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Think Like a Kid to Learn Better?

Think Like a Kid to Learn Better?

by | 2022 Sep 27 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

children learning brain

Think like a kid may sound like a good piece of advice – the sort of thing a motivational speaker might importantly pronounce. But it may be harder than we can imagine – it might also help in some learning tasks according to some new research just published.

So, what precisely differs between adults and children when learning?

In this experiment the researchers from Ohio State University gave children between four and five years old and adults a visual identifying task. Fantastical creatures were shown on screens, and they were told that these could be categorised into two groups of “Flurps” and “Jalets”.  While doing this the participants wore eye tracking devices to identify where they were focusing attention.

The results showed firstly adults learned the classification quicker. This was due to adults focusing more and identifying key features – they then zoomed in on these features more quickly. The children’s eyes were much more random and roamed the screen and looked at more features more often. This led to them being slower to identify and categorise the Flurps and Jalets.

So, far this suggests that “think like an adult to learn better” is the message motivational speakers should be giving us. Somehow that is not quite so motivational. However, when the researchers switched the task mid-way though the identification tasks they noticed something different.

What the researcher then did was change the critical features that identified Flurps and Jalets. Kids were then much faster than adults to identify what had changed and change their categorisation whereas adults kept their focus on the previously known features.

This shows that kids’ brains and attention is much more exploratory and also random – this also means they are better at seeing more things and also at adapting to changing environments. Actually logical. Adults are better at focusing but worse when it comes to changing environments.

So, the hard bit is actually thinking like a kid – these kids seem to do it naturally as adults also focus naturally. The researchers note that adults can use broad attention, but it seems to require more effort. So, as you focus give some effort to unfocus your attention. It will help you learn better and more flexibly.

That is surely a good thing.

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Nathaniel J. Blanco, Brandon M. Turner, Vladimir M. Sloutsky.
The benefits of immature cognitive control: How distributed attention guards against learning traps.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2023; 226: 105548
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105548

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Those Who Distrust Humans, Trust AI

Those Who Distrust Humans, Trust AI

by | 2022 Sep 26 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

We probably all know someone who is extremely distrustful of fellow human beings. In fact, in some ways this has also become a feature I some countries’ political landscapes – deep distrust of the other.

So how do you get them to be more trustful – well the interesting thing that researchers have uncovered is that those who distrust humans most are more likely to trust AI more!

This was a part of study by researchers at Penn University – they recruited 676 participants to take part in a study in which they were told they were evaluating a new moderation tool for online content that helped to identify hate speech and suicide ideation.

Posts were then shown that had been flagged and they were told this had been flagged by a human, by AI, or by both. They then completed a survey on their individual differences which included distrust in others, political ideology, experience with technology, and trust in AI.

Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, those that most distrusted their fellow human beings trusted AI the most. This also included those who had a stronger conservative ideology. The converse also applied the more trust people had in human beings the less they trusted AI.

There was also a group of  “power” users, those with the most experience of technology and they trusted AI less – they though AI wouldn’t be able to tell the nuances of human language apart – they may be more aware of the limitations of AI than others.

So, who would have thought it but trust in AI and humans has a negative correlation and political ideologies also predict this!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Maria D. Molina, S. Shyam Sundar. 
Does distrust in humans predict greater trust in AI? Role of individual differences in user responses to content moderation. 
New Media & Society, 2022; 146144482211035
DOI: 10.1177/14614448221103534

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Watching TV With Your Child Can Help Cognitive Development

Watching TV With Your Child Can Help Cognitive Development

by | 2022 Sep 23 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

This is another study to show that there is no quick and easy answer to the question of screen time and children. In fact, a group of researchers have come to the conclusion that quality is the most important factor rather than quantity of screen time.

You may ask what quality is in terms of screen time with the number of programmes targeted at young children and particularly those under three-years old on the rise. Screen time, probably no surprise to many, has more than doubled over the last 30 years.

These researchers from the University of Portsmouth, UK, and Paris Nanterre University, France, analysed 478 studies over the last two decades in a paper just out.

They note that “Weak narrative, fast pace editing, and complex stimuli can make it difficult for a child to extract or generalise information. But when screen content is appropriate for a child’s age, it’s likely to have a positive effect, particularly when it’s designed to encourage interaction.”

So, the first thing is that the content should be suitable. Interestingly I noticed when my children were small that they became fascinated with the TV programme Caillou – Caillou is a cartoon done very simplistically about a small kid who experienced very simple daily problems. None of the crazy stuff that some cartoons have – but the story was so simple and relatable that they loved it.

The next surprise is that watching with parents (or others) seems to be positive – especially when this supports and enables interactions and clarifications – this seems to have positive effect and help with interpretation but also on development of words and language.

This suggest that watching age suitable content with your kids and enabling clarification and interaction but also shared enjoyment, not to forget, is positive and supports development of children.

So as with many things in life – screen time is more nuanced but the simple rule is make it age appropriate, share in the experience, and still allow social interaction. It’s also probably the same with adults!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Bahia Guellai, Eszter Somogyi, Rana Esseily, Adrien Chopin. 
Effects of screen exposure on young children’s cognitive development: A review. 
Frontiers in Psychology, 2022; 13
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.923370

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How Fear Gets Stuck in (Some) Brains

How Fear Gets Stuck in (Some) Brains

by | 2022 Sep 22 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

fear brainFear is an important human emotion and essential to survival so not to be underestimated. It allows us to avoid life-threatening situations and avoid them again in the future – so fundamentally a good thing. However, we also know that fear can be debilitating, cause inaction, anxiety, and be involved in multiple psychiatric disorders such as PTSD.

We know that fear and threat is primarily, initially at least, processed in a part of the brain called the amygdala. This also controls attention (and also other emotions). This then connects to the frontal regions of the brain. These frontal regions are involved in attention, but also cognition and what we can consider higher, or executive, functions, such as decision making and also controlling our impulses.

This has been known for a long time, but this does not help us understand the precise mechanisms of fear and how in some people it becomes entrenched and leads to severe anxiety disorders.

A group of researchers around Barchiesi of the Linköping University in Sweden have now given us a deeper insight into this and how this happens in a paper just published.

This is where it gets technical – as if the above wasn’t. But let me guide you through this.

Previous research has shown that there is an epigenetic enzyme called PRDM2 that supresses the expression of many genes. Your genes are in constant cycles of activation and deactivation to perform their duties and different enzymes up or down regulate these.

PRDM2 has previously been seen to be lower in those with alcohol dependence and exaggerated stress responses are common in those people. Hence why the researchers zoomed in on this enzyme.

The researchers found that indeed downregulation of PRDM2 increases the consolidation of fear memories in rats by increasing the activity between the frontal lobes and the amygdala. They have also, in addition been able to identify the genes that are downregulated.

This may sound like a bit of technical description, but this is significant step forward in understanding the mechanisms of fear getting stuck in the brain and leading to anxiety disorders.

Unfortunately, there is no know way to upregulate PRDM2 – that I imagine will be the focus of future research.

But for now, let’s at least be grateful for the step forward in understanding the neurobiology of fear.

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Barchiesi Riccardo, Chanthongdee Kanat, Petrella Michele, Xu Li, Söderholm Simon, Domi Esi, Augier Gaelle, Coppola Andrea, Joost Wiskerke, Ilona Szczot, Domi Ana, Adermark Louise, Augier Eric, Cantù Claudio, Heilig Markus, Barbier Estelle. 
An epigenetic mechanism for over-consolidation of fear memories. 
Molecular Psychiatry, 2022
DOI: 10.1038/s41380-022-01758-6

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Your Brain Switches Between Remembering and Learning

Your Brain Switches Between Remembering and Learning

by | 2022 Sep 21 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

brain blackboard learning

Learning and memory are key functions of the brain and ones that attract a lot of attention and research – and interest from normal folk like us. After all who wouldn’t like to know how to use one’s brain to learn and remember things better.

These two functions are, however, closely related. Memorising things is a part of learning – so are they part of the same process or part of separate processes in the brain? And does this happen in parallel or sequentially?

Most of us would probably assume that they happen in parallel – lots does in the brain – it is pretty complex. Similarly disentangling these processes is difficult – when we go about things in daily life we are drawing on our memories as we encounter familiar things and do familiar processes but when we encounter novel things we then need to learn and this seems to happen seamlessly

Researchers around Ruy Gómez-Ocádiz of the Insitut Pasteur in France have now given insight into this with some pretty innovative research.

For this they transported mice to a virtual world – yup, you read that correctly – researchers are now using virtual reality with mice! I will let you imagination run with that thought. This allows researchers to guide what the mice see and experience with more accuracy and therefore draw firmer conclusions. In this research it allows them to manipulate and distinguish between learning and remembering by transporting them to a whole new world so they can see learning in action.

What did they find?

Yes, they found that there is separate circuit in the brain’s hippocampus that switches between learning or remembering – the hippocampus is a well-researched area deep in the brain that is critical for memory formation but also memory recall and for navigation.

This shows that your brain therefore switches, sometimes rapidly between modes. When you encounter novelty it switches to learning mode and when in familiar territory you are in remembering mode.

And going through this article it probably switched a few times – but hopefully the learning mode also so that you remember this for later!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Ruy Gómez-Ocádiz, Massimiliano Trippa, Chun-Lei Zhang, Lorenzo Posani, Simona Cocco, Rémi Monasson, Christoph Schmidt-Hieber. 
A synaptic signal for novelty processing in the hippocampus. 
Nature Communications, 2022; 13 (1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31775-6

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How Daily Rhythms Help Your Brain Grow After Injury

How Daily Rhythms Help Your Brain Grow After Injury

by | 2022 Sep 20 | Public, Quick Hits

Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences

brain cell neuron growth

Always nice to know that you brain can grow – and it is still met with surprise when I explain how this can happen to audiences when speaking in public. But this recent research gives some fascinating insights into a new mechanism of growth in the brain.

Researchers around Terry Dean of the Children’s National Hospital in the USA have found a mechanism that is controlled by daily rhythms and this could lead to new insight and more effective methods to help recovery after brain injury.

Your brain cells, neurons are pretty fixed with new generation of cells only in very limited areas in the brain. However, they can rebuild and strengthen connections. There are also group of cells called micro glia or glial cells and these are considered the brains “helping” cells – they are also essential to healthy brain functioning performing many critical functions.

One of these goes under the technical name of NG2-glia, or “oligodendrocyte precursor”, sorry I know that won’t help you (in short, it’s one of the brain’s helping cells). Anyhow these are one of the few cells in the brain that can continuously regenerate. And what the researchers found is that these follow daily rhythms with proliferation of these cells coinciding with the highest levels of a factor known as Bmal-1RNA. This is a protein that helps the body clock stay in rhythm and is highest when we should be most active – during the day.

What is interesting is that this can help us guide recovery better by taking into account times of day during treatment – we also know that traumatic brain injury (TBI) can disrupt daily rhythms which could explain some of the negative effects.

Also, of interest is that we would probably assume that much healing would take place as night – but this shows not so in this particular case.

This highlights once more the importance of daily rhythms in just about everything!

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Andy Habermacher

Andy Habermacher

Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.

Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).

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References

Terry Dean, Aissia Victoria Koffi, Evan Goldstein, Javid Ghaemmaghami, Vittorio Gallo. 
Endogenous circadian clock machinery in cortical NG2-glia regulates cellular proliferation. 
eneuro, 2022
DOI: 10.1523/ENEURO.0110-22.2022

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