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<\/a><\/p>\nWhen we read Zora Neale Hurston’s\u00a0Their Eyes Were Watching God<\/em>, I might ask my students “who is the antagonist?”<\/p>\n To answer this question, my students must recall several bits of factual information:<\/p>\n the definitions of “antagonist” and “protagonist”<\/p>\n the major characters of the novel<\/p>\n their most important actions and goals<\/p>\n Once they’ve recalled those facts<\/em>, my students have to rearrange<\/em> all that information into new conceptual patterns<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Which character’s actions and goals best align with the definition of “protagonist”? (In this case, that’s an easy question. Janie Crawford is far and away the likeliest nominee. )<\/p>\n Who’s the antagonist? That is, which character’s actions and goals thwart Janie’s?<\/p>\n That’s a much harder question, and students must wrestle with several possibilities as they develop a plausible argument.<\/p>\n Where do my students hold and process all this information?<\/p>\n For a psychologist, that’s an easy question:\u00a0working memory<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Working memory allows students to select, hold, reorganize, <\/em>and combine<\/em>\u00a0information held in long-term memory: in this case, the novel’s events.<\/p>\n It also allows them to select, hold, reorganize, <\/em>and combine<\/em>\u00a0information perceived from the environment: the question I just asked about antagonists.<\/p>\n Because we constantly ask our students to hold and combine bits of information, our students use working memory all the time<\/em>.<\/p>\n When we ask students to calculate the volume of a solid, or to compare historical figures, or to explain a trophic cascade, or to predict what will happen when I roll a ball down a ramp, we’re asking them to use working memory.<\/p>\n By the way: this truth hold for skills and processes as well. Why is learning to drive a stick shift so hard? Because you must hold, combine, and co-ordinate several distinct physical processes.<\/p>\n And, here’s an essential point: we don’t have lots<\/a> of working memory to use<\/em>.<\/p>\n We know a lot about the mental processes involved in working memory. (I might have written a book about them.)<\/p>\n But, the neuroscience<\/em> of working memory has been harder to study.<\/p>\n In the world of psychology, we know that WM can be easily overwhelmed.<\/p>\n But, in the world of neuroscience, we don’t know exactly what happens at that moment.<\/p>\n In other words: what’s happening in the physical object of the brain that accounts for the mental difficulty?<\/p>\n What happens, for example, when I can’t shift gears properly on this stupid manual car?<\/p>\n Are neurons somehow disconnecting from one another? Are electrical signals going haywire? Perhaps neurotransmitters are watching kitten videos on Youtube ?<\/p>\n We’re starting to get an answer to that question.<\/p>\nLet’s Talk About the Mind<\/em><\/h2>\n
Let’s Talk About the Brain<\/em><\/h2>\n
Today’s News<\/h2>\n