full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Emily Balcetis: Why some people find exercise harder than others

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So our bodies can change how far away that finish line looks, but people who had committed to a mbaeaglane goal that they could aolcismcph in the near future and who believed that they were capable of meeting that goal actually saw the exercise as eisear. That led us to wonder, is there a strategy that we could use and teach people that would help change their pocipertens of the distance, help them make exercise look easier?

So we truend to the vsoiin senicce literature to fgirue out what should we do, and based on what we read, we came up with a strategy that we called, "Keep your eyes on the prize." So this is not the slogan from an inspirational poster. It's an actual directive for how to look around your environment. People that we tnaierd in this sragtety, we told them to focus their attention on the finish line, to avoid looking around, to imagine a spotlight was shining on that goal, and that everything around it was blurry and perhaps difficult to see. We thought that this strategy would help make the exercise look easier. We compared this group to a baseline group. To this group we said, just look around the environment as you naturally would. You will notice the finsih line, but you might also notice the garbage can off to the right, or the people and the lamp post off to the left. We thought that people who used this strategy would see the distance as farther.

Open Cloze


So our bodies can change how far away that finish line looks, but people who had committed to a __________ goal that they could __________ in the near future and who believed that they were capable of meeting that goal actually saw the exercise as ______. That led us to wonder, is there a strategy that we could use and teach people that would help change their ___________ of the distance, help them make exercise look easier?

So we ______ to the ______ _______ literature to ______ out what should we do, and based on what we read, we came up with a strategy that we called, "Keep your eyes on the prize." So this is not the slogan from an inspirational poster. It's an actual directive for how to look around your environment. People that we _______ in this ________, we told them to focus their attention on the finish line, to avoid looking around, to imagine a spotlight was shining on that goal, and that everything around it was blurry and perhaps difficult to see. We thought that this strategy would help make the exercise look easier. We compared this group to a baseline group. To this group we said, just look around the environment as you naturally would. You will notice the ______ line, but you might also notice the garbage can off to the right, or the people and the lamp post off to the left. We thought that people who used this strategy would see the distance as farther.

Solution


  1. accomplish
  2. figure
  3. vision
  4. science
  5. trained
  6. easier
  7. manageable
  8. turned
  9. perceptions
  10. finish
  11. strategy

Original Text


So our bodies can change how far away that finish line looks, but people who had committed to a manageable goal that they could accomplish in the near future and who believed that they were capable of meeting that goal actually saw the exercise as easier. That led us to wonder, is there a strategy that we could use and teach people that would help change their perceptions of the distance, help them make exercise look easier?

So we turned to the vision science literature to figure out what should we do, and based on what we read, we came up with a strategy that we called, "Keep your eyes on the prize." So this is not the slogan from an inspirational poster. It's an actual directive for how to look around your environment. People that we trained in this strategy, we told them to focus their attention on the finish line, to avoid looking around, to imagine a spotlight was shining on that goal, and that everything around it was blurry and perhaps difficult to see. We thought that this strategy would help make the exercise look easier. We compared this group to a baseline group. To this group we said, just look around the environment as you naturally would. You will notice the finish line, but you might also notice the garbage can off to the right, or the people and the lamp post off to the left. We thought that people who used this strategy would see the distance as farther.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
finish line 12
research team 2
eyes work 2
gathered objective 2
objective measurements 2
extra weight 2
ratio predicted 2
predicted perceptions 2
highly motivated 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
gathered objective measurements 2
ratio predicted perceptions 2

Important Words


  1. accomplish
  2. actual
  3. attention
  4. avoid
  5. based
  6. baseline
  7. believed
  8. blurry
  9. bodies
  10. called
  11. capable
  12. change
  13. committed
  14. compared
  15. difficult
  16. directive
  17. distance
  18. easier
  19. environment
  20. exercise
  21. eyes
  22. figure
  23. finish
  24. focus
  25. future
  26. garbage
  27. goal
  28. group
  29. imagine
  30. inspirational
  31. lamp
  32. led
  33. left
  34. line
  35. literature
  36. manageable
  37. meeting
  38. naturally
  39. notice
  40. people
  41. perceptions
  42. post
  43. poster
  44. prize
  45. read
  46. science
  47. shining
  48. slogan
  49. spotlight
  50. strategy
  51. teach
  52. thought
  53. told
  54. trained
  55. turned
  56. vision