How Much We Learn is Dependent on the Way We Learn

Written by a neurology professor, on how we learn, from the Front Page Sections, translated…

A student I had from a long, long time ago, came up to me at an international conference, “Professor, you’d told us long time ago, there’s no student that can’t learn, it’s the teachers, professors who didn’t know how to teach her/him.  Back then, it’d not made a difference to me, but, as I’d, switched the wordings in the statement, I’d, realized how different the meanings of the sentence could be, so interesting.  And, as I’d later on discovered, you were, absolutely, right.”

“Because I’d done the experiments on the invertebrates, and found these living organisms had various modes of learning, and each of these modes of learning were in their short-term, and long-term memories.  Splashing the sea slugs a couple of times, they’d, cringe up, but after awhile, they’d, gotten used to getting splashed, and, started, ignoring you, because water is a harmless and unimportant stimulus.  But as you’d used electricity to shock it, it’d become, sensitized immediately, and altered its, behaviors.  If these sorts of simple organisms learn by association so quickly, how can humans not learn as effectively?  Although the culture, the society of man is way more complicated than that of sea slugs.  This man who’s, suggested that there are, different methods to learning had, helped me altered my measures of training my T.A.s, even as I’d gotten the scholarship money for working as a T.A. all the way to my doctoral degree.”

Yes, if for a microorganism that’s only few millimeters long, with only 959 cells, 302 neural cells, can learn to accommodate, and associate, how can humans not learn?

Being acculturated means getting adapted to one’s own, living environments, to stop responding to the unharmful stimuli when they come up around us.  We saw how the people who live next to the railroad tracks not having any reactions to how the trains rumbled late at night passing by their homes, and yet, for most of us, we’d, awaken in shock.  Making the associations means to note, and to remember, which things are harmful in our living environments, which ones prove to be, beneficial to our living, then, avoiding those harmful ones.

In the past, we’d thought, that for the roundworms without a brain, but with 302 neural units, their behaviors must be, predisposed, but they weren’t, it has the ability to learn, even if in the binary living organisms, their living environments may vary, and so, they’d needed to, learn to, adapt, so, as long as you’re a living organism, you have the abilities to learn, the key is in, finding the methods of learning that fitted each individual organism.

Now, the neuroscientists can see the blood flow in certain area of the brain, to see if the word being presented would get memorized.  The experimental method is by showing three sets of students a total of sixty words, the first group were only asked if the words were in capitals or small letters, the second group needed to tell if the words given were rhyming with the word “Chair”, the third, needed to decide whether or not if the words presented were, animals.  And the results showed, that the third group memorized the most number of words, on average, seventy-five percent of the words were recalled by this group, because the participants were using the definitions of the words to make the connections, the other two groups were only asked to, use simplified classifications methods for the terms, and so, the second group scored a fifty-two-percent, and for the first, only, thirty-three percent.

As the participants were asked to repeat this test while being given an MRI, the researchers found that the students’ frontal cortexes being activated from the third group of participants, the hippocampus, along with the areas around the hippocampus also became, activated, and, the activations of these areas of the brains, were directly connected to how the words given, were processed in more depth, so there’s an accurate prediction of whether or not certain words were, remembered.  For the other two groups, there were, only, mild activities in the prefrontal cortexes.  And so, in order to successfully teach someone, you’d needed to, rouse up the cortical areas, all the way, into the prefrontal cortex, then, the memories of these items will be ingrained into the minds.

The researches in neurosciences allow us to see, that any animal can have the abilities to learn, this is, especially true in humans, it all depends on how we presented the materials, to trigger the responses in the students’ brains as instructors.

So, the point of this article is saying?  Oh yeah, if you can breathe, you can, surely learn!  And, learning is all about, adaptation and survival, we’re, driven to learn, because we’re, innately wired, to survive, and, our brains can, accommodate, and there’s NO limit, to what humans can pick up through their, living experiences.