Learning styles has become a popular term to use when we talk about the idea that people have different ways of learning. The concept of learning styles has a lot of personal and political appeal. It comes in handy when we want to explain why we didn’t learn much from a class. “The teacher just … [Read more...] about Learning Styles Are Appealing But Misleading
Confirmation Bias: 3 Effective (and 3 Ineffective) Cures
Confirmation bias is a fancy way of describing our human inclination to see what we want to see. In other words, we like to look for and interpret information in ways that confirm our expectations. The language makes it sound like confirmation bias is something only scientists can be afflicted … [Read more...] about Confirmation Bias: 3 Effective (and 3 Ineffective) Cures
Critical Thinking and the Internet: Skills for a New Era
Learning has gotten complicated. We often need to answer challenging technical and scientific questions to get by in our everyday life. The web has become the default means to get those answers. Yet learning from the internet is fraught with difficulty. Searching, sorting, and synthesizing … [Read more...] about Critical Thinking and the Internet: Skills for a New Era
Metacognition is Knowing Your Mind
Metacognition refers to what you know about your own thinking and learning. It is the part of cognition that monitors other cognitive processes, and makes adjustments to them. Cognition and metacognition are closely connected. Cognitive scientists study metacognition as an essential aspect of … [Read more...] about Metacognition is Knowing Your Mind
Respect for Arab Crowds
Direct displays of respect can reduce conflict in Arab protests, where a premium is placed on honor. Such displays enable people in potentially volatile crowd situations to accrue honor while avoiding risks associated with violent confrontation. These conclusions are based on studies of Arab … [Read more...] about Respect for Arab Crowds
Gain Cognitive Flexibility By Seeking Experiences that Test Your Morals
A family eats their dog after it has been run over by a car. Is this behavior right or wrong? Our lives are filled with moral questions. Some of them we don’t have to deliberate over very long. Most Americans say it’s “wrong” to eat dogs without much deliberation. That’s because there’s agreement … [Read more...] about Gain Cognitive Flexibility By Seeking Experiences that Test Your Morals