How the Mind Works
Go beyond definitions to understand the hidden forces driving human behavior, from the chemistry of your brain to the social pressure of a crowd.
Like Duolingo, but for How the Mind Works. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
24 levels across 3 sections, about 48 minutes end to end, roughly 10 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Mechanics of Behavior, The Thinking and Feeling Mind, and The Social and Biological Self. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in How the Mind Works
- Reinforcement makes a behavior more likely to happen again
- The 'payoff' (candy) reinforces the action even if the child isn't consciously planning it
- Consequences in the environment shape future actions more than internal decisions
- Environmental payoffs
- Intermittent reinforcement creates behaviors that are highly resistant to stopping
- Predictable rewards lead to faster 'extinction' once the reward stops
- The uncertainty of the reward keeps the brain engaged in the search for the next payoff
- Intermittent rewards
- External rewards can replace internal satisfaction as the primary driver
- The overjustification effect happens when an outside incentive makes a hobby feel like 'work'
- Intrinsic motivation is fragile when faced with tangible, expected rewards
- Habits begin with a 'cue' or trigger from the environment
- The 'routine' is the behavior performed without conscious deliberation
- The 'reward' tells the brain the loop is worth remembering for next time
- Sequencing the psychological components of a habit loop
- Procrastination as emotional avoidance
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives How the Mind Works the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When a child gets candy for screaming, why does the screaming continue in the future?
Get it right to open this lesson and 23 more in the app.
Where How the Mind Works takes you
- 1
The Mechanics of Behavior
- Why We Do What We Do
- The Filter of Perception
- 2
The Thinking and Feeling Mind
- Thinking Fast and Slow
- The Emotional Engine
- The Unreliable Narrator of Memory
- 3
The Social and Biological Self
- The Power of the Group
- The Biological Hardware
- The Patterns of Personality
3 sections · 8 units · 24 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
How the Mind Works is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start How the Mind Works today.
Download Tomo, search How the Mind Works, and play your first lesson in under a minute.