Minds, Brains, and Learning: Understanding the Psychological and Educational Relevance of Neuroscientific ResearchWhy should psychologists and educators study the brain? Can neuroscientific research advance our understanding of student learning and motivation? What do informed readers need to know to tell the difference between plausible applications of brain research and unfounded speculation? This timely volume considers the benefits of incorporating findings from cognitive neuroscience into the fields of educational, developmental, and cognitive psychology. The book provides a basic foundation in the methodology of brain research; describes the factors that affect brain development; and reviews salient findings on attention, memory, emotion, and reading and mathematics. For each domain, the author considers the ways that the neuroscientific evidence overlaps with or diverges from existing psychological models. Readers gain skills for assessing the credibility of widely publicized claims regarding critical periods of learning, the effects of stress hormones on the brain, the role of music training in boosting academic performance, and more. Also elucidated are the possible neuroscientific bases of attention deficits, reading problems, and mathematical disabilities in children. The volume concludes by suggesting areas for future investigation that may help answer important questions about individual and developmental differences in learning. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Arguments for and against the Relevance of Brain Research | 2 |
Some Essential Neuroscientific Terms and Brain Structures | 9 |
Neuroscientific Research Methods and Their Limitations | 14 |
Summary and Preview of Remaining Chapters | 22 |
Brain Development | 24 |
Cell Types and Brain Layers | 25 |
Seven Major Processes of Brain Development | 26 |
Emotion | 91 |
Psychological Perspectives on Emotion | 92 |
Neuroscientific Perspectives on Emotion | 100 |
Conclusions Caveats and Instructional Implications | 111 |
Reading | 115 |
Neuroscientific Perspectives on Reading | 129 |
Conclusions Caveats and Instructional Implications | 140 |
Math Skills | 145 |
Factors Affecting Brain Development | 33 |
Conclusions and Caveats | 43 |
Memory | 47 |
Human Memory as Viewed by Psychologists | 48 |
Human Memory as Viewed by Neuroscientists | 63 |
Conclusions and Caveats | 71 |
Attention | 73 |
Psychological Perspectives on Attention | 74 |
Neuroscientific Perspectives on Attention | 83 |
Conclusions Caveats and Instructional Implications | 88 |
Psychological and Educational Perspectives on Mathematical Abilities | 146 |
Neuroscientific Perspectives on Math Ability | 152 |
Conclusions Caveats and Instructional Implications | 165 |
Conclusions | 169 |
Evaluating Claims about the Brain | 176 |
Final Thoughts | 186 |
Glossary | 187 |
195 | |
208 | |
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Minds, Brains, and Learning: Understanding the Psychological and Educational ... James P. Byrnes No preview available - 2001 |
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Popular passages
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Page 205 - Neuropsychopharmacological mechanisms of stimulant drug action in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: A review and integration.
Page 201 - Autonomous electrical activity in man and animals. In R. Thompson & MN Patterson (Eds.), Bioelectrical recording techniques (pp. 3-83). New York: Academic Press.
Page 197 - JDE (1998). Hemispheric asymmetry for emotional stimuli detected with fMRI. NeuroReport, 9, 3233-3239.
Page 197 - Cherry, SR, & Phelps, ME (1996). Imaging brain function with positron emission tomography. In AW Toga & JC Mazziotta (Eds.), Brain mapping: The methods (pp. 191-221). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.