see in the Matching Law from operant Psychology.  Here a subject (human or animal) facing two alternatives for investment of behavioral time and energy matches the allocation of time spent with the reinforcement density.  If the reinforcement between the alternatives has a ratio of 2 to 1, the behavior is allocated by a ratio of 2 to 1. There are lots of relationships like this in operant psychology (e.g. delay of reinforcement vs. amount). Even animals without much of a cerebral cortex, like a pigeon, do it.  I do not mean to make a parallel between Shiela’s thinking and that of a rat or a pigeon.  That would be insulting.  But I do think that the same limbic circuits (the “other lobe of the brain” in this blog) are at work.  We humans just have an overlay of very smart circuitry (e.g. the cortex).

Recollecting back to freshman and sophomore year, I remember the many times when in the midst of conversations about my education with working professions, the questions would always pop up… “And what do you want to do with your life? Where will this take you?” In the beginning of my early college years, I found this question to be very aversive for me as much of the anxiety, was due to my uncertainty about how to approach an answer. While college is known as an environment designed for exploration and self-discovery (i.e. free electives), and this process of experimentation is shared amongst undergraduates, I still felt very alone and fearful regarding the right placement. Perhaps, environmental circumstances unique to my situation, such as being raised by a single parent from the age of 7, may have contributed to pressure to make quick shortcut decisions regarding my career. These shortcuts were often aimed at pursuing those careers that were in demand, or economically safe, and thus financially stable upon graduation.  What I came to question, however, was that while such “heuristics,” may have been logical for quick financial solutions… would such decisions have kept me emotionally engaged in my career down the line?

It was during this complex period, my sophomore year, that I first met Jim Stellar. While I had set up our initial meeting out of interest in his research on addiction, we also discussed my interest in an accelerated nursing program post graduation. The idea to pursue nursing came largely from my mother, who is a registered nurse. Looking back, this career pursuit was motivated by logic, as RNs in healthcare are in high demand, and licensing could begin following a 14^th month program. My interest in the neurosciences, on the other hand, was motivated by a long-term curiosity about the brain. After discussing these options, Jim and I worked together to figure the right placement. And it was over the course of this time, that I began to see the value of having a mentor.

But how does one connect or become drawn to a particular person as their mentor? While there are many possible reasons for which such connections can emerge, what drew me to Jim was the ability to talk regularly with someone who was in the field in which I truly wished to pursue. And through a shared passion for subjects in that field, what began as an initial meeting had developed into a growing relationship.

Just as experimental education is a unique experience for the student, I believe the mentor-mentee relationship both exerts and is driven by authentic meaning for both parties. For instance, one thing that particularly struck me during my conversations with my mentor was the description of how he “fell in love” with his field as a person who was then my age. This characterization resonated very much with me putting into words, something I never said myself or couldn’t really describe. It was also an emotion I didn’t examine enough, in my contemplation to pursue nursing. Sharing a mutual interest (such as passion for the neurosciences) with another person, is a powerful aspect of the mentor-mentee relationship, and can forge connections that otherwise may not have occurred. In the ability to relate and share such connections, relationships can be made which transcend age, education, race, gender, etc.

Such relationships, however, are not always easily found. Particularly in institutions with large classrooms, it can be difficult for students to receive individual attention, and opportunity to connect with their professors. Experimental education, however, can break the boundaries of the classroom allowing students to work, and connect with professionals in their academic field.

One cannot deny the range of emotional experiences that occur during this period. Unlike the classroom setting, students are no longer passive participants, but become active workers, applying their knowledge into the real world. Previous research in emotion and cognitive neuroscience has emphasized that emotional experiences have a “privileged status in memory.” While much of this research has been focused on how negative emotions modulate memory, (i.e.) such as the vividness of recalling a traumatic injury, more studies are examining the role of positive emotions in encoding processes, and in particular its, involement in cognitive processes.

Now you may ask, how is this related to learning through experimental education? And how emotion and learning enhanced by mentoring relationships?

Our brain is more attentive to stimuli or situations that are experienced with emotion. Arguably, therefore, emotional experiences during experimental education can facilitate the encoding of learned information, at an ability which neutrally emotional events (such as classroom lecture) cannot.

Additionally, one of the key elements following experimental education is reflection. Again, this I believe is significantly related to learning, memory and emotions. This is because it is during recollection, that the emotional experiences may be revisited, and therefore, assist in the further consolidation of learning that was coupled with those very emotions. While reflection works with the student in isolation, having a mentor to revisit these experiences is a powerful way to examine one’s emotions and encode information into LTM, as well as reinforce motivational factors. Ironically, I am currently working in a medical neuroscience research laboratory that studies memory. Of course, I cannot help but think that these very mechanisms are occurring in my own brain, both during my experiences and recollections with my mentor.