How the Brain Decides What to Learn In order to learn about the world, an animal needs to do more than just pay attention to its surroundings. It also needs to learn which sights, sounds and sensations in its environment … Continue reading The learning brain
The Mystery of People Who Speak Dozens of Languages Last May, Luis Miguel Rojas-Berscia, a doctoral candidate at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, flew to Malta for a week to learn Maltese. He … Continue reading The brains of hyperpolyglots
3 ways that Class Pass uses behavioral science to help us work out more (or: how to manipulate people for good) Their pricing encourages usage. The economically best option for people who like to work out is to get a … Continue reading Tips for classes
A new study from Yale scientists shows how uncertainty helps us learn We may crave stability in life, but the brain benefits from volatility, according to a Yale University study on cognition that shows how uncertainty boosts learning. The paper, … Continue reading The gambling-addicted brain
There Is No Such Thing as Unconscious Thought The great French mathematician and physicist Henri Poincaré (1854–1912) took a particular interest in the origins of his own astonishing creativity. His achievements were impressive: His work profoundly reshaped mathematics and physics—including … Continue reading Flashes of suspicion
Here’s Your Cheat Sheet to Happiness Professor Laurie Santos didn’t set out to create the most popular course in the history of Yale University and the most talked-about college course in America. She just wanted her students to be happy. … Continue reading Are you that happy?
What counts as “memory” and who gets to define it? A new paper by Bédécarrats et al. (2018) is the latest entry into the iconoclastic hullabaloo claiming a non-synaptic basis for learning and memory. In short, “RNA extracted from the … Continue reading Where memory comes from
