Mind the Gap: Why Knowing Isn’t the Same as Doing
In this episode, I share a small but eye-opening story that begins with a single word: lacuna. What started as a moment of academic frustration turned into a reflection on the way we, as adults, often skim rather than fully engage — with words, ideas, and even our own decisions.
I explore how our reading habits reflect something deeper: a psychological tendency to stay safe, to avoid uncertainty, and to hold ourselves back from fully stepping into new knowledge. Drawing on research around word retrieval, loss aversion, and socioemotional selectivity theory, I unpack what it means to sit in the space between knowing and doing – and why that space seems to grow as we get older.
From my experience hosting Psych at the Mic for the British Psychological Society, to reading hilarious bedtime stories with my nine-year-old, I reflect on how curiosity, language, and even self-doubt shape the way we learn, lead, and show up in the world.
This is an episode for anyone who’s ever felt overwhelmed by information, unsure whether they “know enough,” or stuck between intention and action. It’s also a quiet nudge to slow down, ask questions, and give ourselves permission to still be learners – even in the middle of our careers.
Whether you're skimming, overthinking, or saying yes to too much (guilty!), there's something in here for you.
www.leilaainge.co.uk
Transcript
psychologically speaking with me Leela Ainge.
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:Welcome to Psychologically Speaking with me, Leila Ainge.
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:This season we're diving into that space between intention and action, a liminal space.
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:Today I have a question for you.
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:Well, two actually.
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:How often do you understand what you read?
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:And also, when do you shortcut your curiosity?
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:Psych at the Mic for the British Psychological Society is one of my volunteer roles and
this is where we bring a speaker to talk about an area of their psychology research, to
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:talk to psychologists, non-psychologists, students, researchers in the East Midlands.
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:I absolutely love hosting these events because there's something really interesting to
learn.
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:And last month
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:in Nottingham was no exception because we explored the psychology of reading in schools.
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:Now, educational psychology isn't an area of research interest for me, but I am a parent
and one conversation that really struck with me was about word retrieval and
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:comprehension.
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:It made me reflect on my own reading habits.
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:And how often do I skim unfamiliar words in academic texts?
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:It's a lot.
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:And I often rely on context to get the gist without ever fully really learning long
complicated words.
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:Lately though, I've been challenging myself to pause and actually look up words because of
this Psych at the Mic event.
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:Language shouldn't be a gatekeeper of knowledge and curiosity and that's something I'm
really passionate about.
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:But I'll admit that before I started stopping and looking upwards, I thought that the use
of complicated words was pompous.
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:And I think I've had a bit of a realisation that the word that I learnt last weekend is
helping me to appreciate the beauty of the right word for the right occasion.
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:And so this is what I need to admit.
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:I need to keep on learning.
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:So let me introduce you to the word that came into my periphery a few weeks ago.
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:It's the word lacuna.
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:Now, you might know this word, but I didn't.
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:And if you studied Latin, which you might have done, you might also know that it comes
from the word lacus.
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:I don't know if I pronounced that right, but it means a ditch or a pit.
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:So in academic writing, the word lacuna signals a
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:in knowledge and so it's a metaphor I suppose and have you come across this word before
because I was sure that I actually hadn't I thought I've never seen this word before and
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:my annoyance was really that it popped up in the first paragraph of a paper and my heart
actually drops a little bit when that happens because I think no this paper's gonna be
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:littered with words I don't know and
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:I automatically think, God, this is going to be hard work.
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:It might take me ages to read this, but my curiosity didn't stop there this time because
I'm doing this little challenge and I'm trying to look at words.
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:So I did a control F and search on four of my favourite academic papers.
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:And these are papers that I actually find quite easy to read.
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:And I've kept a note of these because actually when I write my PhD, I want to write in a
similar kind of way, which is
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:I can understand what is being said, even if I'm not an expert in that area and the
language just flows.
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:So they're good examples of writing that are academic, but seem achievable to me.
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:And guess what?
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:Lacuna was actually in one of them.
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:And this is a paper.
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:It's about scaffolding liminality and entrepreneurs.
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:And it's a paper that I have read so many times because I just love the content of it.
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:the context of women entrepreneurs and how we are sitting in between spaces really
resonates with me.
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:So this is a paper that I can tell you about in quite a lot of detail.
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:I've read it plenty of times.
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:I thought I'd really understood it, but this word lacuna actually appears in the paper and
I've skimmed over that word and I know what I've done.
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:I've done what children do when they're reading a text and they don't understand the word.
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:because our brain allows us to jump and make conclusions about what we think we're
reading.
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:And this was the topic of the Psych at the Mic event really.
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:It was telling us about why peer reading with somebody and questioning what we're reading
can really help children with comprehension.
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:So just like those kids in schools, when they're left to read on their own, if we're not
encouraged to think about the meaning of a specific word or talk or would be called
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:complacent, then we fill in our own gaps.
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:And this is brilliant.
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:mean, our brains are designed to do that every day.
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:We make loads of heuristic shortcuts because we couldn't possibly.
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:keep every little bit of information in our heads.
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:We couldn't process every piece of information that's put in front of us every single day.
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:But some shortcuts are more helpful than others and I am in a learning space right now.
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:So maybe I need to mind the gaps in my own knowledge a little bit more.
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:And the value of that word isn't that I'm going to be really glad of it next time I'm
writing something and I want to sound clever.
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:But for me, I think it'll be more practical when I've got a really tight word count and I
need a single word that conveys there's a bit of a gap in the literature here.
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:So as a parent, I also get to read some
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:really wildly and funny kid book, funny kids books with my nine-year-old and he actually
has a bigger vocabulary than I do and I don't know where he gets that from.
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:He loves language, he likes using big words and describing things and I love that for him.
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:But I'll admit there's sometimes words in his books that I don't understand and he doesn't
understand and there's something quite humbling and magical about learning how to read
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:even as an adult.
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:So that psych at the mic event was all about pairing children up to read and also getting
them to think about the words that they don't know.
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:So perhaps I need to take that advice into my weekly PhD sessions with my reading group
and fess up when I don't know something exactly.
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:There's a real vulnerability in that, isn't there, as an adult where I think we sit in
this liminal space, this space in between where we need to be confident to...
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:go into a situation we're not certain of and carry on regardless.
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:And also we need to be vulnerable enough to go, oh, I don't know what that means.
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:Can you tell me?
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:And I'm always stuck between those two places, especially in my work.
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:In an average day, I could be helping or mentoring somebody else through a project and my
confidence and assurance helps them.
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:And then there'll also be events where I'm just
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:thrown into something at the last minute and I might not understand everything but I'm
there to facilitate.
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:So I've become quite adept at just going along with things and I think this is something
I've had to recognise in my research journey that will trip me up if I don't just
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:recognise that that is a brilliant and valuable skill in my professional life but perhaps
in my...
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:academic, early academic career, that is something I'm going to have to pay attention to
but have fun with it at the same time.
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:So it did make me think about this season's podcast theme because as we get older, our
risk appetite is known to shrink a bit and we second guess.
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:We sit with things longer because perhaps we're careful and considered.
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:We've got more life experience to draw upon to say, is this a good idea or a bad idea?
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:And perhaps sometimes that gap between knowing and doing feels like, I don't know, a bit
of a chasm, either...
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:You know, we're second guessing things and not spending the time or spending far too long
in this space in between.
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:So psychologically that tendency to stay safe and although it's really well documented, we
know the research says that there's a loss aversion our brain prioritizes at this point.
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:It's a desire to avoid a negative outcome basically.
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:So we're looking at things more strongly than seeking the gains that it can bring.
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:And one study actually found that older adults are more likely to focus on avoiding losses
than pursuing rewards.
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:So a shift that links to changes in emotional regulation and motivation.
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:But actually the more I avoid looking up words that will fit perfectly in a specific
scenario.
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:I'm going to lose gains in my ability to write at that academic level succinctly and
within a word count and I'll potentially lose out on opportunities to get my work
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:published.
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:But there's something that I suppose that's really starting to make sense to me now is
that, yes, I can hold two views at the same time.
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:I can say that academic writing shouldn't be a gatekeeper, it shouldn't be difficult to
read.
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:I can also see the value in academic writing that uses the right word for the right
situation and is concise.
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:Perhaps I'll always be one of those people that writes or talks for everyone and yes I'll
have to produce PhD and academic worthy writing but I also want to be able to explain
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:things in a really common sense way.
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:So this idea that as adults we're focusing on avoiding loss rather than pursuing the
reward is actually called socio-emotional selective theory.
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:I'm going to have to look up that a little bit more.
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:It's first time I've come across that theory.
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:But I thought I'd mention it today.
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:And it's the idea that as we age, we just become more selective about what we invest our
energy and what we're more focused on.
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:and perhaps that we're more focused on emotionally meaningful goals.
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:And it links into last week's podcast.
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:If you listen to that, I was talking about my realization that I'd been saying yes, far
too much to volunteer work.
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:And perhaps I was investing my emotion and time into the wrong things.
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:So maybe pausing.
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:look up a word isn't just about vocabulary, maybe it's a tiny act of curiosity against
certainty in a way for me to stay open to something new.
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:Even part of us, I think when we want to retreat into what we already know, or is familiar
to stay safe.
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:Definitely my encyclopedic brain seems to have prioritised random facts over learning five
different ways to say mind the gap, but I'm still mildly
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:annoyed about fancy words that slow me down.
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:I probably always will be, but I'm working on it and I'll admit that I can see the joy.
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:But how about you?
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:Any new words lately?
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:Do you love words?
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:you somebody who's got a big vocabulary?
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:Are there any moments where you've caught yourself sitting between a space of knowing and
doing?
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:I'd just love to know.
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:And obviously a reminder that my last podcast was a bit of a confession.
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:I'd been saying yes to a lot and things like that Psych at the Mic event.
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:I absolutely love doing them, but perhaps it's not me that needs to organise them every
time.
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:Thanks for listening today, just a short one for me and I hope you have a wonderful
weekend.
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:I'll be back next week with the final episode of seasons two.
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:I can't quite believe we're nearly at episode 12 of this season already, it's gone so
quickly.
