Introduction: Research suggests benefits for incorporating popular press books into courses to encourage critical thinking and student-instructor interactions about concepts. Objective: This article offers a summary and critique of "7 ½ Lessons about the Brain" by Lisa Feldman-Barrett along with pedagogical strategies for integrating the…

Standard Australian reading assessment tests are criticized for being culturally inappropriate for use with Australian Indigenous children, particularly for those living in remote and very remote regions, as these tests are culturally biased towards mainstream Australian culture and imperceptive to Indigenous knowledge, language, concepts, and…

Understanding how episodic memories are formed and retrieved is necessary if we are to treat disorders in which they malfunction. Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChR) in the hippocampus and cortex underlie memory formation, but there is conflicting evidence regarding their role in memory retrieval. Additionally, there is no consensus on…

We briefly discuss memory types and three modern principles of neuroscience: 1) Protein growth at the synapse, 2) the three-brain theory, and 3) the interplay of the hippocampus, the neocortex, and the prefrontal cortex. To illustrate the potential of this perspective, four applications of these principles are provided.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine whether abstract knowledge of word-level linguistic prosody is independent of or integrated with phonetic knowledge. Method: Event-related potential (ERP) responses were measured from 18 adult listeners while they listened to native and nonnative word-level prosody in speech and in nonspeech. The prosodic…

As immersive virtual reality (IVR) systems proliferate in classrooms, it is important to understand how they affect learning outcomes and the underlying affective and cognitive processes that may cause these outcomes. Proponents argue that IVR could improve learning by increasing positive affective and cognitive processing, thereby supporting…

Counterfactuals describe imagined alternatives to reality that people know to be false. Successful counterfactual comprehension therefore requires people to keep in mind both an imagined hypothetical world and the presupposed real world. "Counterfactual transparency," that is, the degree to which a context makes it easy to determine…

Art therapy can be particularly successful in addressing the specific needs of individuals struggling with anorexia nervosa (AN) through the use of the creative process. This article provides an understanding of the effect of malnourishment on the brain for individuals with AN and discusses how their unique needs can be met through the application…

When teachers harbor misconceptions or unjustified beliefs about teaching, learning, and academic motivation, the pedagogical consequences can be severe. It is likely these teachers will unintentionally perpetuate such false beliefs upon students through ineffective teaching strategies or misinterpretations of learning science. Misconceptions…

Purpose: Investigations into the nature of communication disorders in autistic individuals increasingly evaluate neural responses to speech stimuli. This integrative review aimed to consolidate the available data related to speech and language processing across levels of stimulus complexity (from single speech sounds to sentences) and to relate it…

The purpose of this document is to briefly introduce the research on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and trauma and their relevance to schools. ACEs are acute or chronic events that threaten the child's physical or emotional well-being. This brief answers the following questions: (1) What are ACEs? (2) How common are ACEs? (3) What is trauma?…

This study examined how three auditory lectures delivered at different speeds -- normal (1.0x), fast (1.5x) and very fast (3.0x) speeds -- affected the graduate students' attention, cognitive load, and learning that were assessed by pre- and post-comprehension tests, cognitive-load questionnaire, and Electroencephalography (EEG) device. The…

Semantic ambiguity has been shown to slow comprehension, although it is unclear whether this ambiguity disadvantage is attributable to competition in semantic activation or difficulties in response selection. We tested the two accounts by examining semantic relatedness decisions to homonyms, or words with multiple unrelated meanings (e.g.,…

A number of training interventions have been designed to improve executive functions and inhibitory control (IC) across the lifespan. Surprisingly, no study has investigated the structural neuroplasticity induced by IC training from childhood to late adolescence, a developmental period characterized by IC efficiency improvement and protracted…

The aim of this study is to understand the way in which executive functions are promoted in students by analyzing the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles, guidelines and checkpoints. After having performed a content analysis of such material, the results show that a little over half of the 31 checkpoints address the 12 executive…