Tag: Learning

2024-25, Brain, Chemistry, Neuroscience

Taste Discrimination: How We Learn to Identify Similar Foods

Author: Asher Agarwal, Class of 2027 Figure 1. A brown mouse eating food. The ability to discriminate similar, partially overlapping sensory stimuli is critical for an animal to survive in its environment. For example, in taste, learning discrimination becomes the difference between consuming a nutritious food item and a toxic one. Previous research done on other senses supports 2 models: one that learning may enhance … Continue reading Taste Discrimination: How We Learn to Identify Similar Foods

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2024-25, Cognition, education, Technology

Video Games: A New Way to Facilitate Cognitive Development in Students with Learning Disabilities

Author: Sean Krivitsky, Class of 2026 Figure 1. Image of letter tiles spelling out “Learning Disability” According to The Treetop ABA Therapy, approximately 1 in 7 individuals worldwide possess a learning disability and it is important to acknowledge and address these learning differences to facilitate their learning and development (1). Recently, video games have become far more prevalent worldwide, and a series of research examining … Continue reading Video Games: A New Way to Facilitate Cognitive Development in Students with Learning Disabilities

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2024-25, Cognition, education, Psychology

The Effects of Video Game Addiction on Children’s Cognitive and Learning Skills

Author: Amal Bilal, Class of 2028 Figure 1: A couple of young kids playing video games. Video games have become an increasingly popular source of entertainment among children, with over 90% of children between 2 and 17 years old actively playing video games. Although video games allow children to socialize and have leisure time, they can also lead to addiction. Excessive gaming can negatively impact … Continue reading The Effects of Video Game Addiction on Children’s Cognitive and Learning Skills

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General Neuroscience, Machine Learning, Neurology

Virtual Reality as a Means of Neuroplasticity

Tiffany Ang, Class of 2025 Neuroplasticity is defined as the brain’s ability to create and reorganize neural connections in response to learning and or following injury. This reorganization can be structural or functional, resulting from learning or brain damage respectively. Virtual reality (VR) offers an integrative approach to enhance neuroplasticity by producing controlled yet engaging environments that imitate real-life experiences and promote realistic patterns of … Continue reading Virtual Reality as a Means of Neuroplasticity

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2021-22, education, Linguistics

Sing and You Shall Learn: How Singing Enables Easier Language Acquisition

Thumyat Noe ’23 Learning a new language is challenging, but several studies claim that music may improve the learning process. For instance, primary school children with prior musical experience tend to have greater developed auditory working and verbal memories, allowing for easier language acquisition. Furthermore, according to a previous study, singing increased phonological awareness in Spanish-speaking students, yielding an improvement in English vocabulary recall and … Continue reading Sing and You Shall Learn: How Singing Enables Easier Language Acquisition

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Neuroscience

Priming of long-term memory from initial experience alters future learning

Joyce Chen ’23 One of the most fascinating things about the brain is its malleability. When humans learn, whether it be in the classroom or from an experience, the brain produces new neurons so that the information can be recalled in the future. This is a process known as neuronal plasticity. Although there is plenty of research surrounding this area, there is still much more … Continue reading Priming of long-term memory from initial experience alters future learning

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General Neuroscience

Fears and How Priming Can Help Overcome Them

Yukta Kulkarni ’22 Some of the most important topics covered by neuroscience research encompass memory retention. This type of research helps explain how much information brains can retain and how easily it is learned. However, does prior learning affect the ability to learn in the future? To answer this, Cole et al. blocked protein-kinase A (PKA) and extracellular signal-related mitogen-activated protein-kinase (ERK/MAPK) within the basolateral … Continue reading Fears and How Priming Can Help Overcome Them

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2017-18

The Pathology of Schizophrenia: Action-Outcome Learning Impairments

By Maryna Mullerman ‘20 Schizophrenia is often associated with disconnections between thoughts and actions, as well as slow acquisition of adaptive behavior. Doctor Richard W. Morris and researchers from the University of New South Wales in Australia wanted to establish whether schizophrenia (SZ) patients could distinguish causal consequences from reward values. The researchers aimed to reveal action-outcome (AO) learning impairments in SZ patients. The analysis … Continue reading The Pathology of Schizophrenia: Action-Outcome Learning Impairments

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2017-18

Brain Cells Live and Die in the Process of Learning

By Marcia-Ruth Ndege ’21 For over a century, researchers have pondered the question of how the brain intakes, processes, and retains new information. Researcher Elisabeth Wenger and her team at the Max Plank Institute for Human Development in Berlin, Germany probed deeper into this process by examining the volumetric changes in human grey matter and linking them to the process of skill acquisition in humans. … Continue reading Brain Cells Live and Die in the Process of Learning

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Figure 1. A German study recently revealed that video gamers may have an advantage in learning that non video gamers do not have.
2017-18

Do Video Gamers Have an Edge in Learning?

By Meenu Johnkutty ’21 Learning is an everyday occurrence that extends beyond the traditional classroom setting, whether it be quickly memorizing a bus route or remembering a colleague’s number. A recent study led by Dr. Sabrina Schenk of Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, revealed that video gamers may have an edge in learning over non video gamers. In this study, researchers explored categorization learning, defined … Continue reading Do Video Gamers Have an Edge in Learning?

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Caption: Linear model of effects of teacher burnout and stress.
2017-18

Do stressed teachers effect educational outcomes?

By: Ramanjot Singh 19′ Individual experiences of stress and burnout can have adverse effects on health and output. While much research has been conducted on the etiology of stress, its effects on teacher-student interactions is relatively unexplored. A group of researchers led by Dr. Venus Wong at the University of Kentucky conducted a study to examine potential direct effects of teacher burnout on teacher behavior … Continue reading Do stressed teachers effect educational outcomes?

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2016-17, Linguistics, Psychology

How Bilingualism Affects Children’s Learning

by Lillian Pao (’18) There are 6,500 spoken languages around the world and the most popular language is Mandarin Chinese, which uses vocal pitch to create tone. Tone is used in the English language to distinguish questions, statements, and other elements of emotional states. Children who are learning two languages have to learn how words are defined in both of their native languages. There are … Continue reading How Bilingualism Affects Children’s Learning

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