On processing complex sequences

In the last chapter, we discussed how humans tend to process events in a sequential manner. We break down our daily tasks into a sequence of smaller actions, without giving it much thought. When you get up in the morning, you may choose to visit the bathroom before making yourself breakfast. In the bathroom, you may choose to shower first before brushing your teeth. Some may choose to execute both tasks simultaneously. Often, these choices boil down to our individual preferences and time restrictions. From another perspective, a lot of how we go about doing the things we do has to do with how our brain has chosen to represent the importance of these relative tasks, governed by information it has saved about the near and distant past. For example, when you wake up in the morning, you may be inclined to shower first if you live in an apartment block...