Jim Miles, EDCI 545: Brain Science and Learning

It is often popularly argued that

advances in the understanding of
brain development and mechanisms
of learning have substantial
implications for education and the
learning sciences.
In addition, certain brain scientists
have offered advice, often with a
tenuous scientific basis, that has
been incorporated into publications
designed for educators.
Neuroscience has advanced to
the point where it is time to think
critically about the form in which
research information is made
available to educators
so that it is interpreted
appropriately for practice
identifying which research findings
are ready for implementation and
which are not. (p. 44, emphasis mine)
Avoid promoting brain myths:
Left/Right teaching
Teaching to the growth spurts
We use only x% (10%, 20%) of our
brains
Convergence of evidence:
Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Three main chapter points
Learning changes the brain
physically
Learning reorganizes the brain
Different parts may be ready to
learn at different times
The Nature vs Nurture debate
rendered moot by greater
understanding of brain
development
The Nature vs Nurture debate

there are continuous interactions:

CHILD ENVIRONMENT
Critical Brain Questions:
How does it develop?
Are there developmental
stages?
How does experience affect
the brain?
During
development,
the wiring
diagram is
created
through
synapse
formation
At birth, brain
has only
about 1/3 of
an adults
synapses
How does the brain
add synapses?
Two ways:
1. Blossom and
Pruning; think of
classical marble
sculptors chiseling
away unnecessary
bits
2. Synapse
Addition, as in
the artist who
creates
sculpture by
adding until
form is
complete
Synapse over-production and loss:
By overproducing synapses then
selecting the right connections,
brain develops an organized wiring
diagram that functions optimally
Synapse over-production and loss:
(p. 37) using visual info entering
from outside causes brain to
become more precisely organized
than with intrinsic molecular
mechanisms alone.
Intelligent design!
Synapse over-production and loss:
Visual cortex
At 6 mo, many more synapses than
at adulthood
Within 2-3 years, experience in
seeing selects appropriate
connections, removing others
 Case Study: Human Vision Critical
Wiring Periods
ACTIVITY:
Cover one eye, simulating partial
blindness
Go to board, write name, sit down
Imagine 0-6 months like that!
If you had been, you would be blind
 Case Study: Vision Critical Periods
If abnormality obstructs vision
during blossom/prune stage, even
perfectly corrected eye cannot make
brain see
After critical period (0-6 mo), vision
obstructions dont alter brain wiring
 Rates Differ, Depending
on Brain Area

Visual Cortex = birth to six months

Medial Frontal Cortex = before

birth to around 9-11 years
Activity in the nervous
system associated with
learning experiences
somehow causes nerve cells
to create new synapses.
The quality of information to
which one is exposed and the
amount of information one
acquires is reflected
throughout ones life in the
structure of the brain. (p.38)
Your lifes experiences are literally
written in the structure of your brain.
Biblical connection here?
Rev 14:1, 144,000 who had his name
and his Father's name written on their
foreheads.
Rev 22:4, They will see his face, and
his name will be on their foreheads.
 Case Study: Caged
Animals
Complex environments (play,
exploration, socialization,
discovery) resulted in:
Increased capillary growth in brain
Increased weight and thickness of
cortex
 Question: Does mere
neural activity (e.g.
play, exercise)
change the brain, or
is learning required?
Experiment with 4 groups
of rats:
acrobats taught to
traverse elevated
obstacle course
mandatory exercisers
put on a treadmill for 60
minutes per day
Experiment with 4 groups
of rats:
voluntary exercisers
had free access to an
activity wheel
cage potato control
group had no exercise
Experiment with 4 groups
of rats:
voluntary exercisers
had free access to an
activity wheel
cage potato control
group had no exercise
Experiment with 4 groups
of rats:
Both mandatory and
voluntary exercisers
showed higher density
of blood vessels than
acrobats or cage
potatoes.
Experiment with 4 groups
of rats:
Largest number of
synapses per nerve cell
found in acrobat group.
Learning adds synapses;
exercise does not.
 Rat experiments were duplicated in
mice, cats, monkeys, and birds

They almost certainly occur in

humans. (p.40)
Case Study: Human
Language Development
Brain devel. is often
timed to take advantage
of particular experiences
Info from the
environment helps to
organize the brain
Processes occur in
human language
development for the
capacity to perceive
phonemes
 Phonemes = atoms
of speech
Smallest meaningful
unit of speech sound
Phonemic boundaries
(e.g., b discriminated
from p)
The facts:
Very young
children
discriminate many
more phonemic
boundaries than
adults
The facts:
Children lose their
discriminatory powers when
certain boundaries are not
supported by experience with
spoken language.
The facts:
Native Japanese speakers
typically do not discriminate
the r from the l sounds that
are evident to English speakers
The facts:
Synapse elimination occurs
relatively slowly in the cerebral
cortical regions that are
involved in aspects of language
and other higher cognitive
functions.
Conclusions:
Childrens brains may be ready to learn
different things at different times
Learning continues to affect brain
structure long after synapse
overproduction and loss are completed
Conclusions:
New synapses are added that would
never have existed without learning
The wiring diagram of the brain
continues to be reorganized
throughout ones life
Memory Myth:
There is a place in the brain which
functions as the memory bank.
Memory Science:
Memory is not a single entity;
Memory is not a phenomenon that
occurs in a single area of the brain
Two basic memory processes:
I. Declarative memory facts and
events; (hippocampus)
II. Procedural memory skills and
cognitive processes; (neostriatum,
or basal ganglia area)
Durability/Fragility differences:
Picture memory is superior to word
memory
Combining pictures with words during
learning enhances memory
Active Memory:
Mind is not passive recorder of events
Actively at work both storing and
recalling information
when a series of events are presented randomly,
people reorder them into sequences that make
sense when they recall them
mind remembers things that didnt happen
ACTIVITY:
Directions- On the following
slide is a list of words;
examine the list, then answer
some questions about it
sour candy sugar
bitter good taste
tooth knife honey
photo chocolate
heart cake tart pie
True or False? The following
words were on the list:
candy
sour
sweet
In Roedigers experiments
(1997), with high frequency
and high reliability, subjects
report that the word sweet
was on the list.
They remember something
that is not correct.
Conclusions:
The mind is actively at work using
inference processes to relate
events.
Conclusions:
People remember words that are
implied but not stated with the
same probability as learned words.
Conclusions:
It is a feature of learning that
memory processes make relational
links to other information
Power of suggestion & false
memories
Review Main Findings
Learning changes the brain
physically
Learning reorganizes the brain
Different parts may be ready to
learn at different times