Over the time, we are changing the way we interact with information. This infographic was designed as an introduction to Memory (in Cognitive Psychology); it supposes that our brains process 60.000 times faster visual information than text-based information (what psychologists call «the pictorial superiority effect», 1976).
I´ll try to introduce video infographics in the classroom… 🙂 Have a nice day!
Many authors have paid attention to the etiology of dyscalculia (here I use dyscalculia or math disability as equivalent terms, even is not very purist). In this post, we address some of the most famous theories in this field and how we can link them to the real practice.
Almost everybody agrees with the two most famous theories in this area, which are actually an amazing work in numerical cognition. These theories propose that number troubles come from a weakness in number sense or numerosity coding.
Mental Number Line
Blue or Yellow? – In the easy task, the blue stars are much more salient but in the difficult task, a number of stars are quite similar, thus the RT increases.
As my father says, – Nothing better as calculate accurately the right time you need to rich the precise location where you wanted to be. Punctuality
Is there some relation between how humans perceive the space and time with numbers? Why?
Photo by Louis Luangkesorn
In this post, we will discuss about – magnitude processing (one of my favorite topics in cognitive psychology), and how the brain deals with information about time, space, number and other magnitudes.
During the last two years, I spent a lot of time reading articles about numerical cognition, thus everything I´ll write here is linked to these discoveries and thanks to a hundred of researchers and academics that have been publishing about this topic (and struggling with it).
Rats, chimpanzees and pigeons are gifted at calculations
A pigeon performing a math test. Willian van der Vliet
– What? That was also my reaction. I am struggling with a derivate and a pigeon understands math. Yes (feed them today!)
Sigue leyendo
Why study EF?
School Program
EFS (Executive Functions) are complex. Complex to assess, to work with and even to write about them; and even so, I chose this topic for my research and PhD dissertation. EFS comprise a diverse range of cognitive processes which underline many disorders and difficulties that children and youngsters present at school and everyday life. Through the understanding of all these cognitive processes – planning, working memory, attention, inhibition, self-monitoring, self-regulation and initiation, we will be able to develop different programs and individual interventions to help them, not only in educational settings but wellbeing in life (emotional and social development). It becomes a challenge.
Students use EF at school, to complete assignments, engage during the lessons, learn concepts, and behave appropriately. There are many studies which prove a direct relation between EF and achievement in math, language skills, reading comprehension and writing (Sluis, de Jong & van der Leij, 2004).
When children experiment delays in the development of different EF, their understanding of academic material and social interactions suffer (they may be unable to establish new friendships or interact socially).
Several common developmental disorders emerge during early childhood (e.g. LD, ADHD, ADD, autism) and are associated with impairment in EF. Many kids show “x” behaviors sometimes, however if these behaviors persist along the time, or increase their intensity or interfere with their everyday life, parents should be aware and ask for help. To present certain troubles in EF during childhood, it doesn’t mean that the kid presents a disorder, but often EF issues co-occur with learning, ADHD or developmental delays. Sigue leyendo
@Unicef-Educational Project
Learning through poetry… is it possible?
Poetry is not only poetry. Poetry promotes literacy, emotional resilience and builds community. The words we use in poetry can destroy giant walls. It can cross the boundary of our fears, untie knots, find whatever has been lost, even ourselves. Sigue leyendo
Children with ADHD are likely to have trouble at school, not just because they have a hard time paying attention, but because they also need good communication skills in the classroom.
Children with ADHD struggle more with language comprehension than children with reading and writing disorders.
These kids, have also problems using the language in social contexts. It means they are sometimes aware that «something is wrong» with them. It´s very frustrating.
What makes the ADHD child with a language problem different to other children? – Language processing difficulties.
There has been less research into the nature and causes of mathematical difficulties in comparison to some other disorders like reading or coordination disorders. Like in another cases, we have an example of a specific difficulty in acquiring a critical educational skill. The typical developmental pattern for mathematical skills is very complex and hard to understand. We call “dyscalculia” to the impairment of calculation and “acalculia” to the inability to perform calculation (both of them are typical in adult neurology after some damage in the brain).
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV, APA) defines mathematics disorders as “the mathematical ability measured by individually administrated standardized tests is substantially below that expected, taking in account the chronological age, measure of intelligence and age-appropriate education”. Sigue leyendo
Tanto en el contexto educativo como en el trabajo o incluso en nuestra vida diaria intercambiamos continuamente información con otras personas. En algunos contextos como por ejemplo el educativo o el laboral, este tipo de comunicación nos viene de cierto modo impuesta, mientras que durante nuestro tiempo libre somos más “libres” de elegir con quién y cómo nos comunicamos. Cuando mantenemos una conversación, todos y cada uno de nosotros podríamos clasificarla como positiva, negativa o neutra. Este pequeño artículo va encaminado a analizar por qué los comentarios negativos tienden a permanecer más tiempo en nuestra memoria y tendemos a olvidar más fácilmente los elogios y conversaciones neutras.
¿Hay química en nuestras conversaciones? Sigue leyendo
«Studying is the principal means of self-education throughout life» (Rohwer,1984)
En el transcurso de tiempo, muchos de los que ahora mismo leen este pequeño texto, han imaginado como sería su futuro profesional, vocacional o incluso artístico. Muchos nos hemos esforzado en hacerlo bien, para conseguir esa meta, para sentir algún día esa satisfacción personal del «haberlo logrado». Posiblemente a estas alturas nos hayamos dado cuenta de que aquello que parecía tan sencillo, en realidad se ha convertido es un gran objetivo, los peldaños de la escalera elevadora hacia el éxito parecen haberse ensanchado sin previo aviso, y la distancia que antes semejaba un metro ahora se han convertido en kilómetros. Posiblemente el cansancio esté incidiendo en nuestra percepción del mundo. No permita que el miedo al fracaso y la rendición aminore sus pasos. Simplemente deténgase, y descanse mientras elabora una estrategia.
¿Qué tiene que ver la Psicología con todo esto? «La estrategia»
Muchos autores trataron el tema del aprendizaje desde el punto de vista psicológico, Bandura, Barry J.Zimmerman, Butler, Ericsson y etc. Todos ellos nos han dejado un legado muy amplio con numerosas investigaciones en este campo. Sería imposible resumir todo este material en un pequeño texto, por lo que me centraré en una «constructo» que a mí como profesional de la psicología me resulta altamente interesante, se denomina la «auto-regulación académica» (academic self-regulation). La auto-regulación académica implica un complejo conjunto de pensamientos, sentimientos y acciones generados por nosotros mismos en relación a la consecución de unas determinadas metas.
Las personas con gran éxito, tienen algo en común… Sigue leyendo
EDU PSYCH LAB 