Reasoning and the Brain: Implications for Education
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Reasoning, or the ability to think logically and solve novel problems, is a prerequisite for scholastic achievement. Despite — or rather because of — its central role in theories of human intelligence, reasoning has in recent years fallen out of favor as a topic of research. However, as the United States slips behind other industrialized nations in mathematics and science education, it is worth revisiting this line of work with a fresh perspective. In this talk, I will review what my research tells us about the brain mechanisms that support reasoning and its growth over childhood and adolescence — in particular, the neural changes that best predict future reasoning ability. I will then feature new data showing that intensive practice of reasoning skills can alter brain structure, function, and behavior. Before closing, I will describe our current efforts to use eyetracking methodology to monitor the progress of children enrolled in a school program targeting reasoning skills. Finally, I will argue that a deeper understanding of cognitive and brain development could help us to address the needs of individual children in the face of growing class sizes.
Dr. Silvia Bunge is Associate Professor, Vice Chair, and Head Graduate Advisor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, and an Associate Professor and Executive Committee Member in the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. Other affiliations at UC Berkeley include the Institute of Human Development and the Research in Cognition and Mathematics Education program. Prof. Bunge is also one of 11 members of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and a founding member of the Frontiers of Innovation initiative.
Dr. Bunge directs the Building Blocks of Cognition Laboratory, which draws from the fields of cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, and education research. Researchers in the laboratory examine 1) neural mechanisms, 2) developmental changes, 3) negative and positive environmental influences, and 4) neural plasticity in cognitive control and reasoning skills. The lab has also begun to explore the link between strong reasoning skills in childhood and mathematics achievement.
