30 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
The Myth of Pure Evil
The myth of pure evil gives rise to an archetype that is common in religions, horror movies, children’s literature, nationalist mythologies, and sensationalist news coverage. In many religions evil is personified as the Devil—Hades, Satan, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Mephistopheles—or as the antithesis to a benevolent God in a bilateral Manichean struggle. In popular fiction evil takes the form of the slasher, the serial killer, the bogeyman, the ogre, the Joker, the James Bond villain, or depe... 1 
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notes20 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
Transcription Fluency
When you write something down, either while taking notes or while trying to write your own original thoughts, you’re dealing with what literacy scholars call “transcription fluency”: How quickly and fluidly you can get down — “transcribe” — the stuff that’s in your head. One of the reasons we formally teach handwriting to young children is that you don’t want a bottleneck between the ideas they’re forming and the writing. If you struggle with the act of forming let... 1 notes
notes24 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Ada Lovelace Describes the Analytical Engine
The distinctive characteristic of the Analytical Engine, and that which has rendered it possible to endow mechanism with such extensive faculties as bid fair to make this engine the executive right-hand of abstract algebra, is the introduction into it of the principle which Jacquard devised for regulating, by means of punched cards, the most complicated pattems in the fabrication of brocaded stuffs. It is in this that the distinction between the two engines lies. Nothing of the sort exists in...
2 It is a loom, but for weaving equations.
30 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
The Prefontal Cortex
Executive functions take place in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. I love the term that Stanislas Dehaene uses to describe this part of the brain—a global neuronal workspace. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for the ability to exchange information across the high-level areas of the brain, Dehaene says, so that our behavior can be guided by our accumulated knowledge. That’s the beauty and the purpose of executive functions: they enable us to control ourselves, to reflect deeply, and... 1 notes
notesInsightful description of its purpose in executive function, taking the information stored in our brains to control the rest of it.
28 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism
In stark contrast to early suspicions that bilingual children were at risk of retardation or at best, “mentally confused” (Bialystok, 2005), recent research links bilingualism to cognitive reserve and suggests it may offer protection against dementia in old age. Cognitive reserve describes a kind of resilience which appears to mediate the relationship between brain pathology and the clinical expression of that pathology; it is thought that this resilience derives from more efficient use o...It protects against the onset of dementia in old age and produces numerous sensory and executive cognitive benefits in life.
28 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
The Bilingual Advantage in Computer Programmers
Like bilinguals, expert computer programmers successfully manage two or more separate lexicons, grammars and divergent concepts, avoiding inadvertent transfer between the two. Numerous studies of novice programmers indicate that they struggle to do achieve this division; transfer from natural language creates bugs (e.g. Soloway and Spohrer, 1989; Witschital, 1995). The present study therefore considers whether the “bilingual advantage” in executive control is found in computer programmers... 1 notes
notesManifests in tasks involving executive function, but not in other bilingual tasks. More research needed.
28 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Bilinguals Perform Better at Non-Verbal Tests
When communicating, bilinguals must successfully manage two conflicting
languages; one must be accessed whilst the other is suppressed, in order to avoid involuntary language switching. The cognitive demands of this task are thought to be the origin of the bilingual advantage in executive control.
A series of studies have demonstrated that bilinguals outperform their peers on
tests of non-linguistic interference. Bilingual children, middle aged adults and older adults consistently record fa...Folksonomies: cognition bilingualism
Folksonomies: cognition bilingualism
1 notes
notesEarly bilingual children perform better at sensory tasks, while children who became bilingual at adolescence perform better at conflict resolution tasks.
26 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Two Views of Consciousness
There is no end of hypotheses about consciousness, particularly by philosophers. But most of these are not what we might call principled scientific theories, based on observables and related to the functions of the brain and body. Several theories of consciousness based on functionalism and on the machine model of the mind... have recently been proposed. These generally come in two flavors: one in which consciousness is assumed to be efficacious, and another in which it is considered an epiph...Folksonomies: consciousness
Folksonomies: consciousness
1 notes
notesOne view is that it is the executive function of the brain, the other is that it is a byproduct of its processing.
31 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Activities With Children
After my children turned 3, I employed some fun activities to improve executive function, roughly based on the canonical work of Adele Diamond. I would tell them that today was “opposite day. When I held up a drawn picture of the night, an inky black background sprinkled with stars, they were supposed to say “day.” When I held up a picture with a big blue sky inhabited by a big yellow sun, they were supposed to say “night.” I would alternate the pictures with increasing rapidity ...Some activities the author engages with his children to teach them self-control.
31 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Exercise with your Children
This rise in pediatric obesity is painful to hear in the brain science community, especially because we know so much about the relationship between physical activity and mental acuity. Exercise—especially aerobic exercise—is fanastic for the brain, increasing executive function scores anywhere from 50 percent to 100 percent. This is true across the life span, from young children to members of the golden-parachute crowd. Strengthening exercises do not give you these numbers (though ther... 1 notes
notesExercise is so important for improved cognitive function.
