“Fidgeting and Doodling Could Be Unconscious Focus Tools”
I always wondered why some people doodled when they were listening or thinking. This may explain it.
Archive of posts filed under the Thought and Learning category.
Topics about how people think and learn (especially children), and various tricks and techniques for teaching — not just school learning, but *life* learning.
Useful Memory Tricks
I’ve mentioned the memory tricks that I use before, a couple times. Yesterday I had a rare chance to really put them to the test. I’d used those tricks to remember the combination to a lock that I’d put on our shed, maybe six or seven years ago. The lock was on there for less …
“Street-Fighting Math: down and dirty guide to approximation and problem-solving”
A useful skill. I didn’t realize that anyone had written a book about it. It’s available as a free PDF file too, there’s a download link in the “related links” section. I’ve picked it up, and I plan to read it when I have a chance. (Via BoingBoing)
“Brainless slime mould makes decisions like humans”
So you mean that there’s even less reason to consider humans intelligent? 😉 (Actually, I’d argue that the human brain works somewhat the same way, the cells “deciding by committee” what path to pursue based on how strong its good and bad points are.) (Via BoingBoing)
“Confident dumb people”
We all know them, and politics in the last decade has had some notable representatives of the species. Now you can start to understand why they’re so confident. It’s not just dumb people. Most beginning programmers, for instance, are incredibly confident after only a few months of learning (and yes, I was one of them …
“Brain Management”
It seems that my frequent bouts of programming may have something to do with my lack of desire to socialize most of the time. From The Dilbert Blog: […] During one period of my life I wrote a number of computer programs that involved intense manipulation of objects in my mind, for hours each day. …
“Remembering things changes your memory of those things?”
Interesting research. Not surprising though, I noticed a long time ago that some of my memories — things that I know are actual events — have gotten mixed up in my head with things that I also know didn’t happen at the same time.
“The Overwhelming Wave That Makes Us Procrastinate”
Procrastination is one of my bad habits, and this article helps explain why it has been so difficult to overcome. I’m usually pretty good at identifying my mental landscape, but it never occurred to me to see why I procrastinate.
The MMR Vaccine and Autism
I never knew how the vaccination/autism link first started. It seemed to be ridiculous: a plausible idea that was tested and found lacking, but that a few very loud voices insisted on believing anyway. So I was interested to hear about The Facts in the Case of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a short comic-strip-panel-style treatise which …
“‘Goodness, evilness makes you powerful’ – like the Force”
When George Lucas came up with The Force, he was just looking for a plot device for a story. But I’ve often thought that he’d tapped into an idea whose power even he didn’t realize. Now there’s some evidence for that theory.