Bilingualism Will Supercharge Your Baby’s Brain | Think Tank. What’s the Big Idea? Pop quiz! Bilingualism is: a. A competitive advantage on college and job applications. b. C. D. E. Yep, it’s ‘e.’ According to Princeton Neuroscientist Sam Wang, co-author with Sandra Aamodt of Welcome to Your Child’s Brain, the benefits of bilingualism go far beyond the ability to order convincingly at Maxim’s in Paris, or to read Dostoevsky in the original. Cognitive science has demonstrated that all learning is, to a great extent, a process of unlearning – of redefining the schema we use to mentally represent and categorize the world. Bilingual kids are also better, says Wang, at “theory of mind” – the ability to imagine what others are thinking and feeling. Effortful self-control, the wide-ranging benefits of which are addressed in two previous posts on Willpower and Self-Discipline, is also strengthened by early bilingualism.
What’s the Significance? The significance is enormous. There’s a socio-evolutionary angle here, too. Or maybe not. 14 websites to make you a more intelligent person. 15 Years of Cutting-Edge Thinking on Understanding the Mind. By Maria Popova What mirror neurons have to do with Abu Ghraib, the science of religion, and how happiness flourishes. For the past 15 years, literary-agent-turned-crusader-of-human-progress John Brockman has been a remarkable curator of curiosity, long before either “curator” or “curiosity” was a frivolously tossed around buzzword.
His Edge.org has become an epicenter of bleeding-edge insight across science, technology and beyond, hosting conversations with some of our era’s greatest thinkers (and, once a year, asking them some big questions.) Last month marked the release of The Mind, the first volume in The Best of Edge Series, presenting eighteen provocative, landmark pieces — essays, interviews, transcribed talks — from the Edge archive. The anthology reads like a who’s who of Brain Pickings favorites across psychology, evolutionary biology, social science, technology and more. Here’s a small sampling of the treasure chest between The Mind’s covers: Iconic neuroscientist V.
Human Brain: Extraordinary 48-Dancer Trailer for TEDxAmsterdam. By Maria Popova Human bodies + human brains = human nature. This seems to be the year of the creative TEDx trailer. Now, from my friends at TEDxAmsterdam comes The Human Brain — a mesmerizing “trailer” for this month’s event, themed Human Nature, featuring 48 dancers from The Dutch National Ballet and an utterly smile-inducing original song titled “Turn the World Around” by Pigeon Horse Sex Tennis with Rutger Hauer, the British School, and children of Amsterdam.
The “trailer” is actually the dress rehearsal for the first “human brain” in a series of three to be performed live at TEDxAmsterdam on November 25th. This piece of visual poetry — which seems to be the running theme here this week — comes from creative agency We Are Pi and production outfit 328 Stories. Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter and people say it’s cool. Share on Tumblr. You Are Not So Smart: A Field Guide to the Psychology of Our Stupidity. By Maria Popova The science of why 600 Facebook “friends” are an illusion, or why brand loyalty is a product of the ego. We spend most of our lives going around believing we are rational, logical beings who make carefully weighted decisions based on objective facts in stable circumstances.
Of course, as both a growing body of research and our own retrospective experience demonstrate, this couldn’t be further from the truth. For the past three years, David McRaney’s cheekily titled yet infinitely intelligent You Are Not So Smart has been one of my favorite smart blogs, tirelessly debunking the many ways in which our minds play tricks on us and the false interpretations we have of those trickeries.
The original trailer for the book deals with something the psychology of which we’ve previously explored — procrastination: And this excellent alternative trailer is a straight shot to our favorite brilliant book trailers: Donating = Loving Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter.