Mind and Brain Presented by: Sarah C. Bradshaw. Contributing Sciences “The fields of neuroscience and cognitive science are helping to satisfy this fundamental.

Mind and Brain

Presented by: Sarah C. Bradshaw

Contributing Sciences• “The fields of neuroscience and cognitive

science are helping to satisfy this fundamental curiosity about how people think and learn.”

Neuroscience• is the study of all aspects of nerves and the

nervous system, in health and in disease. It includes the anatomy, physiology, chemistry, pharmacology, and pathology of nerve cells;

• the behavioral and psychological features that depend on the function of the nervous system;

• and the clinical disciplines that deal with them, such as neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

http://www.answers.com/topic/neuroscience?cat=health

Neuroscientist Questions

• “ How does the brain develop?• Are there stages of brain development?• Are there critical periods when certain

things must happen for the brain to develop normally?

• How is the information encoded in the developing and the adult nervous systems?

• How does experience affect the brain?”

Cognitive Science• Cognitive science is the study of the mind. • It is an interdisciplinary science that draws upon

many fields including neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, computer science, artificial intelligence, and linguistics.

• The purpose of cognitive science is to develop models that help explain human cognition -- perception, thinking, and learning.

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=9257

Caution• “…one must be careful to avoid adopting

faddish concepts that have not been demonstrated to be of value in classroom practice.”– “…concept that the left and right hemispheres

of the brain should be taught separately to maximize the effectiveness of learning.”

Caution• Also, “ the notion that the brain grows in

holistic “spurts” within or around which specific educational objectives should be arranged.”– “…there is significant evidence that brain

regions develop asynchronously.”

Three Main Points• “1) Learning changes the physical structure

of the brain.• 2) These structural changes alter the

functional organization of the brain; in other words, learning organizes and reorganizes the brain.

• 3) Different parts of the brain may be ready to learn at different times.”

Some Basics• “ A nerve cell, or neuron, is a cell that

receives information from other nerve cells or from the sensory organs

• then projects it back to the part of the body that interacts with the environment.”

Some Basics• “Information comes into the cell from

projections called axons.”

• “The junctions through which information passes from one neuron to another are called synapses.”

http://whyfiles.org/250alcohol_brain/index.php?g=3.txt

Synapses• “Synaptic connections are added to the

brain in two basic ways:– The synapses are overproduced, then

selectively lost– Synapses addition

Synapses Overproduction

• “…a fundamental mechanism that the brain uses to incorporate information from experience.”

Synapse Addition

• “….the process of synapse addition operates throughout the entire human life span…”

• “…this process is not only sensitive to experience, it is actually driven by experience.”

Experiences and Environment for Brain Development

• “Alterations in the brain that occur during learning seem to make the nerve cells more efficient or powerful.”– Studies conducted on “complex-environment”

and caged animals show:• That the “complex-environment” animals were

smarter because they had an “increased capacity in the brain that depended on experience.”

Experiences and Environment for Brain Development

• Also, rats that are caged, but provided with a changing environment that encouraged “play and exploration” were better problem solvers.

• “…the interactive presence of a social group and direct physical contact with the environment are important factors…”

• Can the Brain Change Without Learning?

• Page 119

Role of Instruction in Brain Development

• Language and Brain Development– “Language provides a particularly striking

example of how instructional processes may contribute to organizing brain functions.”

Language• “Very young children discriminate many

more phonemic boundaries, than adults, but they lose their discriminatory powers when certain boundaries are not supported by experience with spoken language.”

Language• “ Native Japanese speakers, for example, do

not discriminate the “r” from the “l” sounds that are evident to English speakers, and this ability is lost in early childhood because it is not in the speech they hear.”

Website

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fcb8nT0QC6o&feature=related

Memory and Brain Processes

• “Memory is neither a single entity nor a phenomenon that occurs in a single area of the brain.”

Memory Process• Declarative memory

– “... memory for facts and events…”

• Procedural or nondeclarative– “…memory for skills and other cognitive

operations…”

Memory• The book states that “when a series of

events are presented in a random sequence, people reorder them into sequences that make sense when they try to recall them.”

Test• I am going to give you a list of words

• Then, I am going to ask you a question about the list

• (this was a study discussed in the book)

• “Sour, candy, sugar, bitter, good, taste, tooth, knife, honey, photo, chocolate, heart, cake, tart, pie”

• Was the word sweet in the list?

Hmmm…..• Ever discussed a shared event with a friend

and one of you remembers something and the other argues that it never happened?– This is due to the brain “using inferencing

processes to relate events.”

Or….

• Page 125

Memory• “… classes of words, pictures, and other

categories of information that involve complex cognitive processing on a repeated basis activate the brain.”

• “ Memory processes treat both true and false memory events similarly and, activate the same brain regions, regardless of the validity of what is being remembered.”

Conclusion• “1) The functional organization of the brain

and the mind depends on and benefits positively from experience.”

• 2) Development is not merely a biologically driven unfolding process, but also an active process that derives essential information from experience.”

Conclusion• 3) Research has shown that some experiences

have the most powerful effects during specific sensitive periods, while others can affect the brain over a much longer time span

• 4) An important issue that needs to be determined in relation to education is which things are tied to critical periods and for which things is the time exposure less critical.”