Your Brain and Learning

Before We Get Underway• WHAT DO YOU THINK?

– Can your brain grow new cells?– Does what you eat and drink affect your

brain?– Does stress affect learning?– Does exercise help me learn?– Can I study effectively with TV and music

on?

Our Brains• All parts of the brain participate with each other, while each has its own function• There is natural pruning or neural pruning that occurs when parts are not used

“LEARNING IS A DELICATE, BUT IS A POWERFUL DIALOGUE BETWEEN GENETICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT…” Robert Sylwester, A Celebration of Neurons

Brain’s Complexity• Cellular level - three pints of liquid, three

pounds of mass, tens of billions of nerve cells (or neurons

• Brain cells - 30 thousand neurons (300,000 glial cells) fit into the space of a pinhead.

Parts of the Brain

• Brainstem (survival )

• Cerebellum ( autonomic nervous system)

• Limbic system (emotion)

• Cortex ( reason/logic)

• Frontal lobe - Cortex– Creativity - Judgment - Optimism - Context– Planning - Problem solving - Pattern making

• Upper temporal lobe - Wernicke’s Area– Comprehension - Relevancy - Link to past (experience) - Hearing -

Memory - Meaning• Lower frontal lobe - Cortex

– Speaking/language - Broca’s area• Occipital lobe - Spatial order

– Visual processing - Patterns - Discovery• Parietal lobe

– Motor - Primary Sensory Area - Insights - Language functions• Cerebellum

– Motor/motion - Novelty learning - cognition - balance - posture

Broca’sarea

Parsopercularis

Motor cortex Somatosensory cortex

Sensory associativecortex

PrimaryAuditory cortex

Wernicke’sarea

Visual associativecortex

Visualcortex

Language and Thought

Grammar and word production

Movement and joint positions

Cerebellum

Fig. 49-17

Generating words

Max

Speaking words

Hearing words

Seeing words

Min

cerebrumcorpus callosum

thalamus

cerebellum

medulla

oblongata

hypothalamus

pituitary

pons

spinal cord

Pineal gland

mid brain

Limbic System

Neurons• Connect to other neurons to muscles or glands• Send and receive chemical information

(messages) for behaviors• Can be a millimeter in length or as long as a

meter

How the Brain Determines What’s Important• Emotion and attention are the PRINCIPAL

processes of the brain– Primary emotions - innate responses

• Assemble life-saving behaviors quickly– Secondary emotions - also innate reactions

• Enjoyment, pleasure• Students need to talk about their emotions

– Games, cooperative learning, field trips, interactive projects, use of humor

• Limit emotional stress

Twelve Basic Principles Related to Learning

1. Brain is a parallel processor2. Learning engages the entire

physiology3. Learning is developmental4. Each brain is unique5. Every brain perceives and

creates parts and wholes simultaneously

6. Learning always involves conscious and unconscious processes

7. The search for meaning is innate

8. Emotions are critical to learning

9. Learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat

10. The search for meaning occurs through patterning

11. We can organize memory in different ways

12. The brain is a social brain

The Brain is a Parallel Processor

• Both hemispheres work together

• Many functions occur simultaneously

• Edelman(1994) found when more neurons in the brain were firing at the same time, learning, meaning, and retention were greater for the learner.

Learning Engages the Entire Physiology

• Food, water, and nutrition are critical components of thinking.

• We are “holistic” learners - the body and mind interact

Learning is Developmental

• Depending upon the topic some students can think abstractly, while others have a limited background and are still thinking on a concrete level.

• Building the necessary neural connections by exposure, repetition, and practice is important to the student.

Each Brain is Unique

• We are products of genetics and experience

• The brain works better when facts and skills are embedded in real experiences

How the physical environment is organized makes a difference.

Learning Environment

Learning Environment

• Finding a good place to study– Quite– Free of interruptions– Prepared with supplies/organized

Knowing Your Learning Styles

• Auditory

• Visual

• Kinesthetic

Tips for Auditory Learners

• Use tapes for reading and class lectures• Sit where you can hear well (front and

center)• After you have read something,

summarize it and recite it back to yourself

• Learn by participating in discussions• Find a friend/classmate who will tell you

what they learned from the textbook readings

Relate most effectively to the spoken wordOften information in the written form will have little meaning until it has been heard

Tips for Visual Learners

• Look at all study materials (charts, maps, movies, notes and flash cards)

• Take good notes, after class fill in sentences and compare notes with other students

• Write out everything for frequent and quick visual review• Practice visualizing or picture words, concepts and even

spelling in your head• Color Code to organize• Ask for written directions

Relate best to written information, notes, diagrams and pictures

Tips Kinesthetic Learners

• Learn skills by imitation and practice• Trace words as you are saying them• Facts that must be learned should be written several

times• Taking and keeping good lecture notes will be very

important• Make good study sheets• Take frequent breaks in study periods• Use a computer to reinforce learning (sense of touch)• Memorize or drill while walking or exercising

Relate best to information received thorough movement or when physical activity is involved

Why Take Notes

A. Useful record 1. Of important points for

future use2. Of where the

information comes from

C. Helps understanding1.If you focus on selecting info to note2.If you think through where everything fits

E. Helps exam revision1.Material is well-organized2.More info is already in memory

B. Helps writing 1.Helps ideas flow2.Helps planning- you can see what info you have3.Assists in organization- you can rearrange and renumber notes in a new way4.Helps you get started

D. Helps memory 1.Summing things up briefly helps long-term memory2.The act of writing helps motor memory3.Pattern notes can be more memorable visually

Taking Notes in lectures & presentations

Listen to case studies & ID complementary

examples

Have file for each module to keep your notes

organized in

Write up your notes after the

lecture if they are messy or

incomplete

Develop your own shorthandNote all words

you don’t understand and follow them up.

Only make notes on the impt. points

Highlight references made

by the lecturer and follow them up.

The Search for Meaning Is Innate

• Each person seeks to make sense out of what he/she sees or hears

• Capitalize on this quality!– Present ideas, experiences that may NOT

follow what one expects:• Speculate • Question• Experiment• Hypothesize

Learning is Enhanced by Challenge & Inhibited by Threat

• The brain’s priority is always survival - at the expense of higher order thinking

• Stress should be kept to a manageable level

• Provide opportunities to “grow” and to make changes

• Have high, but reasonable expectations

Stress & LearningThe stress-brain loop

↓ Attention↓ Perception↓ Short-term memory↓ Learning↓ Word finding

Chronic Stress•Inadequate sleep•Poor nutrition•Emotional distress

Increases glucocorticoids

Decreased regulation of cortisol

Cellular changes in the hippocampus

Brain Organizes Memory In Different Ways

• Retrieval often depends upon how the information was stored.

• Relevancy is one key to both storage and retrieval

• Provide and get examples• Connect to what students know, what they are

interested in• Make learning meaningful

Memory• When objects and events are registered by several

senses, they can be stored in several interrelated memory networks.

• This type of memory becomes more accessible and powerful.

• Conversation helps us link ideas/thoughts to our own related memories. Students need time for this to happen!!– Storytelling - Conversations– Debates - Role playing– Simulations - Songs– Games - Films

Learning & Memory

Sensory organs

StimulusStimulus

Sensory Memory(millisecond-1)

Sensory Memory(millisecond-1)

Short-Term MemoryWorking Memory

(< 1 minute)

Short-Term MemoryWorking Memory

(< 1 minute)

Long-Term Memory( days, months, years)Long-Term Memory

( days, months, years)

perception

attention

forgettingrepetition

 

Learning & Memory

Sensory Memory:

A sensory memory exists for each sensory channel:

• iconic memory for visual stimuli

• echoic memory for aural stimuli

• haptic memory for touch

Information sensory memory short-term memory by attention, thereby filtering the stimuli to only those which are of interest at a given time.

Learning & Memory

Short-term Memory:

• acts as a scratch-pad for temporary recall of the information under process

• can contain at any one time seven, plus or minus two, "chunks" of information

• lasts around twenty seconds.

QUIZ NEXT SLIDE

Short-term Memory Quiz (30 sec)

eggs

drawing

rock

apple

focus

mission

favor

ice

brain

flag

trial

partner

house

life

chair

Learning & Memory

Long-term Memory:

• intended for storage of information over a long time.

• Short-termlong-term (rehearsal)

• Little decay

• Storage

• Deletion- decay and interference

• Retrieval-recall and recognition

Learning & Memory

Long-term Memory:

Why we forget:

• fading (trace decay) over time

• interference (overlaying new information over the old)

• lack of retrieval cues.

Encoding in Long-term Memory:

• Organizing

• Practicing

• Spacing

• Making meaning

• Emotionally engaging

Techniques to Help Memory

Techniques to Help Memory• Define the “gist” - OVERVIEW• Sequence events• Plot out pictorially the information• Tell the information to others in own

words - TALK– Peer teaching/tutoring

• Amplify by giving examples• Use multiple parts of the brain

(emotional, factual, physical)– Auditory, Visual, Kinesthetic, Talk– Combine

• Use color effectively– YellowYellow and orangeorange as attention-getters

The Brain is a Social Brain

• The brain develops better in concert with others

When students have to talk to others about information, they retain the information longer and more efficiently!

Make use of small groups, discussions, teams, pairings, and question and answer situations.