(EXTRA) Leerdoelen wk3

Question 1

Explain why how reading acquisition shows the impact of education on the brain

Answer 1

HOW
To separate universal and culture-specific processes of plasticity that occurs during reading. Such work is not only theoretically constraining but carries with it implications for universal versus culture-specific education.

WHY

1. For example, Dutch studies suggest focusing interventions on letter/ speech–sound level, as the evidence points to letter/speech–sound integration as a proximal cause of reading deficits in dyslexia
2. The importance of intact and automated letter/speech–sound integration for fluent reading. the behavioral responses looked mature much earlier than the neuronal integration processes. This emphasizes the added value of neuroscience: while behavioral data suggested that letter–speech integration was mature, the brain data demonstrated a protracted trajectory of automation of the integration processes.

> Learning to read led to increased activation of part of the (posterior) auditory association cortex, the planum temporale

Question 2

Explain how reading acquisition shows the impact of education on the brain

Answer 2

The essence of embodied theories of cognition is that the body, particularly bodily systems that have evolved for perception, action, and emotion, contribute to “higher” cognitive processes. Many of these cognitive processes are important to education, such as language comprehension, reading, mathematics, and scientific thinking. Thus, the classroom offers a fertile ground for observing effects of embodiment and testing theories.

Question 3

Explain the neuronal recycling hypothesis

Answer 3

The theory stipulates that cultural inventions always involve the recycling of older cerebral structures that originally were selected by evolution to address very different problems but manage, more or less successfully, to shift toward a novel cultural use.

Visual word form area → Brain’s Letterbox
It concentrates much of our visual knowledge of letters and their configurations.
Responds mostly to written words
Even unconscious word recognition (second)
Stroke here: Alexia, no word recognition (as well as faces, objects, digits, and Arabic numerals) BUT can write and understand spoken language

Question 4

Explain the core concept of embodied cognition

Answer 4

The essence of embodied theories of cognition is that the body, particularly bodily systems that have evolved for perception, action, and emotion, contribute to “higher” cognitive processes.

Question 5

Give and explain at least one argument for why embodied cognition is a promising direction in the field of MBE

Answer 5

The work in mathematics suggests strong connections between the body and mathematical reasoning
Language comprehension to teaching reading comprehension.
To date, the data are very encouraging. The PM intervention increases reading comprehension by 1 to 1.5 standard deviations over a Reread control. Importantly, once children have had experience with PM, they can engage in IM and thereby apply the strategy on their own. We have shown that the procedures can be applied to small reading groups, that they help with retention of vocabulary, and that they are effective when dealing with more abstract material such as CVS.
Are PM and IM the embodied educational equivalent of a successful moon shot? Clearly not. Nonetheless, the launching pad appears to be in sight.

Question 6

How can we have a Letterbox in our brain when this had no evolutionary purpose?

Answer 6

On the contrary, new cultural inventions such as writing are only possible inasmuch as they fit within our preexisting brain architecture. Each cultural object must find its neuronal niche—a set of circuits that are sufficiently close to the required function and sufficiently plastic to be partially “recycled.”