Neuroscience of Learning
| The basal
ganglia have a complex role in reinforcement learning. |
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For many years now, neuroscience has had a distant relationship to education. Many have discussed with excitement but no substance the promise of direct neuroscience-education links. However, perhaps cognitive neuroscience and cognitive science of education have progressed far enough that meaningful links are now possible. We explore new methods of conducting training interventions that are directly informed by the cognitive neuroscience of learning as well as training methods that use realtime neuroscience data to guide instruction. |
- Strategic mathematical practice can fine tune mental representations of numbers even in adults.
- There are huge individual differences in the extent to which people engage in self-explanation during learning despite being given explicit instructions and detailed training on how to do so. Failing to self-explain at a given moment appears to be strongly associated with zoning out.
- Pupil size appears to be clearly associated with using better learning strategies and amount of learning.
- From fMRI studies, level of effort appears to be well tracked by executive
control areas of the brain, whereas more meaning based strategies separte
from less meaning-based but also effortful strategy through levels
of activation in semantic areas.
Near Infra-Red
Spectroscopy may provide a usable technique for providing real-time
feedback on effective learning states. |
Training Arithmetic Fluency. In many domains of learning, there is a debate regarding whether learning should involve meaning or fluency. We explore an integration account based on cognitive neuroscience findings regarding areas of activity in mathematical tasks as well as recent results from the cognitive neuroscience of language learning. We are developing training regimes that should optimize learning, and will be using cognitive neuroscience techniques to verify the underlying causal hypotheses. Prior Projects Biologically
Accelerated Learning Technology.
Our goal was to find biological markers of cognitive processes
that are known to accelerate learning (e.g., self-explanation
or other meaning-based processing methods), and
then provide real-time feedback to learners (a new generation
of tutoring system) about whether they are consistently
using the most effective cognitive processes for learning. Prior talk |
