I won't take issue with what Bob Norton writes, but I do want to
defend those of us who are global rather than analytic. We both
need each other and to understand each other. Bob illustrates a
very good case

> Many years back I attended an ABA Weekend in Monterey. We were walking as
>a small group down a rural road and far ahead a bird flew low across the
>road. The leading ABA lister at that time said, 'HERMIT THRUSH'. I asked,
>'How did you know that?' He said, 'You either know them or you don't'. I was
>considerably provoked and said something like, 'That bothers me when someone
>says that'. The younger, well known, California trip leader then went into a
>quiet but very clear pont by point description of why that was a HERMIT
>THRUSH so I and everyone else could clearly understand. The leading birder
>then said that he knew he was not a good teacher and wished he was better at
>it. I was profoundly impressed by both the knowledge and teaching ability
>shown by the leader. To me it was a revelation as to why the California
>McCaskey School had been able to revolutionize birding carrying it the next
>step beyond Peterson. My professional life has been spent trying to teach
>surgery to one person at a time and I resolved that if I was a good enough
>teacher, I could talk any of my residents (students) through the surgery. If
>I had to take over, it was a sign that my teaching needed to be improved. I
>think holistic approach or 'jizz' for bird identification is a shield for
>poor teachers to hide behind. If one cannot explain something so it can be
>understood by a reasonably intelligent and interested person you do not
>really understand it yourself. I know Michael Price can detail the
>differences in birds as well as any Californian. It is just the word holistic
>that makes me climb on a soapbox.
>Bob Norton

Someone passed the following article to me. It is also posted at our web
site at http://www.tfrec.wsu.edu/TFREConly/upsidedown.html

When you come out of the fog, are you flying upside down?

Basic personality differences often come down to two basic, and often
conflicting views of the world: analytic vs. global. Research based on the
problems of Navy fliers during World War II reached conclusions useful to
everyone.

an article by Cynthia Tobias

How Analytic are you? How Global are you?

Analytic Strengths Global Strengths
"details "seeing the big picture
"specifics "valuing relationships
"organization "cooperating in group efforts
"direct answers "reading between the lines

What you should know about the Analytic What you should know about the
Style Global Style
"likes things ordered in a step-by-step "is sensitive to others feelings
way "learns by discussion and working
"needs to know what to expect with others
"often values facts over feelings "works hard to please others
"prefers to finish one thing at a time

Analytic Frustrations Global Frustrations
"having opinion expressed as fact "not getting a chance to explain
"not understanding the purpose for themselves
doing something "not knowing the meaning for
"listening to an explanation when all doing something
that's needed is a yes or no answer "people who are insensitive to
other people's feelings

How do we understand?

During WW II, the United States Navy made a startling discovery about its
fighter pilots. When flying through a fog bank, some would come out of the
mist upside down!

Concerned, the Navy called in researcher Herman Witkin to conduct tests on
the pilots. Witkin placed each pilot in a chair inside a special room that
tilted independent of the chair. When the pilot was sure he was sitting
straight up or down, he was to tell Witkin. Some pilots claimed they were
sitting straight, but many were actually tilted - sometimes as much as 30
degrees! Apparently, the pilots needed the room to be lined up in order to
feel that they were sitting straight.

Other pilots tested by Witkin always knew when they were sitting straight
up, no matter how tilted the room was. Evidently they were not affected as
much by their external field of vision as the disoriented pilots.

Almost by accident, Witkin began to notice behaviors and traits that were
consistent between the two types of pilots and the ways in which they
approached learning tasks. The pilots who always knew when they were sitting
straight up tended to be more analytic when learning new information. The
other group of pilots tended to approach information in a global way. That
is, they got the overall picture, but didn't worry about the details as
much. Likewise, because each person sees the world from their own
perspective, it stands to reason that even in situations where many people
see the same event, they'll have varied versions of what actually happened.

As an example, take the scene of an auto accident. The first witness might
give an accurate description of the cars involved. Another witness would not
notice the car details, but could tell exactly how the accident happened.

Did these people see the same accident? Yes, but their varying perspectives
reflected the same learning differences the pilots experienced. The
witnesses were looking through their own "windows." The analytics were
automatically recording details in their minds; the globals were more
concerned with the overall picture of what had happened.

While no one is purely one style or the other, by understanding our
differing "windows" we can more effectively give and receive with each
other.




Jerry Tangren <tangren at wsu.edu>
Systems & Programming Professional
Washington State University
Tree Fruit Research & Extension Center
1100 N. Western Ave.
Wenatchee WA 98801

phone: 509-663-8181 x231
fax: 509-662-8714

http://www.tfrec.wsu.edu