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What’s the most ‘natural’ way to learn? It might surprise you
The Washington Post: Here is a counterintuitive piece on what we consider the “natural” way to learn, from cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham. He is a professor and director of graduate studies in psychology at the University of Virginia and author of “Why Don’t Students Like School?” His latest book is “When Can You Trust The Experts? How to tell good science from bad in education.” This appeared on his Science and Education blog. Which of these learning situations strikes you as the most natural, the most authentic? 1) A child learns to play a video game by exploring it on his own. 2) A child learns to play a video game by watching a more experienced player.
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The Science of Siblings
Parade: How your brothers and sisters shape your life—long after you’ve stopped sharing a room. What can Maggie, Bart, and Lisa tell us about family dynamics? Click here to find out what the experts say. Growing up in North miami beach, Tobi Cohen Kosanke, now 48, adored her brother Keith. Seven years older, he was a “laid-back surfer dude,” while she was a “chubby, nerdy” little girl. Tobi knew she could never live up to Keith’s cool persona, so while he was quitting school, experimenting with drugs, and focusing on riding the next wave, Tobi threw herself into school, with her brother’s encouragement. The hard work paid off: She went on to earn her Ph.D. and become a geologist.
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Happier Spending
The New York Times: SQUARE WALLET, an innovative new app, is changing the way we spend our money. Here’s how it works: you link your credit or debit card to the app, shop, take your items to a cashier at a participating retailer and, as the company’s Web site says, “simply say your name at checkout to pay.” Your name and photograph appear on the register, the cashier gives you a nod, and you walk happily out the door with your artisan shade-grown organic coffee. This kind of seamless convenience has obvious benefits. But it may come with hidden costs.
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Your Brain Sees Even When You Don’t
Forbes: The unconscious processing abilities of the human brain are estimated at roughly 11 million pieces of information per second. Compare that to the estimate for conscious processing: about 40 pieces per second.* Our conscious processing capacity isn’t insignificant, but clearly it’s just a retention pond compared to the ocean of the unconscious. And more and more research is uncovering abilities of the unconscious that defy reason. Two recently published studies on how the brain “sees” illustrate the point–the first one is cool, the second borders on incredible.
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How the Hum of a Coffee Shop Can Boost Creativity
The New York Times: Pulling up a seat at your favorite coffee shop may be the most efficient way to write a paper or finish a work project. But now a new Web site lets you bring the coffee shop to your cubicle. The site, called Coffitivity, was inspired by recent research showing that the whoosh of espresso machines and caffeinated chatter typical of most coffee shops creates just the right level of background noise to stimulate creativity. The Web site, which is free, plays an ambient coffee shop soundtrack that, according to researchers, helps people concentrate. ...
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We Still Need Information Stored in Our Heads Not ‘in the Cloud’
TIME: Is technology making us stupid — or smarter than we’ve ever been? Author Nicholas Carr memorably made the case for the former in his 2010 book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. This fall we’ll have a rejoinder of sorts from writer Clive Thompson, with his book Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better. My own take: technology can make us smarter or more stupid, and we need to develop a set of principles to guide our everyday behavior and make sure that tech is improving and not impeding our mental processes.
