Weird World: Education & Learning

August 20, 2016

Brain Stimulation During Sleep Boosts Memory

DNA Test Predicts Academic Achievement

Complex Ideas Can Enter Mind Automatically

Electrical Brain Stimulation Enhances Creativity

Latest Headlines

updated 12:06pm EDT

Americans Recognize 'Past Presidents' Who Never Were, Study Finds

Feb. 9, 2016 — Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Hubert Humphrey and some guy named "Thomas Moore" are among the names that many Americans mistakenly identify as belonging to a past ... read more

Hormones Influence Unethical Behavior, Experts Say

July 28, 2015 — Hormones play a two-part role in encouraging and reinforcing cheating and other unethical behavior, according to new research. With cheating scandals a persistent threat on college campuses and ... read more

Carrot or Stick? Punishments May Guide Behavior More Effectively Than Rewards

May 6, 2015 — When it comes to rewards and punishments, which is more effective -- the carrot or the stick? A simple experiment suggests ... read more

Lens Turns Smartphone Into a Microscope: Costs Only 3 Cents

May 4, 2015 — Researchers have created an optical lens that can be placed on an inexpensive smartphone to magnify images by a magnitude of 120, all for just 3 cents ... read more

No Hogwarts Invitation Required: Invisibility Cloaks Move Into the Real-Life Classroom

Apr. 30, 2015 — Scientists have developed a portable invisibility cloak that can be taken into classrooms and used for demonstrations. It ... read more

Switching on One-Shot Learning in the Brain

Apr. 28, 2015 — Most of the time, we learn only gradually, incrementally building connections between actions or events and outcomes. But there are exceptions--every once in a while, ... read more

Don't Blame Kids If They Do Not Enjoy School, Study of Twins Suggests

Apr. 8, 2015 — When children are unmotivated at school, new research suggests their genes may be part of the equation. A study of more than 13,000 twins from six countries found that 40 to ... read more

The Brain Game: How Decreased Neural Activity May Help You Learn Faster

Apr. 6, 2015 — Why are some people able to master a new skill quickly while others require extra time or practice? Counterintuitive as it may seem, study participants who showed decreased ... read more

Element of Surprise Helps Babies Learn

Apr. 2, 2015 — Cognitive psychologists have demonstrated for the first time that babies learn new things by leveraging the core information they are born with. When something surprises a ... read more

Stop Blaming the Moon: Intelligent People Can Develop Strong Entirely Incorrect Beliefs

Mar. 30, 2015 — The moon does not influence the timing of human births or hospital admissions, a new study finds, confirming what ... read more

Eco-Friendly Floating School

Young Entrepreneurs Get $100,000, If They Quit School

Cadavers, a Teen, and a Medical School Dream

A PhD In Chocolate? Cambridge Makes It A Reality

Rapid Bone Growth and Underwater Breathing: Putting the Science of Harry Potter’s Universe to the Test

May 27, 2016 — In the world of Harry Potter the young wizard undergoes two magical biological transformations: eating Gillyweed to grow gills in order to breathe underwater and drinking Skele-Gro to repair broken ... read more

Engineering Student’s Late Night Caffeine Craving Inspires Travel Mug That Brews Its Own Coffee

Mar. 16, 2016 — When Joseph Hyman ‘11, mechanical engineering, was a student at UMBC, he was sitting in the library craving a fresh, hot cup of coffee, when an idea struck him: Wouldn’t it be great if a travel ... read more

Why Good Solutions Make Us Oblivious to Better Ones

Mar. 26, 2015 — Psychologists have known about the so-called Einstellung effect since the 1940s. Now researchers are developing a solid understanding of how the phenomenon ... read more

On Pi Day, How Scientists Use This Number

Mar. 12, 2015 — If you like numbers, you will love March 14, 2015. When written as a numerical date, it's 3/14/15, corresponding to the first five digits of pi (3.1415) -- a once-in-a-century coincidence! Pi ... read more

Autism Risk Genes Also Linked to Higher Intelligence

Mar. 10, 2015 — Genes linked with a greater risk of developing autism may also be associated with higher intelligence, a study ... read more

Reliance on Smartphones Linked to Lazy Thinking

Mar. 5, 2015 — Our smartphones help us find a phone number quickly, provide us with instant directions and recommend restaurants, but new research indicates that this convenience at our fingertips is making it easy ... read more

Kids and Robots Learn to Write Together

Mar. 4, 2015 — Who is the teacher: the student or the machine? By showing a robot how to write letters, children improve their writing skills and gain ... read more

Creative Genius Driven by Distraction

Mar. 3, 2015 — The literary great Marcel Proust wore ear-stoppers because he was unable to filter out irrelevant noise -- and lined his bedroom with cork to attenuate sound. Now new research suggests why the ... read more

Learning With All the Senses: Movement, Images Facilitate Vocabulary Learning

Feb. 5, 2015 — "Atesi" -- what sounds like a word from the Elven language of Lord of the Rings is actually a Vimmish word meaning "thought". Scientists have used Vimmish, an artificial language ... read more

Can Synesthesia Be Taught? Colored Letters, Tasty Sounds?

Jan. 29, 2015 — Can synesthesia have cognitive benefits and can it be taught? There are over 60 known types of synesthesia, a condition in which stimulation of one sense, such as taste, leads to automatic, ... read more

Training Can Lead to Synesthetic Experiences: Does Learning the 'Color Of' Specific Letters Boost IQ?

Nov. 18, 2014 — A new study has shown for the first time how people can be trained to 'see' letters of the alphabet as colors in a way that simulates how those with synesthesia experience their ... read more

‘Smart’ Drugs Won’t Make Smart People Smarter, Research Concludes

Nov. 12, 2014 — It is claimed one in five students have taken the ‘smart’ drug Modafinil to boost their ability to study and improve their chances of exam success. But new research into the effects of Modafinil ... read more

Dance Choreography Improves Girls' Computational Skills

Nov. 3, 2014 — Blending movement and computer programming supports girls in building computational thinking skills, according to an ongoing study. This is important research, as even with increasing demands for ... read more

Trying to Fool a Kindergartner? Not So Fast

Oct. 8, 2014 — A new study shows that by the age of five, children become wary of information provided by people who make overly confident ... read more

False Memories Could Be a Side-Effect of Human Ability to Learn Rules

Sep. 24, 2014 — Our tendency to create false memories could be related to our ability to learn rules according to new research. New research suggests that individuals who are particularly good at learning rules and ... read more

Cellphone Addiction Harming Academic Performance Is 'an Increasingly Realistic Possibility'

Aug. 28, 2014 — Women college students spend an average of 10 hours a day on their cellphones, with men college students spending nearly eight hours, according to a study on cellphone activity. "As cellphone ... read more

Children's Drawings Indicate Later Intelligence, Study Shows

Aug. 18, 2014 — How 4-year-old children draw pictures of a child is an indicator of intelligence at age 14, according to a new study. The researchers studied 7,752 pairs of identical and non-identical twins and ... read more

Try, Try Again? Study Says No: Trying Harder Makes It More Difficult to Learn Some Aspects of Language, Neuroscientists Find

July 21, 2014 — Neuroscientists find that trying harder makes it more difficult to learn some aspects of language. When it comes to learning languages, adults and children have different strengths. Adults excel at ... read more

Decreasing Font Size Enhances Reading Comprehension Among Children Who Have Already Developed Proficient Reading Skills

July 10, 2014 — Decreasing the font size helps to improve reading comprehension among fifth graders who have mastered the technical skills of reading, a new study has demonstrated. "This study demonstrates the ... read more

Increased Nearsightedness Linked to Higher Education Levels and More Years Spent in School

June 26, 2014 — Researchers have found strong evidence that attaining a higher level of education and spending more years in school are two factors associated with a greater prevalence and severity of ... read more

Friday, May 27, 2016