Neuroscience of Learning

2005
 What is learning?

CHANGING the structure &

actions of NEURONS so
they HOLD INFORMATION
in
LONG TERM MEMORY in
TEMPORAL & PARIETAL
LOBES of the CORTEX
 LEARNING requires
NEURONS to CHANGE
 Learning requires MANY
neuron changes

BUT two major changes

are
1 Changing the amounts of
neurotransmitters that
neurons produce
2 Changing the
connections between
 (1) Learning requires neurons to make
MORE & LESS & DIFFERENT transmitters
(2) Learning requires neurons to make NEW LINKS &
DELETE EXISTING LINKS with other neurons
 + & -

Bad News & Good

News for Teachers
in Current Neuroscience
Findings
4 NEGATIVES & 5 POSITIVES

4 important
negative
findings from
neuroscience

5 important
positive
findings from
neuroscience
 Bad news finding # 1

WE HAVE NO
INTRINSIC
MOTIVATION
TO LEARN
ACADEMIC MATERIAL
We are motivated to LEARN to get 4
PRIMARY BODY REWARDS:

Food
Water
Sex
Drugs of Abuse
And we are motivated to LEARN to
get 5 Primary Social Rewards

Feel pleasant touch (Rolls et al.

2003 )
See attractive faces (Aharon et al.
2001 )
Hear positive words (Hamann &
Mao 2002 )
Interact with others (Rilling et al.
2002 )
Human motivation system

Rewarding
experiences
trigger amygdala
activity trigger
dopamine release 
trigger frontal lobe
 AMYGDALA

Computes
Emotional intensity of
an experience
Degree of negative or
positive emotion
Increased Dopamine IS the Reward
 FRONTAL LOBE

Stores the reward

value of experience
Activates behaviors
leading to the most
rewarded outcome
All other complex experiences are
conditioned with primary rewards

$USE OF MONEY
WORKING
LEARNING
FOLLOWING RULES
 Motivation to Learn
School Subjects is Conditioned

Most cultures condition

children
with 3 primary rewards for
successful learning using
food
teacher & parent
approval
Bad news finding # 2

THERE IS
NO EVIDENCE
FOR
LEARNING
TRANSFER
Reviews of research show no
evidence for learning transfer

Barnett & Ceci

(2002 )
Clement & Lecoutre
(2004)
Dixon & Dohn
(2003)
No transfer means no free lunch

NO SPECIFIC TRANSFER
means
Learning to add DOES NOT
make learning to divide
easier
NO GENERAL TRANSFER
means
Learning math DOES NOT
Bad news finding # 3

THERE IS
NO EVIDENCE
FOR
MULTIPLE
INTELLIGENCES
Gardner’s 11 Total Intelligences

Linguistic, Musical,
Logical-mathematical, Spatial,
Bodily-kinesthetic, Personal,
Naturalistic, Spiritual,
Existential,
Mental Searchlight, Laser
Gardner’s Newest Intelligences

Existential = feeling at one with

the cosmos
Mental Searchlight = people with
high IQ test scores scan widely
Laser = artists and artisans
“who generate the advances
(as well as the catastrophes) of
society”
 Gardner Admits No Supporting Data
Exists for Multiple Intelligences

Allix (2000) no evidence

Jie-Qi Chen (2004) no evidence
Gardner (2004) no evidence
Gardner and Connell (2000, p.
292) conceded that “there is
little hard evidence for
Multiple Intelligences
theory” (2000, p. 292)
 NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH
REFUTES MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

 There is consistent significant

evidence for a general
intelligence factor G that
appears to be working memory —
this stands against Multiple
Intelligences
(Colom et al. 2004)
 There is consistent significant
evidence that brain systems for
cognitive functions are
overlapping —this stands against
 NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH
REFUTES MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES, cont.

There is evidence for specific innate

cognition modules (Gallistel, 2003)
1 Fast-mapping of word to object
2 Person recognition of face, voice,
clothes
3 Obligation computation of what
we owe others and what they owe
us
4 Imitation of all aspects of the
behavior of others
ADAPTED COGNITION MODULES STAND
AGAINST MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

Each adapted cognition module is

supported by evidence of its neural
operations (MI intelligences are not).
A given adapted cognition module, like
Mirror Neuron Tissue, operates using
our vision, hearing, speaking, gesturing,
social awareness—this combines parts
of 4 of Gardner’s intelligences—thus
negating their individual existences
 Bad news finding # 4

EVERY SINGLE MEMORY

WE HAVE
IS
COMPLETELY
UNSTABLE
Heraclitus was right
 You cannot step into
the same river twice

EVERY TIME YOU REMEMBER

SOMETHING, IT IS A
DIFFERENT MEMORY,
BECAUSE THE ACT OF
RECALL IS A
RECONSTRUCTION
 RECALL TRANSFORMS
OUR MEMORIES
When we
Remember
our brain
Takes the memory
apart,
Updates the
memory,
Brings the memory
to consciousness
Then makes new
proteins for a new
structure for the
memory as it goes
back into long-
Good news findings # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Neuroscience
research has
found 5 promoter
mechanisms
whereby short
term learning
changes into long
term learning
5 major promoters of learning =
 INNATE LEARNING PROGRAMS
(Gallistel, 2003)
 REPETITION of INFORMATION
(Squire and Kandel, 2000)
 EXCITEMENT at the time of learning
(Cahill & Gorski, 2003; LeDoux, 2002)
 EATING CARBOHYDRATES at time of
learning (Korol, 2002)
 8-9 HOURS OF SLEEP after learning
(Kuriyama, Stickgold, & Walker, 2004)\
The first promoters are innate learning programs
called ADAPTED COGNITION MODULES

SPECIALIZED BRAIN MODULES

EVOLVED TO COMPUTE SPECIFIC
INFORMATION OUTSIDE OUR
CONSCIOUSNESS IN ORDER TO
MAKE THAT PROCESS EASIER AND
FASTER BECAUSE THOSE
COMPUTATIONS HAVE BEEN
IMPORTANT FOR OUR SURVIVAL
 INNATE PROGRAMS = Adapted Cognition
Modules are very specific computation systems

Adapted cognition modules promote quick

and easy learning of certain types of
information:
●We learn people’s faces, typical
movements, voices, clothing, odors very
easily because we have FACE
RECOGNITION TISSUE in our temporal
lobes
● We learn speech and tool use motor
skills more easily because we have
special MIRROR NEURONS in our frontal
ADAPTED COGNITION MODULES
ALSO INCLUDE
 COMPUTING FREQUENCIES
 BASIC COUNTING SKILLS
 COMPUTING WHAT OTHERS OWE
US AND WHAT WE OWE THEM
 FAST MAPPING OF WORD LABEL TO
OBJECTS AND SITUATIONS
 COMPUTING SOCIAL STATUS AND
INSULTS TO SOCIAL STATUS
 The 2nd Learning Promoter is
REPETITION

Squire & Kandel (2000)

Reviewed neurobiology of
learning
Brain forms long term
memories depending on
“the number of times
the event or fact is
 REPETITION
Squire & Kandel (2000)
Reviewed neurobiology of
learning
Brain forms long term
memories depending on
“the number of times
the event or fact is
Repetition causes neurons to make
MORE and LESS neurotransmitter
Repetition causes neurons to make MORE and
FEWER CONNECTIONS with other neurons
 ORIGIN OF TEACHING
IS REPETITION
We all unconsciously repeat important
information in conversations
All cultures teach important stories by
verbal repetition
Chinese teachers were taught to say
everything TWICE…
Most teachers discover that repetition is
valuable
The 3rd learning promoter is
EXCITEMENT
LeDoux has studied the
brain for 30 years &
reported (2002) that
“we remember
particularly well…those
things that arouse our
emotions”
Cahill & Gorski (2003) research
Excitement automatically increases
certain neurotransmitters
 Excitement sets NEURON
CONNECTIONS in the “ON” position
 The 4th learning promoter is
EATING CARBOHYDRATES
 Greenwood and Winocur (2001)
research: high-fat diet impairs brain
glucose metabolism needed to form long
term memory
 Korol (2002) research: eating
carbohydrates enhanced memory
 (Smith, 2003) research: lack of breakfast
impairs learning
Eating carbohydrates gives the brain glucose
to organize new synapse locations
Eating carbohydrates provides glucose to make
glycoproteins that bind neurons to one another
 EXTREME DIETING
IMPAIRS LEARNING

A majority of young women

age 12 to 30 yrs in the US
are on fad diets.
During periods of dieting,
their learning will be
significantly slowed and it
will be harder for them to
retain information.
The 5th learning promoter is 8-9
HOURS OF SLEEP

SPECIAL ISSUE of the

journal Learning and
Memory (2004 V11, N6)
reports a wide range of
evidence for
consolidation of
learning during sleep
Macbeth (2.2.46-51)

Sleep that knits up

the ravell’d sleave
of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore
labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s
second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.
 SLEEP IS A
FREE LEARNING TOOL
DREAMING SLEEP promotes
differential strengthening of
neurons in networks holding
learned information

NON-DREAMING SLEEP activates

calcium channels that biologically
repeat the neural path of learning
to force long term storage
DREAMING SLEEP causes differential
strengthening by altering neurotransmitters
NON-DREAMING sleep causes new neuron
CONNECTIONS to be automatically repeated
Research shows that TOO LITTLE SLEEP or
IMPAIRED SLEEP = IMPAIRED LEARNING

Alcohol ingested after a day of learning

inhibits dreaming sleep and impairs
memory storage of the day’s information
Drugs of abuse used after learning have
similar bad effects on sleep and the
day’s learning
A majority of teens, college students
and working adults in the US are sleep-
deprived
Of the 5 major learning promoters

 INNATE LEARNING PROGRAMS

(Gallistel, 2002)
 REPETITION of INFORMATION
(Squire and Kandel, 2000)
 EXCITEMENT at the time of learning
(Cahill & Gorski, 2003; LeDoux, 2002)
 EATING CARBOHYDRATES at time of
learning (Korol, 2002)
 8-9 HOURS OF SLEEP after learning
(Kuriyama, Stickgold, & Walker, 2004)\
TEACHERS CAN CONTROL
ONLY 2 PROMOTERS

Repetition
&
Excitement
BUT TEACHERS CAN ALSO

PERMIT AND ENCOURAGE

HEALTHY CARBOHYDRATE
SNACKING 
AND
TALK TO STUDENTS AND PARENTS
ABOUT THE

IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP