Choose Your Words Wisely: Changing a Few Words Can Change the Brain

“You need to keep your knee straight”

“I want you to do stand as tall as you can”

“You’ll have to stand steady during this”

Whether you’re a family member, caregiver, stroke survivor, or physical therapist, you have experience with this type of language used to direct activities.  Verbal direction is one of the most common ways to cue and teach movement and, whether you are recovering from a brain injury or just learning to improve your skills in a sporting event, the words you hear matter.  We’ve all heard those tough coaches giving their demanding speeches in order to get the best out every one of their athletes but, while this may be a great way to improve effort, research has shown us that controlling language may not be the best way to improve learning.

In our last article we discussed the Power of Choice and its ability to improve our sense of autonomy (perception of control over our situation).  We know that creating a sense of autonomy can cause neurotransmitters called dopamine to surge in our brain.  This surge in our brain regulates movement for better performance and strengthens our learning and memory for improved future performance.  Simply stated, creating a sense of autonomy changes our brains.  While making a choice is an excellent way to create this sense of autonomy, research has shown that changing just a few words in our language can have similar effects!

Creating a sense of autonomy can improve performance, learning, positive affect, task enjoyment, attentional focus, muscular efficiency, and more.  Recent research has proven that modifying your first few words can mean the difference in creating a controlling situation or a sense of increased autonomy.  That means that changing your request from “You need to keep your knee straight” to “You may want to keep your knee straight” can allow for the great benefits of increased autonomy.  Some ideas for language modification could be: 

Controlling Language                                  Increasing Perception of Autonomy

“You must ___”                                              “I suggest____”           

”I want you to ____”              ⇢                    “Let’s try _____”

“Do not do ____”                                          “You may want to ___”

“You need to____”                                         “Feel free to_____”

While controlling language is often used to motivate higher effort, it’s important to realize that it may not be the best way to achieve the highest levels of performance and learning.  Creating a controlling situation with certain language has been shown to increase the release of a stress hormone known as cortisol in our brains.  Cortisol has been shown to inhibit the release of dopamine and interfere with the brain’s use of the dopamine that has already been released.  This means that, while controlling language may increase effort, it can interfere with our brain chemistry in order to rob us of dopamine’s benefits that improve our movement!  More effort with worse results is a poor recipe for success.

Learning or re-learning skills can be stressful and arduous at times.  If we can help to improve movement, learning, and overall results by just modifying a few words in our language than the effort is well worth it.  The next time you are giving instructions remember, just changing one or two words in your directions can have a world of difference on someone.  Feel free to try this as soon as possible.