Thinking ’bout Thinking

Recently, I’ve been thinking about thinking, so I thought I’d do some linking to some thinking about thinking. From brain myths & facts to how magicians trick the brain to emerging evidence for neuroplasticity, here’s a few tidbits to chew on this Saturday.

Food for thought, so to speak.

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It’s called metacognition, this thinking about thinking and increasingly, educators are helping people learn this powerful life skill.

A metaphor that resonates with many students is that learning cognitive and metacognitive strategies offers them tools to “drive their brains.” The good news for teachers and their students is that metacognition can be learned when it is explicitly taught and practiced across content and social contexts.”

A simple magic trick demonstrated and explained — and why you still fall for it!

Even when we know how magic works, it doesn’t change the way the brain functions. The magician can still stay ahead of the audience, and manage to trick magic-hunting eyes and minds.

Busting common myths heard about our brains:

For a long time, scientists believed that the brain was the exception to this rule, and that damaged brain cells would never grow back. We now know this isn’t the case.

10 facts about our amazing brains:

If we constantly think that we’re not good enough to achieve a certain goal, that thought will become stronger in the brain.
Vice versa, if we think we are good enough, that thought will become cemented in our brain overtime.
We all have the ability to achieve whatever we put our mind to. We just have to believe it and work at it.

Interesting research findings about how children’s brains respond to reading, illustrations, and animations — and which works best for language development.

When we read to our children, they are doing more work than meets the eye. “It’s that muscle they’re developing bringing the images to life in their minds.

6 ways electrical brain stimulation might be used in the future:

Not surprisingly, as the technology and treatment (electrical brain stimulation) have become more refined, scientists have started to look at other ways brain stimulation might be used, and not just to treat neurological damage from Alzheimer’s or traumatic brain injuries, but also to address mental health disorders and even, to some degree, behavior. There are studies underway, for instance, to see if it can help people stop smoking.

Finally, the only partially tapped promise of neuroplasticity:

Neuroplasticity is defined as the brains ability to adapt, re-wire, and re-organize by creating new neural pathways.

Hope you & your brain enjoy the stimulation!